Waikawa News September 2022
Spinifex planting 08 October 2022
Kia ora e te whānau,
Well, we’re now on the side of the Equinox where the days are longer than the nights.
A beach walk on the holiday for the Queen’s Memorial offered a very calm sea, bunches of dog walkers, and a load of vehicles parked behind fishing Kontikis. There were also a handful of trailbikes, but few birds and no Kekeno (NZ Fur Seals), even though people have been spotting seals fairly often.
One person on the Waikawa Beach Facebook group even witnessed a person sitting by in their vehicle while their large white dog attacked and killed a seal. The witness reported the incident to the Police as seals are protected by law (Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978). That was about a week ago.
If you spot a seal please keep dogs and kids (and yourselves) away, and try not to get between the seal and the sea. Mostly it’s exhausted animals who need a bit of a rest before they head back into the water.
Fierce winds in mid-September 2022, along with high tides at full moon again created a drop at the end of the Miratana track to the beach. It was cut off for a day or so, but was swiftly put to rights.
Sand was moved to rebuild the eroded bottom end of the track, extra driftwood was brought in to help protect the sand, and posts have been sunk, with wire to help hold the driftwood in place.
Meanwhile, down at the Waiorongomai Stream all the weed has been cleared away and the driftwood moved aside to allow the water to flow freely. That will also help eels and other water species to move about easily. The weed looked like bamboo but was actually Phragmites karka, a perennial rhizomatous grass originally from Africa, India, New Guinea and northern Australia, which seems to die off in winter and regrow in spring. With any luck we won’t be seeing dead eels around the stream mouth any more.
An unusual sight on the beach on Friday 16 September 2022 was the Rescue Helicopter coming in to land by the Miratana access off Manga Pirau Street. It was accompanied by several Police cars and armed Police officers. One resident was told Police were hunting for a silver vehicle with a ‘snorkel’, and containing someone armed with a shotgun. The Rescue Helicopter flew up and down the coast for about an hour then everyone left.
Is anyone still unaware of climate change? Sea-level rise around Aotearoa New Zealand is speeding up, according to Stats NZ. That brings increased risks of flooding and erosion, drainage problems and possible intrusion of salt water into the underground aquifers. It’s possible the sea-level around here has risen about 17 cm in the last 60 years.
And of course, all the rain we had over winter raised the groundwater level enormously. Unexpected puddles and lakes are slowly starting to drain away at last.
— Photo from 28 July 2022; the water is still a lot higher than that.
Meanwhile, house prices locally have declined, probably tied to the slow sales recently. According to CoreLogic data, Waikawa Beach had the largest fall with prices down 9.3% to $703,500. In dollar terms, that was a decline of $72,550.
Several properties are still for sale, or have been relisted, and one has come on the market: 8 Norna Grove, 22 Kristin Place, 58 Manga Pirau Street, 501A Waikawa Beach Road (3 lifestyle properties), 13 Arthur Street, 17 Drake Street. One has actually sold: 61-63 Manga Pirau Street.
But a bit of brighter news, with things looking up — check out Saturn and Jupiter (brightest thing in sky, especially around 26 September) in the early evening sky. Look East and Northeast.
And in case you’re one of the people actually interested in the progress of the toilet block: the roof’s on, some painting has been done and I have exclusive photos of the interior. Stephan Titze of Horowhenua District Council has updated us on progress:
At this stage we are looking forward for a finishing date end of October [2022]. No further delays are expected as our contractor confirmed that all required material is in his possession and the related subcontractors are booked.
Although we have some cost variations the overall cost for this project staying in the expected budget.
BTW: don’t forget about Spinifex planting on 08 October 2022. I’m not sure yet of meeting place (probably the north track off Reay Mackay Grove) or time but contact me if you’d like me to confirm them. I do hope you can join in, even for a short time. admin@wow-waikawa.nz.
Links
Find out more on the items mentioned above:
- Toilet block commentary 17 September 2022
- Waiorongomai Stream mouth cleared
- Vehicle access restored 16 September 2022
- Waikawa Beach Community Committee September 2022 Progress report
- Waikawa Beach house prices fell 9.3% in July 2022
- Sea-level rise around Aotearoa New Zealand is speeding up
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Mā te wā,
Miraz Jordan
The two websites are:
Waikawa News: http://news.wow-waikawa.nz
Waikawa Environment: http://wow-waikawa.nz