Kororipo - Kerikeri Basin Sustainable Development Plan

Consultation closed: 30 April 2005

Updates

25 July 2007

You can now view the adopted 'Sustainable Development Plan for the Kororipo-Kerkeri Basin'

6 March 2006

The process of analysis of public submissions and hearings on the draft plan has been completed. Discussions are continuing with Ngati Retia and other Bay of Islands iwi over several issues. Once these are concluded the plan will be finalised and made available to the public.

Draft for public view

A Draft Sustainable Development Plan for the future of the historically significant Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin is complete and available for public review and comment.

The plan will serve as a template to guide future decision-making for the heritage lands and buildings in the Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin.

The Draft Plan considers ways to increase the quality of the visitor experience at the site, while at the same time ensuring that the idyllic maritime and bush environment is sensitively developed and maintained for the future.

The Draft Plan was created with participation of iwi, appropriate agencies and the community and recognises the international significance of the Basin and documents its potential as a World Heritage Site.

Establishing the Draft Plan

The development of the Draft Plan is the culmination of intensive research and significant contribution of a number of agencies, iwi and community groups.

Work to date has included:

• The establishment of steering group and working committee to oversee the project.
• The completion of historical documentary research, landscape research, archaeological, marine and ecological surveys.
• Participation by six focus groups, made up of interested community members who met to consider various components of the project and then presented reports of their findings to the working group.
• Public meetings, public presentations on research findings.
• Hapu and other research continuing
• All of the above information currently being independently analysed and tested as part of a Concept Development Study will form part two of the Sustainable Development Plan.

Copies of the Draft Plan along with submission packages are available at:

• DOC Bay of Islands Offices in Kerikeri, Russell and at the Whangarei Conservancy
• The Procter Library in Kerikeri
• Far North District Council Office in Kaikohe
• Historic Places Trust at Kerikeri Mission Station
• Rewa's Village

Submission process

A copy can be mailed to you, please telephone DOC on +64 9 407 8474.

Submissions close 4.00 pm, 30 April 2005. All submissions must be received at the Bay of Islands Area Office, PO Box 128, Landing Road, Kerikeri.

Submissions to the draft can be made during February, March and April.

Analysis and hearings of submissions will take place in May and June.

The Final Plan will be released on 30 June 2005.

Background

The Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin is recognised as one of New Zealand's foremost heritage places because of its point of contact between Maori and European cultures in the early 1800s. The values of the Basin lie in the ties that bind Kororipo Pa (c 1770-1829) and its out-lying wahi tapu with the oldest wooden and stone buildings in New Zealand: the Mission House, 1822, and the Stone Store, 1836.

Separately each place is of prime national heritage importance; together they comprise a place of unrivalled historic value to New Zealand. Nowhere else is the historic consequence of the meeting of two peoples and cultures still intact, or the process that lead to the birth of a nation stamped more evocatively on a landscape.

As the site of the second mission station founded by the Rev Samuel Marsden - and chosen principally for the support offered by Nga Puhi chief Hongi Hika and Kororipo Pa - the Basin is a unique combination of Maori history and missionary tradition.

Consequently it has considerable educational and tourism value and the exciting prospect of a road bypass provides a renewed impetus, and a compelling imperative to produce a coherent plan for the future management, and visitor enjoyment. The bypass will remove the busy traffic that currently degrades the site with noise, vibrations, congestion, and hazards to pedestrians. The current road bridge also restricts the natural river flow, posing an unacceptable threat to the historic buildings. The bypass will unlock the Kerikeri Basin's potential, whilst securing its heritage future.

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