Atiu Creek

Now open to the public.

The farm was gifted to the ARC by Jackie and Pierre Chatelanat who wanted to ensure that all New Zealanders could enjoy access to the Kaipara Harbour and that the cultural and heritage values of the area would be protected in perpetuity. In 2004, the Chatelanats placed a QE II Open Space covenant on Atiu Creek Farm.

Atiu Creek became a Regional Park on July 1, 2006. The ARC will develop the park as a countryside Regional Park, managed and operated on the principles of protection, preservation and enhancement of its natural and cultural values. This park was officially opened to the public on Saturday 5 April 2008.

History

The cultural and historical assets of Atiu Creek are equally impressive.

There are 17 known historic places on the farm plus a canoe portage area and an abandoned nineteenth-century oyster farm adjacent to the site.

The tangata whenua are Te Uri o Hau. There are numerous pa sites, including the extensive ridge pa which defended the strategic Opou Portage. The early European presence in the area is marked by the remnants of a nineteenth-century settler camp.

Native bush

The park enjoys extensive harbour frontage and has large tracts of native forest supporting a range of flora and fauna. In addition to 450 ha of easy, rolling grassed land, the property contains a number of significant areas of native forest and wetlands in the gullies.

It provides significant habitats for the three nationally threatened bird species: the NZ dabchick, brown teal, and the North Island brown kiwi.

Forest types present on Atiu Creek include regenerating kanuka forest and scrubland, mature pohutukawa coastal forest, kauri forest on the ridges, and totara forest with broadleaved forest in the gullies.

On the prominent Kauri Point there are sequences of totara forest on ridges to coastal pohutukawa-puriri forest to mangroves in the estuary. The park has intact areas of coastal forest which are now rare nationally.