Kumara and gourd were definitely cultivated. Taro still grows in some stream valleys near the top of the Coromandel Peninsula and is possibly a wild remnant of cultivated food (Diamond 1962, Mathews 1984). Gardening soon exhausted the soil and after five to seven years of cropping the land was left fallow and new garden plots were cleared and burnt. Bracken fern thrived in cleared soil and the rhizome was harvested as a staple food in times when other foods were scarce or unavailable. Several instances of people collecting fern root have been reported, for example, at Mercury Bay and Coromandel Harbour (Salmond 1991:196, Cruise 1824:209).
The role forest foods played in the diet is under-rated as organic matter does not usually survive in archaeological sites. Kernels of hinau berries have been found at T11/644 Whangapoua, Hurumoimoi, Raupa, Waiwhau and Oruarangi. Karaka and tawa or taraire is known from Waiwhau, titoki and karaka from Oruarangi. Land Court records relate flax, karaka, fern fronds, flowers of kiekie, raupo and fruit of kahikatea were all taken from the forest in the lower Waihou River valley (Phillips 1994:192). Timber was used for buildings, carvings, canoes and firewood.
Identification of charcoal from house posts on three sites in the lower Waihou River valley show a variety of species were used. Kauri, totara, kahikatea, matai and tawa were identified at Raupa (Prickett 1992), matai and kauri at Puriri (Bedford and Allen 1993), and a wide range at Oruarangi including tanikaha, rata or pohutukawa, totara, kanuka, kauri, pukatea, puriri, kahikatea, maire, matai and hard beech. Some timbers are likely to be from salvaged driftwood (Best and Allen 1991).
Summary
Over time a change can be seen in the economy of the Maori of Hauraki. The initial settlers had an economy based on a broad range of hunting including sea mammals, fish, birds and, to a lesser extent, shellfish. Hunting camps such as at Tairua and the Sunde site on Motutapu Island were places where food was processed for removal to another settlement. Other sites have only portions of an animal suggesting meat was traded or given as koha to other communities. An indication of the importance of fishing is shown in the large numbers of fishhooks made of moa and whale bone in the early sites. However people also gardened, with root crops being grown for food during the autumn and winter months.
Moa and sea mammals had disappeared from the region by about 1500 AD and fish and shellfish began to provide the bulk of the protein. With the exception of Oruarangi (and to a lesser extent Paterangi, Te Kari and Kopuarahi) few fish-hooks have been found in sites dated after 1500 AD. Netting probably became the main method of catching large numbers of fish and Cook saw a number of net poles in the Waihou River (Beaglehole
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