Te Wai Korari Reserve

Where: just after the Riverton waterworks, on the right hand side of the road as you come in to Riverton from the direction of Invercargill.

When: always open.

What: there is a walking track, which leads down to a circular track through the wetland. Part of the way is along the beach at the edge of the estuary itself. The track is presently overgrown but is due to be revamped in spring/summer 2010.

Time: 20 minutes for the circular walk; at low tide, you can walk out a long way into the estuary itself, so extending the walk; you can also walk upstream or downstream along the edge of the estuary.

Clothing: wrap up well if it's a windy day; anything from street shoes to gumboots, depending on what you want to do when you get to the estuary and the state of the tide.

Description:

This is a 6 hectare flax wetland development sited at the northern entrance to Riverton. Te Wai Korari Wetland Reserve provides a sanctuary for myriads of whitebait and other native fishes, under threat elsewhere in the estuary from over fishing and habitat loss. Agencies such as World Wide Fund for Nature, Queen Elizabeth 2nd Trust, South Pacific Conservation and Development Trust and NZ Aluminium Smelters have generously funded and continue to support the project.

History:

Te Wai Korari Wetland Reserve is the result of a cooperative effort between a local Landcare group and students from a number of Southland schools. The project to create waterways to encourage whitebait began 7 years ago with the purchase, by the Riverton Estuary Care Society , of estuary side farm land due to be ‘worked-up’. The ‘flax swamp’ was fenced, tracks were formed, waterways were dug and bridged and work begun with removing pest plants. Students from local schools joined the project at this stage, beginning with a full-school Arbour Day event where children and their parents planted native trees alongside of the largest waterway. Since then many events involving groups of children have taken place at the reserve, planting, releasing trees, building a clay dam for a freshwater pond and a raft of visits to study whitebait, wetland birds, and water quality.

Educational Resource:

Riverton attracts school groups from all over Southland, all looking for sites of interest from an environmental point of view and Te Wai Korari is ideal on many levels. The reserve demonstrates how successful the care-group has been in fulfilling its aim to increase the number of whitebait in and around the estuary and visiting groups gain a lot from seeing the results of the efforts and hearing about the initial motivations for the project. I have led many groups through the reserve, around the tracks and more popularly, directly through the flax and jointed-rush to the ponds and waterways. It has always been a successful visit, as the children are able to safely wade in the creeks and if the tide is out, walk out over the sand to the edge of the chanels in the estuary to see the tiny flatfish.

Project Update:

At present, the efforts of the Estuary Care group are directed toward creating a forest in the higher parts of the reserve, using cabbage trees and other robust native trees. The local schools and several small community groups are growing plants for the project and have helped to plant those trees that are presently growing up through the tough southern grasses. Other smaller creek restoration projects have been ‘spawned’ by the work seen at the reserve and Riverton township has 4 other groups busy planting stream sides, building simple fish ladders and pressuring the local council to keep creeks clean and above ground. All of these projects provide opportunities for teachers and students to be actively involved in restoring habitats and improving the environment.