Ōkiwi Bay


Ōkiwi Bay is a small town in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, within Croisilles Harbour. It has about 200 houses and about 80 permanent residents. The area was noted for its oysters.

Name

Ōkiwi Bay officially had a macron added to its name on 5 November 2018 by the New Zealand Geographic Board. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of the kiwi" for Ōkiwi.

About

There were pre-European Maori settlements in this area and the Bay's name dates from those times. The primary Ngāti Koata settlement in the area was at Whangarae, adjacent to Okiwi Bay on the western side of Goat Hill. In 1880 50 acres was leased by the Crown to Alabby Hobbs. A saw mill was opened in the 1890s by Messrs Mace and Holland who had lease 3,200 acres of Maori land. A track to the Rai Valley was made in 1895. By 1904 Okiwi Bay had become a popular destination for holiday makers,
In 1957 a unique patu was uncovered while excavating a load of single from a beach in Okiwi Bay. The patu was described as being stone and resembling a medieval mace. The style was more in line with those from the Chatham Islands, but the stone was definitely of local, Okiwi Bay, origin.
It is a base for the Okiwi Bay Voluntary Rural Fire Force and St John's Ambulance. There is a holiday park and the area is predominately a holiday resort. In 2015 when a Dutch aquaculture company, Skretting, proposed setting up a fish farm in the Bay, local residents protested against it, stating that it would ruin the natural resources of the area. The Environment Court granted permission for Skretting's to proceed in 2016. In 2017 the settlement got mobile phone coverage.