Doing some research here, I have read in some historical writings that the Maori’s warned the early prospectors, of not going into the bush alone at night. They warned of wild men that could easily kill warriors. Part man, part ape. Was this just a story to scare off potential claim jumpers (though stories go back before the Europeans)? Have any of you around the Moehau range area ever seen anything strange? Is there validity to the Maori stories? I know in the USA there are a lot of sightings (some could be confused for large bears) and in Aussie there is the Yowie. Some find structures made with heavy logs out in the middle of nowhere too.
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I’m a sceptic, although we were bivvied up in the bush up Doctors at the back of Stony Bay in the late 70’s and heard a ‘Howl’ that had three of us grab the gear and tramp out down to Stony at pace at 2am…
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My friend from the museam said he saw a bigfoot near the Kaikora tunnells some years back… That was after he showed us his NZ dinosaur skull and tall people bones… Well you never know.
Shady as
.
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That is interesting. How far up Doctors were you guys? Past the old dam? Can you recall the “Howl” and describe that? I had a large rock thrown at us in Utah in a remote area in the middle of the night; hit the ground like an explosion (next to us). Heard strange creature sounds. No one has been able to identify the “animal” sound from the video I have on youtube.
Can’t remember exactly where we were (been a while and we were off track) but we weren’t in the dam stream. Took us about half hour I suppose to reach the edge of the bush. As for the sound, best description would be a Woo-Ow with the first bit going up in note slightly and a sharp start to the much shorter last bit which went down in note. It was a fair way off, but definitely gave the impression of being loud and was intrusive enough to wake us.
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Hey you guys - I love Coromandel and now you have put me off!
As for Maori stories - down here in the south my ancestors told the story of Pouaikai, a huge Eagle bigger than any Eagle presently living and it used to come down from the hills to catch Moa and eat it and also took young children but with the demise of the moa the Eagle became extinct. Well we now know that this Eagle did indeed exist and that the stories had to be based on truth
You never know about Moehau man - there just might be an element of truth - or there might not be!
could be true, seen some hairy bikies around the Coromandel, wouldn’t be surprised if some camping in the forest protecting their grow
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Can I get a link to that video please?
The Eagle that Lammerlaw speaks of. The Haast Eagle. Haast's eagle | New Zealand Birds Online
JW 
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