A Karita¯ne kayak with a valuable lesson
Kayaking around Karita¯ne Spit, Brett Atkinson has a history lesson and helps preserve the flora and fauna of the estuary.
Dreadlocked and wearing a pair of scuffed Crocs, Ricky Ngamoki has quite probably the biggest hands in the South Island and, after extracting my right hand from his gentle bear hug of a greeting, it’s time to put it to use paddling a waka on one of Otago’s most historic stretches of water.
Setting off across the Waikouaiti Estuary with Pani Butler and Karita¯ne Ma¯ori Tours, Ngamoki lets us know we may have company.
According to local fishermen, catches have been scarce in recent days, and a New Zealand fur seal has been seen patrolling the sheltered waters. As we skip almost silently across the river mouth in spring sunshine, our potential marine mammal companion makes himself scarce, and we cruise gently to a stop on the sandy bar known as Ohinepouwera, or Karita¯ne Spit.
The day’s first mission is to help stem the erosion of the spit. Invasive marram grass blankets the low-slung natural division between the river estuary and the gentle southern Pacific waves of Waikouaiti Beach, and as our compact team of Saturday morning paddlers ferries to¯tara and harakeke seedlings through the gentle dunes, Ngamoki issues a single, but essential command: ‘‘Tramp them in real hard, or the rabbits will get ’em.’’
Spades work the soft sand as easily as a hot knife through butter, and soon there’s a score of newly-planted native plants joining the hundreds of others already planted by visiting school groups and earlier paddlers. Across the next few decades, the spit’s chances of survival will definitely be more robust.
As we emerge from the dunes to Waikouaiti’s sandy arc, Ngamoki continues his introduction to the area. For a guy who reckons he doesn’t like to say much, he’s pretty interesting.
Crowning a rocky headland to the south is the historic Ma¯ori fortified pa¯ site of Huriawa, and on the near horizon Ngamoki points out the grassy profile of Matanaka. It’s the name of the company’s waka, and the location of six of the longest sea caves in the world, with one extending for 1.5km and only navigable by experienced sea kayakers.
Inland to the northwest, his iwi’s maunga, Hikaroroa, rises to 616 metres, and scattered around the seaside hamlet of Karita¯ne are reminders of New Zealand history. Providing support to Kiwi mums for more than a century, the Plunket Society was established here in 1907, and
a heritage stand of brick buildings provided rehabilitation for soldiers returning from World War I.
Setting up camp on the sandy beaches framing the estuary, whalers were among the first European visitors to the Otago region. Establishing a whaling station in 1837 – more than a decade before Dunedin’s Scottish settlers arrived further south at Port Chalmers – humpbacks and southern right whales were the preferred prey and commercial prize.
Following big southern storms, bleached whalebones are still uncovered from decades-long sandy repose, and old beer bottles and the assorted detritus of 19th-century whaling are sometimes found under a scruffy stand of pine trees at the spit’s southern end.
It’s now also a wildlife urupa¯ (cemetery) where Ngamoki buries penguins, seals and sea birds on behalf of the Department of Conservation. He’s honoured to give respect to the area’s original and ongoing natural guardians.
Relaxed after Ngamoki’s historyenriched ko¯rero along Ohinepouwera’s quiet beaches, it’s back into the waka for the journey back to Karita¯ne’s boat ramp. Light fibreglass paddles make easy work of the short crossing, so in the relative cool of mid-September it’s a straightforward shared decision we decide to take the long way home.