The Moehau Man - New Zealand’s own Bigfoot?
Legends and stories of huge bushmen abound around the world. In North America there is the Sasquatch or Big Foot, Asia has the Yeti and Australia the Yowie. And while there are geographically separated, in some cases by vast distances, their descriptions are always somewhat similar.
And New Zealand it seems, has its own wild bushman of legend. Known mostly from stories originating around the Coromandel area in the North Island, the creature is best known as the Moehau Man, after the range of mountains many sightings come from. Like the tall, hairy beasts from other continents, Moehau Man is large, extremely hairy, a hominid with arms reaching down to around his knee area and with a distinct odour. In some instances he is said to have long exaggerated fingers, perhaps even talons or claws.
Moehau Range as it is today. Source
http://www.innz.co.nz/themes/coromandel.html
Stories of Moehau Man date back to before European settlers were making inroads into the country. It was always known to be a very dangerous creature, to be avoided at all possible times.
More stories of the Moehau started circulating once settlers began making there way deeper into the Coromandel countryside. Firstly, in the 1870’s and 1880’s these were gold miners, looking for a place to stake their claims. They made their way in from the area of the settlement of Waihi, and it wasn’t long before stories of the large, vicious bushman started doing the rounds. Firstly they reported being scared by large human like creatures deep in the forest; then more ominous tales began to emerge, those of prospectors being killed and mauled by Moehau Man. Even the local Maori told prospectors not to enter the dark bush alone.
Two main sightings of Moehau Man from the last 40 years are documented by Nicola McCloy in her book: New Zealand Mysteries: secrets, spooks, conspiracies and con artists (Whitcoulls, 2005). In the first, an Australian tourist reported seeing the creature as she bush walked in the region in 1969. She described it as being much like a gorilla.
In 1972 another sighting was made by two pig hunters, who said they saw a large creature approximately 150m away from them. When they reached the place the animal had been, all they found were huge human-type footprints 35cm long.
Rex Gilroy, an Australian Yowie expert, travelled to New Zealand in 2000 - intrigued by the information gathered about the Moehau. That year McCloy reports Gilroy and his wife found three fossil hominid footprints in the Karangahake Gorge, enough information to convince them there is indeed something to the Moehau Man stories.
Bush as it is today on the Moehau's. Source:
http://www.innz.co.nz/themes/coromandel.html
So - if there is something to the story, and a creature is indeed running around in the deep Coromandel forest, what could it be? One possible explanation has it that, before the time of quarantine and controlled animal and vegetation import, a gorilla or large monkey could have perhaps escaped the confines of a visiting ship. And while it could be a viable explanation, it doesn’t explain the legends and stories much prior to European visitation, nor the time expanse of sighting reports. Either it was an incredibly long lived ape, or there must have been enough escapees to form a colony.
Another entertained possible explanation is that the Moehau Man is just a story, and sightings mere mistaken identity. There is not a lot of verifiable information out there, nor has a skeleton or skin ever been recorded as having been found, as far as I am aware. But that doesn’t explain the reports of large hominid footprints…..unless they are hoaxes. But would anyone bother or dare to travel into the thick Coromandel bush to randomly plant false footprints in the hopes someone would ‘stumble’ across them? It does seem somewhat farfetched.
One thing is for sure, Moehau Man is not and will probably never be as famous and his possible cousins, the Sasquatch and Big Foot. Still stories endure, especially locally. But until we have some definitive proof, for now Moehau remains just a story.
The Moehau Man as portrayed in a 1952 Newspaper Article
http://www.bigfootencounters.com/creatures/moehau.htm
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