The Ōhiwa ferry

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In the 1800s, the only ‘road’ along this coast was the beach itself, and the Ōhiwa Harbour mouth was a major obstacle.

Until the 1870s local Māori took passengers across the harbour on canoes, the horses had to swim behind. In 1873, Captain J.R. Rushton started a regular ferry service. He had to do this before he was allowed to open a hotel at Ōhiwa, on the narrow spit east of the harbour mouth. His ferry was simply two canoes lashed together with a canvas cover. Coaches were put on top with their wheels hanging over the side; horses had to swim alongside. A ramshackle affair!

In 1880 the Whakatane County Council (which then included Opotiki) invested £350 in a ferry punt on a wire. It often failed, so the original ferry boat service continued alongside it. In 1900, Opotiki County Council took over the ferry management. The flat-bottomed ferries continued to load and unload straight onto the beach close to a new wharf. The council introduced a powered ferry in 1907, carrying both coach and horses. It was operated by the Menges brothers who also ran motor launches to other landings and occupied islands around the harbour. When the inland road was completed in 1915 the ferry service stopped. 

The first Ōhiwa township sprang up around the Ōhiwa hotel. A post office, general store and a cottage for the ferryman were erected. In 1878, 36 sections were surveyed but only seven or eight houses were built. The Ōhiwa Spit was much larger then and connected to what today is Whangakopikopiko (Tern Island). When the ferry service closed in 1915, Ōhiwa township began to decline. The spit eroded and the sites where these buildings and the first Ōhiwa wharf stood are now out in the harbour.

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