South Head

South Head

South Head (map) contains three major features of considerable significance: the Papakanui Spit, the Waionui Inlet and the South Kaipara Dune Barrier.

Papakanui Spit is a mobile sandspit enclosing Waionui inlet. The spit is administered by the Department of Conservation. This area is an outstanding wildlife habitat within the Region and is of national importance. It also has areas of pingao.

It is important as a breeding and roosting area for the New Zealand Dotterel and the Fairy Tern (Sterna nereis davisae). The spit was important as habitat for Caspian Tern, however the birds have moved to other parts of the Kaipara Harbour, possibly as a result of disturbance from activities on the spit.

Waionui Inlet is an important estuarine habitat with a rich diversity of bird life including the Fernbird. The estuarine fringes are notable for the succession of plant communities between the tidal flats and dune areas.

The South Kaipara Dune Barrier is a complex sedimentary structure built at the same time and in the same way as the Manukau barrier. The Holocene dune of the South Kaipara barrier extends 3.5 km inland from the western shore line, with only an incipient soil cover. Dune belts 5 (youngest) to 1 (oldest) represent five stages of progradation during periods of sea-level regression alternating with periods of transgression. They illustrate fluctuations in the overall fall in postglacial sea level from approximately 10,000 years ago until the beginning of this century (Schofield 1960; 1975).

The dunes systems are also described in Brothers, R N, (1954-55), The Relative Pleistocene Chronology of the South Kaipara District, New Zealand, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961 Volume 82, click here for details.

Source: Auckland Regional Policy Statement Appendix B

Papakanui Spit- nationally significant dune systems

This year, the Department of Conservation’s Auckland Conservancy is carrying out a review of the region’s Conservation Management Strategy. Each strategy is for 10 years, and the present one was for 1995-2005.

Papakanui Spit is part of South Kaipara Head - Key Area 9 - in the current CMS.

This site is a key area as it has nationally significant biodiversity and geomorphic features, as well as wildlife habitats, sandfields and dunefields, of national significance.

It is also an area of important cultural significance, high visitor use and defence force use.

In the description of the physical landscape of the dunes at South Kaipara Head, the CMS notes that South Kaipara Head is an outstanding complex of protected areas focused around the high dune and associated sandfields, Papakanui Spit, and the coast adjacent to the intertidal mudflats of Waionui Inlet.

In DOC’s last conservation management strategy for Key Area 9, it described the outstanding features of the Papakanui Spit area.

“These active dune areas were once common on the west coast, but are now rare nationally.”

Papakanui Spit is the mobile sandspit enclosing Waionui Inlet. Both the spit and the esturine areas are of international significance, according to the CMS, in terms of the nesting habitat and feeding area for threatened species, and as a roosting area for migratory waders. Part of the spit is a wildlife refuge and is an outstanding wildlife habitat within the region and of national importance.

It is an important breeding and roosting area for terns, including the rare NZ Fairy Tern, the Caspian Tern and the White-fronted Tern.

The Waionui Inlet includes extensive saltmarsh and mangrove areas, and Fernbirds and Bittern are present in the swamp around its coastal margins.

It is also habitat for several plants of restricted distribution in NZ, includng Mazus novaezeelandiae, swamp fern, and Cyclosorus interruptus.

The dune areas have significant native vegetation, including significant areas of native sand-binding platns, such as pingaio.

There are more than 40 species of coastal and shorebird bird species that inhabit Papakanui Spit. As well as those species already mentioned, these include for example; Variable Osytercatcher, South Island Pied Oystercatcher, Turnstones, Bar-tailed Godwits, Red Knots, Pacific Golden Plover, Banded Dotterels, Wrybill, Pied Shag, Black Shag, Little Shag, Black-billed Gulls, Red-billed Gulls, and Black-backed Gulls.

The CMS also notes the historic and cultural significance of this area.

