History Of Paekakariki Beach

Paekakariki Beach
Before the European settlement Paekakariki had a violent history mainly due to the presence of the Maori warrior Te Rauparaha whose Pa was located in close proximity to the Kapiti Island. In 1886 railway line was completed the wellington and manawatu railway company, this railway line went from wellington to longburn. Longburn also known as Karere is a rural settlement located on the outskirts of Palmerston North in the manawatu-wanganui area of new zealand. When the railway was completed paekakariki, became a very important stop on the wellington to longburn journey.
The south Paekakariki Coast is subject to long-term erosion and in many areas buildings are protected by sea-walls. Paekakariki Seawalls were built in 1978 to prevent excessive erosion because the paekakariki is subdue to high winds, large swells and high tides and Substantial damage has occurred at the northern-end of The Parade at Paekakariki. Human modification at paekakariki is in the form of groyns. Groyns have been built on paekakariki and some of the other beaches as an artificial construction built into the sea from the lands edges to maintain sediment on the beach and were designed to put erosion to a halt and were also built to protect the pipes from overflow. Paekakariki is a very narrow beach so the groyns are not necessarily in the water meaning the groyns won’t trap as much sediment, as you can see in the image below.

At paekakariki beach the houses have been built on sediment which is why they are relatively elevated from the beach’s level. The sediment was not only placed there by high energy waves but also placed there by humans. The sediment comes from the otaki river mouth and river meets to the sea so the river drain the ...

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...uilt around it.
Due to aeolian process occurring the mini sand dunes won’t be able to grow because there is not enough vegetation and also because of people walking on the mini dunes which also stops them from growing.
Waikanae beach is in very close proximity to kapiti island as you can see in the picture below

Conclusion:
The aim of our assessment was to research if and how humans have made modifications to the natural processes along the kapiti coastline. When we went along the coastline observing each beach we were able to identify what human modification were made, why they were made what natural process had been disturbed by the modifications made. Humans have made modifications and some of the modifications made are positive and are actually helping the environment and some are negative and are disrupting the natural formation of the coast.