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His project collapsed and he left behind him a few ancient fruit trees and a lot of gouty DNA. He was eventually granted about 1,000 acres (4 km²) at Rangiahua where he set up his colony declaring himself 'Sovereign Chief of New Zealand', a title that failed to endear him to Ngapuhi. In 1837 a French aristocrat with delusions of grandeur, Baron Charles de Thierry, sailed with 60 settlers into this hive of export activity to claim an immense tract of land that he believed he had purchased for 36 axes, 15 years earlier. The last recorded shipwreck was the schooner Isabella de Fraine which was lost with all eight crew in July 1928 after capsizing on the bar at the entrance to the harbour. In 1828 the missionary schooner Herald, built by Henry Williams and sailed by Gilbert Mair foundered, while trying to enter Hokianga Harbour. A temporary lull or change in wind direction could cause a sailing-ship to lose steerage way and be swept onto the rocky shore. Most came to grief when leaving fully laden and became caught in the wind shadow cast by South Head where the deep water lay. Of the hundreds of ships that successfully negotiated it, the records show that 16 were lost. The only disincentive to Hokianga's exploitation was the harbour bar. His success inspired a strong following-the deforestation of Hokianga had begun and would be completed by the turn of the century. Their reports soon reached merchant captains in the Bay of Islands.Ĭaptain Herd of the Providence was the first to respond, and with disgraced missionary Thomas Kendall as guide and translator, crossed the bar and entered the harbour in 1822 (the first European ship to do so) and sailed away with the first Hokianga timber shipment. Wesleyan and later Anglican missionaries were guided along these ancient routes to make their own discovery of Hokianga and its accessible timber resources.

In this process of expansion the Ngapuhi created and maintained over centuries a complex network of walking tracks, many of which evolved into today's roads.

Rahiri, the 17th century founder of the Ngapuhi iwi, was born at Whiria pa to the south of the harbour, where a monument stands to his memory. Hokianga is considered to be one of the oldest settlements for the Māori, and is still a heartland for the people. The tribe of Puhi, Ngapuhi, slowly extended westwards to reach the west coast and colonise both sides of Hokianga. In the 14th century, the great chief Puhi landed just south of the Bay of Islands. Later, Kupe's grandson Nukutawhiti returned from Hawaiiki to settle in Hokianga. When he left Hokianga he declared that this would be the place of his return and left several things behind including the bailer of his canoe. According to Te Tai Tokerau tradition, Kupe, the legendary Polynesian navigator and explorer, settled in Hokianga in approximately 925 AD, after his journey of discovery from Hawaiiki aboard the waka (canoe) named Matahorua.