Photo from Stuff by David Unwin. A New Zealand pygmy blue whale washed ashore at Hokio Beach on Tuesday. It's a sad thing but a pygmy blue whale (tohorā) washed up just up the coast at Hokio Beach on Tuesday 12 September 2023. In a straight line along the beach that's about 10 Km away. — Enormous pygmy blue whale washes ashore on Horowhenua beach | Stuff.co.nz: A New Zealand pygmy blue whale washed up on Hokio Beach west of Levin on Tuesday morning and was found dead.
In November 2021 some people submitted to Horowhenua District Council a Petition for vehicle access to Waikawa Beach. The HDC then decided to engage consultants (Boffa Miskell) to produce a full report on all options in respect of beach access at Waikawa Beach. On 06 September 2023 a presentation was made to Councillors with findings. The 1 hour long workshop is available on a recorded livestream (the Waikawa Beach portion begins at 1 hour 52 minutes from the start of the livestream).
Spinifex seed heads. Did you know a single spinifex plant can trap 16 cubic metres of sand a year? That sand helps protect the village and all the coastal houses, and gives us all more space for enjoying all the beach has to offer. Which brings us to news from the Waikawa Environment Group: The date confirmed with Horowhenua District Council for the Annual Spinifex Planting is Saturday 7 October 2023, from 9 am, meeting by the North track on Reay Mackay Grove.
Whitebaiting season starts on 01 September 2023 so some folks have a particular interest in driving their gear onto the beach. For quite a while now though the river has formed itself into a long lazy loop going right past the Miratana track to the south side of the bay and then doubling back. On 11 August 2023 a group of folks took their shovels down to the beach and dug a shallow trench between the two streams.
The Waikawa Environment Group was only launched a couple of months ago. Its aims are to protect dunes and manage pests at Waikawa Beach. The group has an excellent model in an Ōtaki group that has similar aims. Ōtaki Today, Hūrae/July 2023, Page 10, talks about the Waitohu Stream and Dune Care Group in Waitohu group holds back sea: A group of Ōtaki volunteers can be credited for helping to hold back the sea along eight hectares of the Waitohu Stream estuary at the northern end of Ōtaki Beach – and it wasn’t even what they initially set out to achieve.
A reader drew my attention to three recent news items about vehicles on South Island beaches: Vehicles banned from Marlborough's east coast, except for 9km stretch | Stuff.co.nz, 03 March 2023. [The ban] comes after years of back and forth, as conservationists and one iwi called for a blanket ban on vehicles, yet fisherman argued they needed vehicle access. Meanwhile, some iwi said it breached their customary right to gather kaimoana.
Waikawa Beach high tide by the Miratana Track on 09 July 2018. If you want to venture down to the beach — on foot or with a vehicle — it can be very handy to know what the tide’s doing. My go-to is Tidespy: Tides at a glance - Waikawa Beach. It also helps to know what the swell is like, as a big swell is more likely to push the sea further into shore.
While most of the locals who take cars, quad bikes and tractors onto Waikawa Beach behave responsibly, there is an ongoing problem with motorbikes driving on, around and through the new-growing dunes just south of the river mouth. That bad (and illegal) behaviour damages the dunes and the plants on and around them. It also frustrates residents who know just how important it is to maintain the beach and dunes as a barrier to potential flooding and as a habitat for birds and other wildlife.
A NIWA Media Release, 25 May 2023, explains about new maps showing possible coastal inundation under extreme circumstances. The map below shows potential inundation with 40 cm sea level rise (by 2065) if high tides, storm surges and large waves occur simultaneously. It seems that Hank Edwards Reserve (which has already partially flooded during big storms) and areas around Drake Street would be most at risk, along with farmland and dunes around the river.
I received this report prepared by: Debra Betts Date 5/04/2023: When the Waikawa Beach Community Committee first met on the 17th of July 2022, one of the aims was to keep the community informed of issues relating to beach access. One of the action points from the first meeting of this committee was to follow through on the Horowhenua council plans to prepare a report on vehicle beach access options for Waikawa beach.
Up in Waipū in Northland the community is talking about vehicles on beaches. They have issues like those at Waikawa Beach: on the one hand a desire to protect bird life and concern about damage to the reserves and sand dunes – needed as a protection against sea level rise and climate change. On the other the vehicle access is important for people with disabilities and mobility issues, who can have improved mental health just by driving along the beach, and also the vehicle access is often used by people fishing – who would struggle to carry all their fishing gear down the beach.
Black-billed Gull on the sand in the sea. Some days I stroll down to the beach and look out at the sea. It’s pretty clear really: beach here, sea there. Or so you’d think. It’s not actually that simple — for one thing, the sea doesn’t just exist above the solid surface. It saturates the ground below it and beside it so salt water can reach underground far into the landscape.
