Exodus (Dunedin, Otago) Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(large)
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The starting coordinates of this cache are the Mihiwaka Trig. Stand here and look down at Port Chalmers, where on 23rd March and 15 April 1848 the staunchly Free Presbyterian Scottish settlers aboard the first ships John Wickliffe and Philip Laing arrived at their Promised Land.*
The cache is a ten litre black bucket hidden nearby at:
South 45 degrees/ And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh/ And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
East 170 degrees/ Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God/ And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
Click on the picture to see if you’re on course for your Promised Land:
This cache is available at all times by the more challenging route up beside Mihiwaka Crag, described below. However, access the easy way (see A Chalmer of a Track) is through Cedar Farm Forest and restricted to outside working hours.
It takes about an hour to reach Mihiwaka Trig by the Mihiwaka Crag route. This track is unmarked and steep in places- people who are nervous of heights can do it, but need to take it slowly. You will need to have some experience in route-finding and it is not recommended in wet weather.
Starting opposite the carpark, the track climbs steadily up through bush for 15 minutes until it reaches Mihiwaka Crag. This phonolite basalt crag was discovered as a climbing area in 1972. Turn right and follow along the base of the crag to its northern end. The route now goes up a sloping slab of rock - it is a steep clamber but is not difficult because there are plenty of strong roots to hold onto.
Continue up the hill to a second smaller crag, and again turn right and go around at its northern end. There is a good viewpoint above the crag at [ 8 ].
The track now goes steeply up through scrub towards a sharp ridge. It sidles left to go around below the southern side of the ridge, then up to the flat top of the hill and a superb view [ 9 ].
Mihiwaka trig is a short way along the track through manuka and dracophyllum scrub.
Be aware that the weather can change very rapidly. It's safer to walk with a friend. Always tell someone where you are going and when you are due back. Carry warm and waterproof clothing, snacks and drink, a map, cellphone and extra batteries for your GPS.
Mihiwaka "lament for a canoe" is said to be named after the canoe Te Tau a Tarawhata, belonging to Waitai of Kati Kuri, which was wrecked on the cliff near Mapoutahi in the early 1700's (chief Waitai settled in Pukekura pa at Taiaroa Head). The peak was a prominent landmark, and European immigrants were impressed by the hills “covered with wood to the harbour’s edge... the foliage presenting the most brilliant verdure”. But Maori avoided the thick bush on Mihiwaka, instead travelling from Waitati to the Lower Harbour via Purakanui, Murderers/Whare-Ake-Ake Beach and Heyward Point or Otafelo Point.
When Frederick Tuckett, Principal Surveyor and agent for the New Zealand Company, was selecting a site for the Lay Association settlement in 1844, his Maori guides tried to dissuade him from trying to find a direct route for a road between Waitati and Port Chalmers. It took three days and his diary records that he almost gave up in despair, "so impenetrable was the forest, with the labyrinth of briars and supple-jack, fallen trees, and narrow gullies also, continually interrupting my progress. . . . Frequently I could only get through the briars by cutting away with my knife". His guides joked "where is the road now, Maoris know no road here, this is Tuckett’s road".
In 1849 Walter Mantell, the Commissioner for the Extinguishment of Native Titles in the South Island (and son of the iguanadon tooth finder), followed the same route. He stated that the descent from Mihiwaka "a tremendous range of mountains" to Koputai was one of the worst bush tracks he had seen for years.
Returning to Dunedin from Blueskin Bay in 1852, William Cutten described the route as “3 miles up hills, grass, capital sheep raising. 3 miles downhill through dense forest, mud half-way up the leg… it is impossible to ride a horse on this road”.
I am guessing that Tuckett's route was the Cedar Creek Rd which goes over the saddle between Mt Kettle and the present Mihiwaka peak (see the WAMS map). It was still marked as a bridle track on the 1922 map.
Mihiwaka trig was part of the base triangle for the first survey of Otago. The field-book of John Turnbull Thomson, Chief Surveyor of Otago, records that on 9 October 1857 he climbed to the top of Mihiwaka and took bearings on South Silver Hill, Silver Peak, and North Silver Peak.
In 1858 the 1 in 16 gradient Mt Cargill and Upper Junction roads were surveyed around the western side of the Mihiwaka peaks (the name included Mts Kettle and Cutten) Otago Witness, 20 August 1859.
“Te Pari Rehu” by S Durry and D Paterson includes recollections by Elizabeth Forgie, Richard Drivers’s daughter, living in Purakanui with the family from 1860: “There were no roads... The whole country to Port Chalmers being thick bush. I was about 15 years old when the first of the settlers arrived. About 1865 or 66... They determined to open a road to Port, but money was scarce, all they could do was cut a track from what is now the Haywards Point – Purakanui road junction through to the Purakanui – Blueskin Road junction around to the harbour side of Mihiwaka and so down to Port Chalmers. That bush track was the basis of the present Blueskin Road.” Presumably the dray road from Mt Cargill Rd at the horsetrough up Cedar Creek and over to Blueskin Rd would also have been formed in the 1860's.
Sadly, come 1872 a fire in Sawyers Bay got out of control and destroyed the Mihiwaka forest Otago Witness 3 February 1872 Otago Daily Times 19 February 1872. We now have regenerating broadleaved forest on its lower slopes and manuka and dracophyllum scrub and tussock on the top.
What else? Mihiwaka was immortalised (zoologically speaking) in 1898 when a species of amphipod Chiltonia mihiwaka (like a sort of freshwater sandhopper) was discovered in a stream by Charles Chilton.
* The first two ships? Scottish? Promised Land? Yes, partly true, but Olssen comments "The province's first historians tended to exaggerate the high-minded and spiritual".
From 1809 to 1847 289 ships are recorded as mooring in Otago Harbour, with a further 60 visiting the coast, so the John Wickliffe and Philip Laing should perhaps be called the 350th and 351st ships. When the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland expedition arrived, they found “hoardes of loose characters” already settled at Wellers Rock and Port Chalmers.
Even though the settlement was supposed to be a Scottish initiative, a considerable number of the settlers were English. 47% of households were Free Church Presbyterians. According to McLintock in his History of Otago 1948, many of the emigrants were seeking “to escape... poverty and unemployment at home” rather than establish an idealistic quasi-theocracy and “there was a sad mingling of sinners among the saints”.
By the first anniversary of their arrival, the Otago News reported that only 60 people attended the church service; the great majority of settlers were more interested in the race meeting, cricket match and festival of contests, drinking and frolics!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Yvxr Zbfrf, tb gb gur gbc bs gur zbhagnva. Obt cvar arkg gb xnvxnjnxn (AM prqne)