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.
It was interesting to find in a LGOIMA request document (4.7 MB PDF) dated 03 February 2021 the information that at Waikawa Beach: There is one stormwater discharge outfall in Waikawa Beach, which discharges into the Waikawa River (shown in Figure 4.) It goes out through that drain in Hank Edwards Reserve. It would be interesting to know how that behaves at times of high rainfall, high river flow, high tide.
Avoid going in the Waikawa River after heavy rain. The most recent swim spot monitoring result was Red at 21 November 2022, with an E. Coli level of 683.
Horizons Regional Council’s swim spot monitoring results have shown many river and beach sites are currently not suitable for swimming or collecting kai following the recent heavy rainfall across the region.
Indicators that determine the grading for swim spots, which is E.
A couple of years ago a local resident contacted Wellington Regional Council about the driftwood log jam and the 'bamboo' that together clogged the Waiorongomai Stream mouth. That jam affected free flow of the stream and impeded passage of eels. Waiorongomai Stream with driftwood log jam and bamboo behind. The consent process included the following information:
Blockage at the stream mouth is caused by an accumulation of driftwood and bamboo; Fish passage is impeded and is likely contributing to the poor ecological health of the lake/wetland upstream; … are proposing to remove the driftwood and the bamboo to clear the blockage, this may need to be undertaken on a periodic basis as driftwood will keep accumulating.
On 04 April 2022 I wrote River nutrient study. Recently I followed up about results. David Brown, with a Horizons Regional Council email address, replied: Sorry for the delay getting back to you, I had been trying to find out some more information. What I can report is that a large amount of data was collected for this project including: · Full bathymetric mapping (survey) of the tidal zone of the Waikawa stream · We collected just under six months of continuous water level data to help calculate the tidal movement in the Waikawa · We measured a full tidal cycle with 39 flow Gaugings starting from 6am through to 6:30pm · We also collected continuous salinity data during this study and mapped the extent of the salt water in the lower reaches All of this data has been sent to a consultant to build a nutrient model.
An interesting thing about the Electra Outages site is their map of Waikawa Beach, which shows us the streams and drainage ditches in the area. [Note, 05 June 2023: it seems the map has changed and no longer shows the streams and ditches.] There’s a stream that emerges from Lake Hurutini (bottom right corner of the map). It flows into the Strathnaver area, and then branches to go across Strathnaver Drive (by number 123) and into the Miratana block then exit across Strathnaver Drive again (by number 42).
According to decisions made in May 2022, Horizons Regional Council will not be budgeting for works at the Waikawa river mouth. More detail below. Horizons Regional Council’s catchment operations committee met [on 12 May 2022] to make a range of decisions about the proposed river management works programme for the 2022-23 financial year across the region. For more detail and information about the … revised river management works programme please see Item 7 and 8 in the catchment operations meeting agenda.
Horizons Regional Council, via LAWA (Land Air Water Aotearoa), test the river at the footbridge for E. Coli once per week over summer and make the results publicly available, referring to their Traffic Light System. Green: Suitable for swimming. Orange: Caution advised – The monitoring result for E. coli was slightly elevated at the time of testing. … young children, elderly or those with compromised health may be at increased risk of illness.
Red dot on a map shows Waikawa River at the footbridge has a very poor longterm score for human health. Horizons Regional Council wants to hear from you about freshwater quality before 5pm Tuesday 24 May 2022. Have your say: Long-term visions for freshwater | Oranga Wai. (See below.)
Waikawa River has some pretty poor scores on various water quality and health measures, so we really need Horizons to put in the work to improve them.
Back in December 2021 sharp-eyed folks crossing the footbridge would have noticed this mystery device. It appeared to be monitoring river flow. It wasn’t though. Instead it’s been continuously monitoring the height of the river and sending the data back to Horizons Regional Council as part of a project. On Thursday 31 March 2022 a small team from Horizons Regional Council spent about 12.5 hours from 6.30 am sitting beside the Waikawa Stream as part of a project measuring nutrients in the water column.
Screenshot of results donut graph from last 5 years. Each week over summer LAWA tests the water at the footbridge for E. Coli and publishes the results a few days later. This year results have been poor. According to the Traffic Lights System we have seen 10 Red, 9 Orange and only 7 Green as at 27 April 2022. That concludes this season's monitoring. Donut graph of results from this season.
The Waikawa Stream flows west towards the sea but then turns south across the beach. A 1991 rock groyne was submerged and a 2012 rock groyne at almost right angles had bad results. On 11 June 2019 two diggers excavated rock from the ‘bad’ groyne and piled it up on the ‘good' groyne.