Opoutere

View of Wharekawa Harbor and river channel leading out to Opoutere beach.

On the east coast of the Coromandel, a short 1 1/2 hour’s drive from EcoQuest, is the small village of Opoutere where we stayed for 4 days. Opoutere is situated in such a way that the Wharekawa Harbor, a small estuary that feeds into a gorgeous, paradise-like beach with blue-green water and mountainous islands in the distance. The nicest part was the lack of visitors, which added to the feeling of being in a secluded paradise. The path to the beach is a 10-minute walk through pine forest very much different from those in New England. Pine trees in New Zealand take about half the amount of time to grow into large adult pines (with massive pine cones!) as those back home. The result: ideal conditions for logging. What saddened me about Opoutere was seeing such a majestic landscape against the backdrop of whole mountain sides completely clear cut. The battle between environment and industry is clearly being played out on the Wharekawa Harbor, an estuary that provides numerous ecosystem services such as flood control, nutrient and sediment retention, habitat, etc. The dilemma lies in the fact that it makes economic sense to clear cut these wide expanses. Trees grow at a much faster rate in NZ and are much less dense than in their native habitat, making logging an attractive and profitable venture. We spent our week learning about how stresses of human use such as forestry are impacting the harbor and the consequences of these actions (e.g. sedimentation, habitat/biodiversity loss, etc.) The struggle at hand now is managing land uses with as  ’best practice’ as possible considering the suitability of such a fragile environment.

View of clear cut from the Mountain of Two Women trail. Opoutere, NZ.