Ko Kaipara te Moana

The Kaipara Harbour is estimated to cover 947 square kilometres at high tide, making it one of the largest inland harbours in the world.  However it is also broad and shallow with an estimated 409 square kilometres exposed as sandbanks and mudflats at low tide.  It reaches from Northern Wairoa River (to Dargaville) in the north and down to the Kaipara River (to Helensville) in the south, with many rivers and creeks running off around it's shoreline.  It is guarded at the entrance by one of the most treacherous sandbars in New Zealand, aptly known as "The Graveyard".  I've only seen it up close on one extremely calm day.  It is actually a continually shifting double bar and for a calm day it looked pretty scary.

The danger didn't put people off.  Māori mythology tells that the canoe Māhuhu came from Hawaiki and overturned when trying to enter.  Māori tradition credits Arawa chief Kahumatamomoe with bestowing the name Kaipara in the 15th century.  

The harbour provided easy means for travelling around and plenty of resources.  Today marae around the harbour are mostly associated with Ngāti Whātua sub-tribes.  

European settlers started arriving in the late 1830's.  One of the main drawcards was the kauri for shipbuilding.  This then led to the breaking in of productive pastures for farming (kumara in the north and grapes in the southern reaches being two of the most important crops).  Gumdigging was also common.

Harvesting the wide variety of marine life from the waters for both profit and pleasure was also part life around the harbour.  I can vividly remember as a child walking around the sandbanks in the middle of the harbour at low tide and picking up scallops.  However, the scallops disappeared from the harbour for a long time and have only recently returned.  Snapper, gurnard, the odd stingray and way too many little sharks were pulled into the boat on weekend fishing trips (with Mum usually doing the best despite the fact that she only used a hand line).  Nothing beat a fresh flounder for breakfast if the boys went out to the Island.

Unfortunately our side of the harbour was not the sandy side.  We had mudflats and mangroves.  We used to laugh during summer when people pulled over on the side of the road to ask us how to get to the beach. If the tide was in the best place we could point them to was the Hoteo wharf.  Otherwise they needed to travel to the other side of the country.

The lighthouse was built in 1884 on Pouto Peninsula (the northern head).  It closed in the mid 1950's.  The Dargaville Maritime Museum provides an excellent history of the harbour and stories of its shipwrecks.

The middle photo underneath shows the entrance to the Hoteo River, close to where I grew up in the shadow of Mount Atuanui (Mt Auckland).  When we went fishing we always used to stop at the little black dot "The Island"  (Motoremu) to clean the fish and try some water-skiing (hopefully without a shark tagging along behind the skier as happened on one memorable occasion).

There has been a lot of life around the Kaipara Harbour.  One of the most comprehensive histories is Tall Spars, Steamers and Gum written by Wayne Ryburn (2001)

Protecting (or not) the ecology of the Kaipara Harbour has often been top of mind.  The scallop populations are one of the species which has fluctuated and other fisheries have been impacted by increased pollution from a variety of causes.  

Kaipara Harbour has also been the proposed site of both a nucleur power station (in the late 20th Century) and power turbines harnessing the tidal movement through the Kaipara Heads.  

Nor have the years prevented tragedy happening on the harbour.  I can remember my father being called out as part of the Kaipara Coastguard to help broken down boaties when I was a child.  And more recently a boat overturned on the bar with loss of life.

People travelling north from Auckland on State Highway 16 will be astounded by possible sightings of giraffe, llamas and water buffalo amongst the giant sculptures on the skyline as they drive past Araparera.

This DNZ story is motivated by the "Stop the Dump" hikoi and protest movement.  There is currently a proposal to build a large rubbish dump in the hills and valleys of the Dome Valley between Warkworth and Wellsford.  While this seems like it is on the other side of the country to the Kaipara, one of the primary tributories to the Kaipara, the Hoteo River, runs right past these hills and valleys.  It is a place of high rainfall and therefore often floods.  Any leaks or faults in a dump (should it go ahead) will affect not only the land across the country but impact the Kaipara Harbour and it's ecosystem.