We expected creatures of the Bay of Islands in New Zealand to splash, soar or swim away.

Not baa.

But newly shorn sheep eyed us skittishly as we followed a footpath on the rolling hills of Urupukapuka Island, the largest of 144 islands in the largest maritime park in New Zealand, looking for signs of the past.

Once settled by Maori and later a haven for author Zane Grey and other avid fishers, Urupukapuka Island is now a recreation reserve protected by the Department of Conservation, which considers it an important archaeological and cultural place.

To discover why, a friend and I explored part of the self-guided Urupukapuka Island Archaeological Walk, revealing Maori pa (fort) and village sites and other points of interest on numbered marker posts keyed to a brochure. The remaining archaeological sites are the best record of pre-European life on Urupukapuka Island. Even so, the sites are subtle reminders that easily blend into the scenery. To really find out more about the past, we took the time to read about those who had lived there long ago.

The views alone were worth a visit: Luminous sailboats, a few kayaks and oddly shaped islets ornamented the bay, and the Cape Brett Peninsula formed a backdrop. Sheep outnumbered humans, charming reminders that Urupukapuka Island is indeed a New Zealand wonder.

We arranged to spend a half day exploring the 550-acre island when we booked a cruise with Fullers Bay of Islands in Paihia, the bayside tourist hub about a 3 1/2-hour drive north of Auckland on the North Island. Our already paid-for resort in Paihia seemed too comfy to swap for an overnight stay in a cabin or tent on the island, the only one in the maritime park open to campers. But that was before we arrived.

The boat docked at calm Otehei Bay where Grey, who wrote "Tales of the Angler's Eldorado, New Zealand" (1926), based his fishing adventures, and a fishing resort once catered to those seeking their own mako shark and marlin stories. Today visitors can dine at Zane Grey Cafe, peruse an arts-and-crafts store, go on a Nautilus Subsea Adventure or, like us, pick up the brochure explaining the archaeological walk and escape to the wild sides.

A SHORTER LOOP

It takes about five hours to complete the walk, which is designed for clockwise travel, but hikers can go on one of two shorter loop walks that take about 2 1/2 hours each. We chose the southern loop, which promised more sites and sheltered bays, then we explored a bit more.

Only a few other visitors were on the footpath near us. Some boat motors rumbled. But nature — not cell phones — called. A tree's canopy provided shade. A cove could be a hideaway. Wind whipped our hair as we walked up a cliff. It was easy to sense the close ties early islanders had with that land, that rich bay. The first settlers of Urupukapuka were distant ancestors of the modern Maori and may have arrived at the island around 1,000 years ago, the brochure says. A hapu (subtribe) of the Ngare Raumati tribe who occupied the southeast Bay of Islands lived on Urupukapuka two centuries before the first Europeans entered the Bay of Islands.

Kainga, or villages of extended families, once lived in all of the large, sheltered bays. Their daily lives were believed to be mostly peaceful. The men fished with hooks and lures carved from bone and shell attached to woven flax lines; women gathered pipi (clams) and cockles at low tide. They grew crops like kumara (sweet potato), wove mats and other items, and built houses and canoes out of timber and reeds.

When there were attacks from another tribe or subtribe, the islanders retreated to an adjacent pa (which also served as centers for a subtribe's prestige). Urupukapuka Island has eight significant pa probably built after 1500, all but one on headlands; one in the north is on a sheer cliff. Diagrams in the brochure show how a pa looked in the past, and what to look for today. Each pa had a ditch dug across the headland to cut off access. In the past, above the ditch would be a palisades; behind that an elevated fighting stage, sleeping house and roofed pit for storing crops over winter; and, above it all, the chief's house.

What we could see at marked pa sites on our walk was the ditch, a depression where a storage pit existed and an earth platform where the chief's house once was.

HIGH AND LOW

We trekked counterclockwise atop cliffs overlooking picturesque Cable Bay, then to sea level at Urupukapuka Bay, and ascended again, marveling at shades of green framed by the blue bay speckled with boats. We stopped at a marker indicating a storage pit flanked by two terraces at cliff edge. Terraces, we learned, are flat areas dug into the slopes, knolls and spurs that form the remains of small villages. We trekked a snippet of the northern loop to admire the more rugged coastline. Eventually, we rested at Oneura (Paradise) Bay, a shelter for at least one sailboat that day.

By coincidence, we met that family of sailors by an inland village site along the trail. The family was originally from Austria, sold everything and moved to a farm in New Zealand. Farm life was too quiet, too predictable: They bought a sailboat and were embarking on a years-long sailing adventure throughout the South Pacific with their young children, schooling them aboard.

At least we shared one field trip.

Debra Behr is a freelance writer and photographer based in Santa Monica, Calif.