History of the Waikanae Estuary

History of Waikanae Estuary

 The following extract is from “Kapiti Coast Floodplain Management Plans, Waikanae River Archive”, prepared for the Rivers Department of Wellington Regional Council by John Easther in 1991.

“In pre−European times, the estuary occupied twice the area of the current reserve, extending at least as far south as the location of the Kena Kena Pa (Mazengarb Avenue). All of the estuarine area lost to housing development has been euphemistically termed "natural accretion", although the term reclamation would be a more proper description.

The greatest change within the estuarine environment has been the stabilisation of the sand dunes. Throughout the coastal strip north and south of the river the dunes were of immense proportion, very mobile, and apparently capable of moving rapidly and burying large structures in their path. The process of sand dune stabilisation is attributed to the first European owner of the coastal strip north of the Waikanae estuary, H.W. Field, who imported marram grass from Australia.

It is likely that the naturally occurring equilibrium position of the river mouth is in the area of the early Maori settlements, north of the Kena Kena Pa. There would have been little incentive for the Maori to realign the mouth to its northern position as has been current practice since at least as early as 1930. 1876 plans show an old mouth at Kena Kena and a new mouth in the northern position. Presumably the mouth drifted south as far as Kena Kena until a flood breached the northern end of the sand spit formed during the southern drift. The Kapiti Coast is subject to predominantly north−westerly wind and tidal currents which produce a southward littoral drift. As a result of the development of the housing areas around the estuary, movement of the river mouth more than 500m south of the northern mouth position causes unsatisfactory outlet conditions for the subdivisional drains, loss of water quality during low flow, and increases the risk of flooding in the lower reaches of the Waikanae River. On average the mouth has been realigned to the northern position once every five years.”

 “The tidal area of the Waikanae Estuary comprises one of the more significant unmodified areas for indigenous wildlife habitat in the lower North Island. It’s very high biodiversity value as a habitat for wading and migratory birds has led to the southern portion being gazetted as a Scientific Reserve in the 1980s.However, surrounded as it is by new residential development and with a long history of human activity, the Waikanae Estuary is also a much modified environment, as well as a popular recreational area.”

(Geoff Park, ‘A Landscape Plan for Waikanae Estuary’, 2005)

This video shows the dedication of the special noticeboard by the River on the North bank celebrating Sir Charles' Fleming's life