Tamatuku
Tamatuku is a bay on the south coast of Wahiki.
I was asked about five years ago to look into designing and building a walkway
which would cut round part of Tamatuku Bay
and would go through a dock reserve
and through around the coast of the Esplanade Reserve.
Initially I came through here and walked all over the land
to try and work out a way which would allow people of all ages
to be able to walk through this stunning place
without too much difficulty.
This tree here, this Puhu Takawa, is maybe 400 years old
so that means that it's seen a lot of activity around here.
There's been a whole Māori village down here
and up and over those slopes
and it's also seen the kauri stripped off the hills
and floated down through Tamatuku Bay and off to the works.
This is just but one of several Pūreti
which are just beautiful old specimens
and yeah, not too far to find them at all off the track.
The beautiful thing about this reserve
and the walkway that runs through it now
is that there are about four locations of Māori settlements
and the reason why they're here is because they had water,
they had good north-facing sites
and they've got food and the food is down in the estuary.
It's full of shellfish and fish.
Tamatuku Bay is a marine reserve.
Also, it's got a lot of different ecosystems in it.
Yeah, there's a reasonable amount of bird life here.
Yeah, the tuis, they love the flax flowers
which are all happening at the moment down by the coast
so they're very active in there.
There's also a lot of bees at the moment
because the species are hangi-hangi
which is a pretty insignificant-looking species
within regenerating forests
but at the moment it's flowering and the bees are going mad.
So there's a lot of activity going on being late spring.
It's pretty hard to show.
This magnificent beast of a bahutakaua tree
that you can see before you
is actually where the track goes.
So it goes right under it
and then next to it there's a rare plant.
I'll show you.
This one.
It's rare for a hiki.
It's called Pettisforum pornofolio.
So, a little gem.
Yeah.
Oh, it's only still back there, isn't it?
Yeah, it's only still back there, isn't it?
Yeah, it's only still back there.
Well, no, I just told them to take it further back
and get rid of that stick that he was doing.
I don't know if you're going to go back.
No, 11 o'clock.
10 past another half hour.
Well, 45 minutes.
Are you hungry?
Yeah, I'm starving.
This particular group, a motley group there
of individuals has been part of the team
that's formed this track.
Four and a half kilometres.
In spite of their looks,
they're actually not a bad bunch.
And it's been a big project,
but it's been pretty good.
Pretty damn good fun.
This particular track through here was cut
about five weeks ago.
So it gives you an idea of how much leaf litter
comes down off the trees.
You get these, pruri seeds and lots of other seeds.
And this stuff acts like a compost.
Well, it is a compost, really.
And therefore, it's a perfect bed
for getting seeds going.
And hence, the forest just doesn't naturally,
you know, it drops leaf litter everywhere
and up come all the seedlings.
You can see a bit here, but we've cleared a lot of this.
The other thing in here is their black charcoal.
But when all this was burnt by Europeans
to turn into farming,
so you often get bits of charcoal
lying around in the dirt.
Look at that.
Big fires.
The job of the regenerating forest
is to set the conditions up
for the broadleaf to move in.
And here, right next to us,
we've got a koko tree,
which is taken root here and doing well.
And you've got Niko
and Tawa
and pruri.
Yeah, it just gives you an idea
of what's actually in here.
These two main forest sorts.
The last stage of this track
is full of really huge trees,
like big terari and pruri and koiko.
And so we've had to be really careful
how we deal with this terrain and these trees.
So in a section like this,
we don't want to cut the roots,
so we have to build over the roots.
So here, we'll put in retaining edge timbers
the hallway through.
Yeah, so most of them will impact the way we can do it.
Always a tree on the road, eh?
We're just marking the top edge
of where the trench is going to be.
So what happens if you don't agree with your boss?
I rub out his dots and I do it my way.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
The big thing is to make access
for people to use,
not only now, but well into the future,
because the neat thing about it
is probably one of the best investments she could make.
You build this thing and then it just keeps on working
for everybody from there on,
until man maybe is no longer around.
It's been challenging, it's been really rewarding,
and I've had a great crew to work with,
and it's made life a lot easier.
No, it's been good.
I recommend Tony, learning lots,
not just about trailboarding,
but obviously the bush that we're working in as well.
It's been a good experience.
It's kind of an epic adventure actually,
coming to the bush every day
and hanging out with the birds
and learning more tree names
and trying to get it right for what Tony wants.
It's been great.
Paere, you said nothing about me.
What's the story?
No, I don't want to say bad words.
So...
Paere, you said nothing about me.
What's the story?
No, I don't want to say bad words.
It's only going to come.
Can I have some of that?
It's not hippie.
What's the thing?
Paere, you said nothing about me.
