Wellington Plans New Park

Forest and Bird, Issue 297, 1 August 2000, Page 11

Wellington Plans New Park

—Robert Shaw

atural values should be better protected when Whitireia Park becomes Wellington’s seventh regional park. The Mana branch of Forest and Bird has taken a strong interest in establishing this park which is on the southern headland of the Porirua Harbour, and easily identified by the presence of Radio New Zealand’s transmission masts. Environmental values are rated ‘moderately high’ by the Council which plans to allow the park to revert to its natural state and to facilitate public access. There are some nationally threatened plants hanging on to the cliffs and in estuaries. These include the only known mainland population of Hebe ellpitica var. crassifolia (on rock stacks), and pygmy button daisy Leptinella nana, a critically endangered plant known from only two other sites. Te Onepoto inlet retains a fringe of salt marsh and sedges and is an important habitat for wading birds. Native bush is regenerating in gullies. The park is also a regionally significant landscape with a prominent headland and ridges at the entrance to Porirua Harbour. (Forest and Bird administers a further wetland reserve at Pauatahanui Inlet at the head of Porirua Harbour.) Recreation values are rated ‘high’: the area is used for pic- nics, walks, fishing, rock climbing and golf. It is regionally important for rock climbing. At

present, in its untended state, there are 50,000 visitors a year. Heritage values are rated as ‘exceptional’ There are many remains of Maori occupation around the coast; midden sites, pits, terraces and pa sites. It is reputed that Kupe left an anchor stone at Onehunga Bay. Today’s park is less than half of the original Whitireia Block. Most of the Maori land at Titahi Bay was used for government housing schemes. The people of Ngati Toa, Te Atiawa and Raukawa donated the land contained in the park around 1848 to the Church of England. The seminary they planned was never built. In late 1998, following a recommendation from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, the Wellington Regional Council was asked to manage the park. Iwi agreed to council management, provided it does not disturb pending Waitangi Tribunal claims, and the council never owns the land. The Wellington Regional Council has included the park in its draft 10-year financial strategy. Should the council adopt the park, it will be several years before the real work begins because the council has to fit the park into its other spending priorities. These include the Wairarapa Wetlands Regional Park and the further development of Battle Hill and Belmont Regional Parks.