Māori mythology and history (araara) In
Māori mythology, the
ocean-going canoe Māhuhu voyaged from
Hawaiki to New Zealand, commanded by the chief
Rongomai. It overturned on the northern side of the entrance and Rongomai drowned. His body was eaten by
araara (white trevally), and his descendants to this day will not eat that fish. Māori settlements and
marae have been scattered around the harbour margins for hundreds of years. The waterways of the Kaipara provided, and still provide, Māori with resources and a ready means of moving between marae.
European history near the harbour entrance in 1914
James Cook sighted and recorded the harbour on his first voyage, in 1770. He named it "False Bay", noting in his journal that it had "the appearance of a Bay or inlet, but I believe it is only low land". In 1839,
European settlers began arriving in the Kaipara to fell and mill kauri trees and build boats for local requirements. The first sailing ship wrecked at the entrance to the harbour was the 550-ton barque
Aurora in April 1840. The brigantine
Sophia Pate was wrecked at South Head in August 1841 with the loss of all 21 on board. The most recent wreck was the yacht
Aosky in 1994. The
Kaipara River is the principal river feeding Kaipara Harbour from the south. From 1863
Helensville established itself as a timber port on this river, and provided shipping services about the Kaipara. When the timber ran out, Helensville developed sheep and dairy farms, and more recently nut plantations, vineyards and deer farms. The Kaipara is the largest estuarine harbour on the west coast of New Zealand and provides significant areas of suitable breeding grounds and
habitats for juvenile fish. It has fewer problems with water quality than the
Manukau, and is the single most significant wetland for west coast fisheries. Early versions of
oyster farming occurred between the early 1900s and 1950s. Thousands of tons of rocks were placed along the shorelines to act as an additional
substrate on which the natural rock oyster could grow. In 2002, the Crown settled the historical claims of
Te Uri o Hau, a
hapū of the northern Kaipara Harbour. As part of the settlement, access to and the rights of the hapū to
gather oysters within the existing "Maori Oyster Areas" were recognised. In 2008, resource consent was given to Biomarine to establish New Zealand's largest oyster farm in the Kaipara. The farm is projected to produce about NZ$30 million in annual exports and 100 new jobs. In recent years, there has been a perception amongst locals that
commercial fishers have damaged
fisheries in the Kaipara. Locals have been frustrated in their attempts to gain government support. The veteran filmmaker
Barry Barclay has examined this in his 2005 documentary,
The Kaipara affair.
Sand mining Currently (2007) about 219,000 cubic metres of sand
is mined each year from the entrance and
tidal deltas of the Kaipara. This sand contributes over half the sand requirements for
Auckland. The sand is used in the production of concrete and asphalt, and also in
drainage systems and
beach nourishment. A suction pump is usually used to extract the sand from the seabed. It is pumped into a barge as a sand and water slurry. As the barge loads, shells and other objects are screened out and the sea water drained back to the sea. The availability of sea sand within the Auckland region means the road costs of transporting sand from further parts of the country are avoided. Concerns about possible negative consequences of this sand mining have also been raised.
Tidal power In 2008, Crest Energy, a power company, received
resource consent to install about 200 underwater
tidal turbines in the Kaipara Harbour, which would use the substantial
tidal flows moving in and out every day near the harbour mouth to produce electricity for approximately 250,000 homes. Crest planned to place the turbines at least 30 metres deep along a ten kilometre stretch of the main channel. Historical charts show this stretch of the channel has changed little over 150 years. The output of the turbines will cycle twice daily with the predictable rise and fall of the tide. Each turbine will have a maximum output of 1.2 MW, and is expected to generate 0.75 MW averaged over time. The peak level of generation for the combined turbines is about 200 MW. This exceeds the projected peak electricity needs of
Northland. It would have environmental benefits in offsetting annual carbon emissions from a thermal-based, gas turbine generator of 575,000 tonnes of carbon. However, while the Department of Conservation had approved the project, and had made substantial
environmental monitoring conditions part of the consent, the project also had objectors on the grounds of claimed influences on the local
ecosystems and charter fishing (see the section above on
fisheries). Appeals before the
Environment Court are still likely. The project was put on hold by Crest Energy in late 2013; its director Anthony cited several issues that prevented the project from proceeding. He also sold the majority of his shareholdings to Todd Energy Ltd the same year. == Ecology and environment ==