PROTECTING THE HAURAKI GULF ISLANDS Raewyn Peart and Cordelia Woodhouse PROTECTING THE HAURAKI GULF ISLANDS Raewyn Peart and Cordelia Woodhouse First published November 2020 Published by: Environmental Defence Society Incorporated P O Box 91736 Victoria St West Auckland 1142 Phone (09) 302 2972 [email protected] www.eds.org.nz www.environmentguide.org.nz © Environmental Defence Society Incorporated 2020 Design: Neale Wills, Wilsy Design & Production Ltd Photographic images: Raewyn Peart unless otherwise indicated Cover image: Palmers Beach, Aotea/Great Barrier Island Copies can be downloaded from www.eds.org.nz ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to acknowledge the support of Auckland Council in funding this case study. We would also like to thank all those who generously agreed to be interviewed for this study and the peer reviewers for their invaluable contributions. This case study will form part of a report being supported by the Department of Conservation and Land Information New Zealand. ii PROTECTING THE HAURAKI GULF ISLANDS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 PART ONE: OVERALL CONTEXT 3 2 The Hauraki Gulf 3 2.1 Geological formation of islands 3 2.2 Early Māori settlement 4 2.3 Early European settlement 4 3 Statutory management framework 5 3.1 Resource Management Act 5 3.2 National instruments 9 3.3 Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 10 3.4 Regional instruments 15 3.5 District instruments 17 3.6 Incorporation of the Hauraki Gulf islands into the Auckland Unitary Plan framework 19 PART TWO: ISLAND CASE STUDIES 21 4 Aotea/Great Barrier Island 21 4.1 Māori heritage 21 4.2 Natural heritage 22 4.3 Historical pressures 22 4.4 Current and future pressures 23 4.5 Statutory management responses 28 4.6 Non-statutory management responses 36 4.7 Key issues and opportunities 38 5 Waiheke Island 41 5.1 Māori heritage 41 5.2 Natural heritage 42 5.3 Historical pressures 42 5.4 Current and future pressures 43 5.5 Statutory management responses 53 5.6 Non-statutory management responses 58 5.7 Key issues and opportunities 60 6 Rākino Island 63 6.1 Māori heritage 63 6.2 Natural heritage 63 6.3 Historical pressures 63 6.4 Current and future pressures 64 6.5 Statutory management responses 66 6.6 Non-statutory management responses 68 6.7 Key issues and opportunities 68 PART THREE: CONCLUSIONS 69 7 Key findings 69 References 72 Case studies 75 CONTENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Hauraki Gulf Marine Park and catchments 3 3.1 Extent of the ONL and natural character overlays on Aotea/Great Barrier Island 6 3.2 Extent of the ONL and natural character overlays on Waiheke Island 7 3.3 Extent of the ONL and natural character overlays on Rākino Island 7 3.4 Hierarchy of RMA plans 8 3.5 Structure of the Hauraki Gulf Islands District Plan 18 4.1 Vegetation cover on Aotea/Great Barrier Island 23 4.2 Settlement areas on Aotea/Great Barrier Island 28 4.3 Planning controls for sub-areas within the Great Barrier Island settlement areas 30 4.4 Minimum site areas for various zones within the Great Barrier Island settlement areas 31 4.5 Land managed by DOC on Aotea/Great Barrier Island (and neighbouring islands) 32 4.6 Ecological management units on Aotea/Great Barrier Island 34 5.1 Risk of coastal inundation at Blackpool 49 5.2 Land units applying to Waiheke Island 53 5.3 Description of land units applying to Waiheke Island 54 5.4 Subdivision rules for different land units 55 6.3 Planning map for Rākino Island 66 6.4 Subdivision capacity on Rākino Island 67 7.1 Comparison of the three case study islands 69 LIST OF ACRONYMS AUP Auckland Unitary Plan DOC Department of Conservation EDS Environmental Defence Society EEZ Act Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012 EMU Ecosystem management unit EPA Environmental Protection Authority GIFT Gulf Innovation Fund Together HGMPA Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000 NZCPS New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement ONL Outstanding natural landscape QEII Queen Elizabeth the Second RMA Resource Management Act 1991 RPS Regional policy statement Sea Change Sea Change Tai Timu Tai Pari iv PROTECTING THE HAURAKI GULF ISLANDS 1. INTRODUCTION Aotearoa New Zealand’s distinctive natural landscapes are exploration of the concept of landscape in the New an integral component of our individual and national well- Zealand context, to be released later in 2020. being. For Māori, they provide a deep cultural connection This case study focuses on three of the Hauraki Gulf with the past and future through whakapapa. Landscapes islands with permanent settlement: Aotea/Great Barrier provide physical and spiritual respite, historical links and havens for biodiversity. They are a source for creative Island, Waiheke Island and Rākino Island. These islands endeavour, a key component of the New Zealand brand, each have a unique character and settlement pattern and and a major drawcard for tourists. face different, but in some cases overlapping, challenges. The case study