Tamata Hills
Mothering nature the Kiwi way.
A ridgeline cuts the skyline south of Atuanui, Mt Auckland. It is the Kaipara Hills and home to Tamata Hills property.
This private property is the intersection of multiple pathways of different missions. The property owners are on a mission to leave the land as a richer ecosystem for the next generation so are returning large areas of steep hillsides into native bush.
Tamata Hills watershed runs into the Araparera River and it flows naturally through beautiful winding systems out into the Kaipara Harbour past the onlooking giraffes at Gibbs Farm.
This project fits perfectly into another mission and so Kauri Park introduced the landowners to the Kaipara Moana Remediation as an excellent opportunity to begin the mahi of the vision to restore the mighty Kaipara Harbour ecosystems.
Ecosystem: When Nature is grieving, the people are grieving.
The Kaipara Harbour has been in decline as an ecosystem and mainly due to the overburden of decades of sediments washing off the hillsides and finding their way into the harbour. This has to stop as many species are in decline and some species of shellfish have completely died in some areas.
The Green Team Kaipara who is probably the largest Iwi planting team in NZ are on a mission to save their whenua. They live on the shores of the Kaipara and feed on the Kaimoana as their previous generations have always done. They know that the fish stocks and shellfish are disappearing. They feel it deeply. There is an old wise quotation that they live by; “when the land is grieving, the people are grieving”. The Green Team Kaipara is on a mission to save the Kaipara Harbour. It is hard work and only the real ecovitalists survive in this never give up team. It is nice on a nice day outdoors, but tough, wet and dirty in filthy sou-wester. That’s how you plant millions of plants every year.
During the beginning of the project, heavy rains sat on the hills for a couple of days and from the top of the ridgeline we could see the brown sediment loaded Hoteo River spewing out into the harbour. This drives our passion to fix the waterways and with huge urgency. Mother Nature needs our help.
Ecovitalism: Plants on a mission
185,000 plants are going into the ground at Tamata Hills. There are 10,000kms of waterways needing to be protected in the Kaipara Harbour. That is 5% of 212. Two Twelve is the 212,000kms of waterways in New Zealand that need replanting. That is the minimum goal of Kauri Park.
