"Aorere, Golden Bay", painted around 1843 by an unknown artist,
and believed to depict the Maori Pa at Wainui Inlet.
Norwegian flax traders visited Golden Bay in 1825 - who knew? (Half of Golden Bay, maybe?) An art installation by Toy Murchie displayed at the Golden Bay Museum in 2019 brought to light a fascinating tale behind the discovery in July 1976 of a number of skeletons unearthed at Pohara Beach during excavations for a new subdivision there. There was much confusion about this find as the remains included European-style coffins and a mix of both European and Maori artefacts.
A story once well known to Maori and early European settlers emerged. In 1825 a Norwegian ship had come into Golden Bay to obtain a cargo of flax. After the ship had been loaded, the ship’s boats went ashore near the mouth of the Motupipi River to fill casks with fresh water. A westerly blew up and as they attempted to return to the ship, the heavily-laden boats were overturned and several sailors drowned.
There being an onshore wind at the time, most of the bodies washed up on the beach and were retrieved by their ship-mates. A burial was conducted in accordance with both Maori and Christian rites at a nearby Maori urupā. The ship only carried a couple of emergency coffins, but local Maori donated woven mats with which to wrap the bodies of those sailors who had no covering. Arrangements were eased by the presence of a Maori language speaker carried by the ship as an interpreter.
A couple of Norwegian ships’ boys who survived this accident later returned to the area during the time of the Aorere goldrush and tried without success to find the graves, which they wrongly recalled as being near Patons Rock.
Local residents were reminded of these burials in the 1920s, when there was erosion around Patons Rock and they were warned by old-timers to watch out for human remains.
Unfortunately, because the developer of the subdivision put pressure on to expedite the process, the relics unearthed at Pohara Beach in 1976 were reburied within three days at an unmarked site at Rototai Cemetery, and as they weren’t forensically examined, an opportunity for further examination was lost. A coffin accidentally broken open during this transfer revealed the intact skeleton of a man in uniform and boots, perhaps that of the ship's officer in charge of the shore party.
Further information about this Norwegian visit and its tragic outcome can be found in Hilary & John Mitchell’s “Te Tau Ihu O Te Waka: A history of Nelson and Marlborough” Vol 1, pp 232-233.
Local historian Jeff Newport went over to Golden Bay in 1976 to check out the mysterious discovery. He later reported his findings in the article linked below, written for the "Nelson Historical Society Journal" in 1982. Note that D'Arcy McPherson, the Golden Bay identity mentioned by Newport, gave around 1834 as being the date of this event - 1825 is now believed to be correct.
As you might expect with a story passed down in oral tradition, there seem to be a few other minor variations on the theme. How many boats were sent to collect water - one or more? How many ship's boys survived the accident - one or two? Were they/he Norwegian or Swedish? Take your pick 
I have gone with the Mitchells' version.
I have gone with the Mitchells' version.Image: "Aorere, Golden Bay", painted around 1843 by an unknown artist (very likely to have been James Swinton Spooner, the NZ Company surveyor for whom Spooner's Range is named) and believed to be of Wainui Inlet - geographically out, but the closest I could get to a Maori settlement in Golden Bay in the early days
Credit: Alexander Turnbull Library.
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