is based on a review of the available A tourist is commonly defined as someone who literature supplemented by interviews with some travels and visits places for pleasure and interest.1 30 key informants. The interviews were undertaken This includes both international and domestic on a confidential basis to encourage frankness. We visitors, and for the Hauraki Gulf islands, includes have included some quotes from these interviews to those visiting from Auckland as well as from further provide ‘colour’ to the analysis below. However, we afield. It generally does not include part-time have not identified the source in order to maintain the residents, such as those who own a holiday home confidentiality of the respondent. Some quotes are from on the islands. Nor does it include people travelling published sources, and where this is the case, we have purely for business purposes. footnoted the reference. Despite the importance of landscapes to New Zealand, The report is structured into three main parts. Part One we are still seeing poor landscape outcomes. In order to provides the overall context for the case study. This address this matter, the Environmental Defence Society includes a description of the Hauraki Gulf and the overall (EDS) has initiated a project to investigate how existing statutory management framework that applies to the area, legislative and policy tools could be more effectively including an analysis of the effectiveness of the Hauraki deployed to manage important natural landscapes, as Gulf Marine Park Act 2000 in protecting the landscapes well as how a new ‘protected landscapes’ model could of the Hauraki Gulf. Part Two of the report includes be adopted to achieve better landscape protection in the island case studies including a description of their New Zealand. Māori and natural heritage; historical, current and future The project involves case studies of landscape pressures; statutory and non-statutory management protection in Te Manahuna/Mackenzie Basin, Te Pātaka responses; and key issues and opportunities. In order o Rākaihautū/Banks Peninsula, Waitākere Ranges and to assess the effectiveness of landscape management the Hauraki Gulf Islands. It also includes an investigation on the islands, we have investigated a wide range of of potential linkages between tourism and landscape pressures impacting their natural environments. Part protection. All the case studies will be integrated into Three of the report draws together the key findings of the an overall synthesis report, which will contain a broader study and recommendations. Man O'War Bay, Waiheke Island (Craig Potton) CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Harataonga, Aotea/Great Barrier Island (Craig Potton) ENDNOTES 1 Cambridge English Dictionary 2 PROTECTING THE HAURAKI GULF ISLANDS PART ONE: OVERALL CONTEXT 2. THE HAURAKI GULF “The Hauraki Gulf has a quality and diversity of biology and landscape that makes it outstanding within New Zealand. The islands of the Gulf are valued as habitats of plants and animals, once common, now rare, and are often the only places where these species exist naturally.” 1 The Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana/Te Moananui-o-Toi is a place of outstanding landscapes, rich indigenous biodiversity and spiritual importance to Māori. It is an area used by many to live and work, for recreation and for the sustenance of human health, wellbeing and spirit. The Gulf covers 1.2 million ha of ocean stretching from Pākiri in the north-west, around the seaward side of the Mokohinau Islands and Aotea/Great Barrier Island and down to the south of Whangamatā on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula (see Figure 2.1). The inner Gulf is sheltered to the east by Great Barrier Island, and to the west and south, by the mainland. This means it is exposed only to the northern winds prompting its name: ‘the northern wind’ – hau (wind) and raki (north). Within the Gulf there are more than 65 islands, many of which are protected and managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) as public conservation land. Of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf that are larger than 10ha, 43 per cent are predator free including Rākino Island (but not Waiheke or Aotea/Great Barrier islands), making it an area Figure 2.4: Map of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park and catchments 2 Figure 2.1 Hauraki Gulf Marine Park and catchments particularly rich in native bird and other life. 2: LESSONS LEARNED FROM SEA CHANGE TAI TIMU TAI PARI 15 2.1 Geological formation of islands Stony Batter, Waiheke Island The Hauraki Gulf was formed following the last ice age, over 20,000 years ago, when the sea levels were 130m lower than present levels.3 At that time, the seabed of the Gulf would likely have been low lying plains dominated by the volcanic cones of Aotea/Great Barrier and Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier.4 The other islands of the Gulf would have been the hills and ridges punctuating the plains.