Environment – Coasts under attack

The best way to celebrate summer is to go to the beach. We’re lucky in Rodney and the wider Auckland region to have some of the best beaches and coastal areas in the country.

The water’s warm, and the beaches are sandy, tree-lined, sheltered and relatively safe. My own very favourite beaches are in the Mahurangi. There’s nothing I like better than swimming and kayaking in the coastal waters of the Mahurangi heads.

Despite that, I also love to visit the South Island and explore its coasts, kayak, walk and swim, and immerse in its culture and nature. This summer I’ve been doing exactly that; getting a big breath of fresh air in the South Island. South Island beaches (and the whole South Island) are so rugged and wild, so raw, that the contrast with Rodney is awe-inspiring, no matter how often you visit.

There are a few things constant wherever you go around New Zealand’s long and vast coastline, though. One consistent issue is the impact of dogs on coastal wildlife – including penguins, other birds and resting marine mammals. Often these are dogs belonging to locals and are a source of conflict in the resident coastal community. Plastic, of course, is everywhere, but there’s much less of it on South Island beaches and even less now that I’ve visited. During my rubbish collections, I’ve found that half is consumer rubbish and half is fishing rubbish.

Another obvious and constant issue around our long shoreline is coastal erosion, and the futility of our attempts to stop it. Whether it’s from king tides, storm surges or climate change, New Zealand’s coastal margins are under attack.

Almost every site of European occupation bears witness to frustrated attempts to hold back the ocean. There are breakwaters that stick out into the sea that have cost a fortune through the years and are designed to bolster harbour channels or protect moorings and ports. There are long-shore seawalls of dumped rocks hurriedly deposited in emergencies such as at Punakaiki where the local campground and most of the houses are under threat. There are historic seawalls, jetties, wharves of tyres, concrete, rubble, and rocks; some have washed away, some have been repaired, some are holding the sea back, but only just.

At various points around the coast, it’s not just the man-made defences that are gone, but the natural dune defences have too. Coastal erosion threatens property, amenity, habitat, infrastructure, heritage features and other values. But a trip around Rodney, and the rest of New Zealand, shows you can’t hold back the tide.

Christine Rose
christine.rose25@gmail.com