KEY POINTS:
Murder, mutiny and hanging has been replaced by food, wine and brass band concerts but, if you know where to look, Devonport's Windsor Reserve retains reminders of its tumultuous past.
This peaceful park, alongside Devonport Wharf, was for 50 years the country's first naval base, used to store gunpowder and torpedoes, with a barracks for sailors and workshops for ship repairs, and venue for all kinds of mayhem.
Along the seafront are more reminders of important nautical events, including the 14th-century landing of the Tainui canoe, the arrival of French explorer Durmont D'Urville in 1827, an early shipyard, and remnants of the minefield laid to keep out Russian invaders in the 1880s.
But the focal point is Windsor Reserve, which makes it the perfect place to start one of the Navy's Devonport Naval Heritage Tours.
"The Navy," says naval guide Russ Glackin, "has had a presence here as long as there has been an Auckland ... and this," - he gestures around the reserve - "is where it all started."
When our first Governor, Captain William Hobson - himself a naval officer - established his capital in Auckland in 1840, naval matters had a high priority.
The new city got a naval name: Lord Auckland, George Eden, being First Lord of the Admiralty when Hobson received his commission (there's a bronze statue of Lord Auckland in Aotea Square).
Glackin said one of the governor's first decisions was to choose a site for a naval depot. "He opted for this sandspit on the northern side of the harbour because of the deep water here, rather than Tamaki on the southern side, where the water was much shallower."
So, while the fledgling city was springing up on the shores of Commercial Bay, across the water a small naval unit was based on what is now Windsor Reserve. At its peak in the 1880s, this must have been quite an establishment, with a two-storey barracks, workshops for blacksmiths, carpenters and shipwrights, a boatshed for one of the Thorneycroft torpedo boats which patrolled the harbour during the various Russian scares, and a magazine to hold explosives.
All that changed in the 1890s when the naval base moved down the Devonport seafront to reclaimed land around the newly opened Auckland Harbour Board dry dock and the old site was transformed into a delightful park.
Today, the reserve's naval role is marked with an impressive flagstaff with a plaque acknowledging this as "the actual site of the birthplace of the New Zealand Navy as in 1840 naval vessels had their stores and repairs depots in this area".
More controversially the plaque states: "This flagpole was moved from Mt Victoria where since 1841 it had served as a visual shipping signal station ..." In fact, Glackin whispers, it was probably an old kauri old spar brought from the Coromandel.
Another plaque at the top of a white concrete plinth marks the "initial station of hydrographic surveys" or the base point from which the Navy started doing its coastal mapping surveys.
Wander 300m east and you come to another plaque which marks a rather sinister piece of history. This is where Lieutenant Robert Snow, the first commander of that early naval depot, built a whare for himself, his wife and their two young daughters, and where in 1847 they were hacked to death with a tomahawk.
I have a personal interest in this incident, because my great-great-grandfather and his best mate were accused of the murder, but eventually one of their former shipmates, Joseph Burns, admitted the crime and was sentenced to death. Burns was the first European to be officially executed in New Zealand and - as the plaque explains - to mark the occasion a scaffold was erected on the scene of his crime and he was given a public hanging on the shores of the beautiful Waitemata Harbour.
Turning away from this sombre reminder, Glackin points across the road to the beautiful wooden structure of Elizabeth House, bought in 1942 as a home for the newly formed Women's Royal Naval Service, but now converted into luxury flats.
This is a reminder of another intriguing piece of naval history. In 1947, the WRNZS was being disbanded when the men on the ships returning from war mutinied _ although Glackin explains the Navy prefers to call it a strike - over their poor pay and marched out of the base to Windsor Reserve to stage a protest meeting. Many of the men never returned to the Navy, which decided to retain the women to fill the gaps.
Further east is the Devonport Yacht Club, whose entrance features an anchor from the great age of sail and a plaque commemorating former club stalwart and patron Sir Peter Blake.
At this time of year, most of the yachts are on the hard and many of the older boats have plaques explaining their history.
It's an apropriate site for a yacht club because, as another plaque records, this area was the site of one of Auckland's first shipyards, which operated from 1859 to 1890.
The beach here, known as Duder's Bay, was the site of Devonport's original wharf and the cluster of commercial buildings, including the grand old Masonic Hotel, is a reminder that initially this was the town centre.
In a crescent of pohutukawa trees further on, you'll find a monument to the arrival of the Tainui canoe, commanded by the legendary Hoturoa, which landed near this spot before going up the harbour, portaging across to the Manukau and down to the mighty Waikato River.
On top of the monument is a rare copy of the korotangi, the weeping dove, a replica of the sacred image carried on the canoe, presented to Devonport by the late arikinui, King Koroki.
Next comes Torpedo Bay, so called because it is where a second torpedo boat was based during the nervous 1890s. At the far end of the bay, a plaque recalls a visit to the Waitemata Harbour by the French corvette L'Astrolabe in 1827. The commander, Dumont D'Urville, landed here and climbed Mt Victoria to inspect the magnificent harbour.
Finally, Glackin leads the way inside a small naval depot, set up as the focal point of the 19th-century harbour defences, involving not just the torpedo boats but also a minefield stretching across to Bastion Pt and giant guns on North Head, which towers above.
There are many stories about this place. Glackin points out the old mine store whose incredibly thick walls still stand.
Nearby is an old carpenters' workshop once used to hold the country's most famous prisoner-of-war, Count Felix von Luckner, commander of the World War I German merchant raider Seeadler (Sea Eagle), who become something of a hero as a result of his many escapes.
This marks the end of the heritage tour but it's well worthwhile climbing North Head to enjoy the old fortifications, giant guns, spooky tunnels and magnificent views.
Or you could stroll to the western end of the Devonport seafront, where you'll find a gun from the Korean War frigate HMNZS Tutira, Devonport Naval Base and the marvellous Navy Museum ... but that's another story.
Devonport Naval Heritage Tours are free and operate every second Wednesday and Thursday from outside the Devonport Library.
The Navy Museum is in Spring St, Devonport and open from 10am to 4.30pm daily. Admission is free although donations are welcome.
For the Navy Museum, ph (09) 445-5186, or www.navymuseum.mil.nz