Muriwai/Rangitira Beach is of spiritual significance to Maori as it forms part of the pathway followed by the spirits of the dead on their journey to Cape Reina. Waionui Inlet is the traditional home of a taniwha of the Kaipara harbour and their are a number of archaeological sites in and adjacent to this area.

Source: DoC Conservation Management Strategy Auckland Conservancy 1995-2005.

Terns at Papakanui Spit

Darryl Jeffries, then a researcher at Auckland University, undertook a study of the disturbance and breeding behaviour of Fairy Terns and White-fronted Terns at Papakanui Spit over the two breeding seasons from 1998-2000. The aim of this study was to look at Fairy Tern and White-fronted Tern breeding behaviour, to compare between the tern species, and identify the threats these terns faced.

Black-backed gulls were found to be the greatest source of Fairy Tern disturbance, but during both seasons disturbance levels were low. Descriptions of various tern responses and breeding behaviour were recorded. There was no direct observation of predation on fairy terns, but gulls and mammalian predators were suspected of destroying two nests. Black-backed gulls and Red-billed gulls were observed preying on White-fronted Tern chicks. However, overall, White-fronted Terns had good breeding success in both years, and two fairy tern chicks successfully fledged in the second year.

Decoy trials proved successful in attracting fairy terns, and Jeffries concluded that these may have some potential in future management. Continued control of predators and ongoing conservation management was recommended for Papakanui Spit; this site is valuable in that it has potential for population expansion because of its isolation and size, and harbours many of New Zealand’s protected shorebird species.

Kaipara's outstanding dune systems are under threat from human impacts - both from vehicle damage and from pollution.

The dunes along the western side of South Head and at Papakanui Spit represent one of the best remaining dune assemblages in the Auckland region and in New Zealand.

A recent visit to this area revealed the extent of damage from recreational activities. Many areas of native dune plants like pingaio and spinifex are damaged from the impact of off-road vehicles, especially motorbikes and quad bikes. When these plants die-back, the dunes are more vulnerable to wind erosion.

The dunes at Papakanui Spit are also strewn with rubbish in places and the after-effects of people camping in the area. Vehicles are also driven around the mudflats of Waionui lagoon at low tide with people camping on the coast to fish or picnic, often leaving their rubbish behind.

This is despite the area being gazetted as a conservation area and wildlife refuge by the Department of Conservation. The spit and Waionui inlet include the Ti Tree Island Conservation Area, and the Papakanui Spit Wildlife Refuge within the Papakanui Spit and Ti Tree Island Stewardship Areas.

The Department of Conservation is failing to protect these conservation areas and their wildlife from vehicle impacts on the fragile dune systems, by failing to prevent vehicle access.

Under the Conservation Act, protection of indigenous vegetation and wildlife should be the Department's top priority. Unfortunately, the balance has shifted towards the Department's requirement to allow recreational activities in these areas.

Vehicles access the beach from several places on South Head and from Muriwai, and drive north into the conservation areas at Papakanui Spit.

Despite the commonly held belief that Muriwai-Rangitira Beach is a designated road - it is not. The Transport Act laws mean that the beach is deemed a road, only to allow any vehicle operating on a beach to be checked for registration, warrant and speeding offences. A beach is not a legal or any other sort of road. A Rodney District Council bylaw forbids any person to operate a vehicle on a beach, except to directly launch or retrieve a boat - unless they get written permission from the Council.

As well as the pollution and degradation, there is considerable disturbance to roosting and nesting birds when vehicles are allowed into the dunes. This includes endangered endemic birds such as the rare NZ Fairy Tern and the NZ Dotterel, as well as roosting and feeding populations of our rare Wrybill.

When you visit Papakanui Spit now, the noise of off-road vehicles such as motorbikes, quad bikes and 4WDs is often an integral part of the experience of what should be a wilderness area.

Fragile places like Papakanui Spit and Waionui Inlet should not be sacrificed to a minority of recreational users who despoil and degrade these environments.