You might recall that back in November 2021 Horowhenua District Council received a petition asking for vehicle access to the beach through the pedestrian walkway at #10 Reay Mackay Grove. See details at 2021 Petition on vehicle and horse access to Waikawa Beach. The cogs of Council have done some grinding and now consultation on vehicle access to Waikawa Beach is in its earliest stages. In spite of the wording below I have been assured the option of taking No Action is still on the table.
Spinifex and driftwood meet the water's edge by the south track off Reay Mackay Grove. On 22 March 2023 we had a pretty high tide at 3.8 metres just before 11 am. There was a bit of a swell, but hardly any wind — it wasn't a storm. Below are two brief videos taken between 1120 and 1145 am. The first shows that the tide was lapping at the base of the track across the Miratana land.
Our community is in for a big discussion soon about vehicle access to Waikawa Beach. The article below is longer than usual but covers quite a bit: what the law says, what different Councils allow, some of the concerns.
The article is intended to bring together factual and useful information to enable a helpful discussion.
Also take a look at the now frequently updated post Articles about vehicles causing problems on beaches.
These news articles below have recently come to my attention. Three of them were published in the last few weeks.
We may have had a problem here at Waikawa Beach when in January 2023 two lads in a dune buggy type vehicle were harassing a Pied Stilt and its chicks. The boys apologised and promised not to do it again, but the Stilts disappeared soon after.
One local reported to me privately a few days ago that:
On Sunday 22 January 2023 about a dozen people gathered to plant another 200 or so spinifex plants provided by the Horowhenua District Council. There’s an intensive effort going on to protect the area between the Miratana Track at the end of Manga Pirau Street and the rock groyne. That’s part of the area that was devastatingly eroded in February 2018 when ex-TC Gita passed through.
Spinifex and large pieces of driftwood work together to help trap sand and keep it on the beach.
That area between the two ends of the north track off Reay Mackay Grove, where all the new dunes are growing, is a very special spot. Pied stilts recently produced 3 chicks there. At the moment 3 pairs of Oystercatchers are nesting, with one chick evident so far!
Update, 11 January 2023: this photo’s not quite in focus, but clearly shows there are 2 chicks now.
A thin layer of mulch has been added to the Miratana Track off Manga Pirau Street, presumably to help stabilise the sand and give better purchase for vehicles.
A panorama view of the area between the river mouth and North Track, showing spinifex planting in progress. [Note: links below are temporarily broken]
It’s so heartening to see the incipient dunes flourishing south of the river mouth. Birds are nesting in that little haven and as the dunes grow most of the vehicles are staying out.
The growth in the dunes in that area is thanks in large part to the hundreds of volunteer and Council staff hours spent in spinifex plantings intended to build and retain sand.
Vehicle and horse access to Waikawa Beach, update November 2022
In November 2021 Horowhenua District Council received a petition about access for vehicles and horses to Waikawa Beach. See 2021 Petition on vehicle and horse access to Waikawa Beach for details.
At the time the Council decided to call for a report on options. Now, a year later, this item was briefly reported back to the Council Meeting - 23 November 2022 — that’s a video.
Screenshot of the petition text. First published 30 November 2021:
Today the WBRA received a couple of emails from Arthur Nelson, Property and Parks Manager • Tumu Rawa, Papa Rēhia, Horowhenua District Council about a petition they have received on the topic of access for vehicles and horses to the beach at Waikawa:
We have a 160 signature petition from Waikawa Beach Residents asking Council to establish a vehicle track on the public land adjacent to the existing access [at 10 Reay Mackay Grove].
Craig Kidd, Parks and Property Officer | Āpiha Papa Rēhia, Rawa has asked for some help planting a bit more spinifex — this time across the front of the Miratana block on Saturday 26 November 2022 at 9.00am. Update: postponed to 03 December 2022.
He says:
We do stand a chance of the plants being washed out, which is the down side and feel it is better to try and gain ground than continue to lose ground.
When we had our Spinifex planting event a few weeks ago the folks from Horowhenua District Council said they wanted to try planting a few rows of spinifex between the Miratana track and the groyne.
That area is very exposed to the west, and of course, to the river and sea and has suffered severe erosion over the past few years.
The Council have now planted 3 rows of spinifex at the base of the eroded dunes.
One line in a recent Ōtaki Mail article caught my eye — it’s the emphasised part below:
The Otaki Community Board … accepted a petition signed by 35 people asking Greater Wellington Council to expedite construction of a seaward extension bank where Marine Parade ends. … The seaward extension bank was around 100 metres, running from where the tarmac ends at the south end of Marine Parade down to the Otaki River mouth.