2009. Wrights Road Entrance, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
I drove along Marshlands Road and Main North Road, crossed the Waimakariri River, then immediately after the bridge turned left into Wrights Road entrance to Waimakariri River Regional Park. I wanted to walk upriver through willows on Waimakariri River north bank, below the stopbank, then loop downstream back to my car. At the park gate I saw signs:
* GATE CLOSED 7 pm. Gate Closed 10 pm during daylight saving hours.
2009. Fish & Game NZ Sign, Wrights Road, Christchurch
* FISH & GAME NZ with fishing rules for Chinook salmon, brown trout, rainbow trout.
* PROTECT OUR WATERS from Didymo alga, rock snot.
2009. Didymo Rock Snot Warning Sign, Wrights Road, Christchurch
2009. Old Kaiaipoi Island Map, Waimakariri River Regional Park Information, Christchurch
2009. Maori History, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park Information, Christchurch
2009. Early European History, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park Information, Christchurch
I parked at the carpark, looked at the new public loo, and read WELCOME TO KAIAPOI ISLAND info boards giving maps and Kaiapoi Island Maori and Early European settler history. Below riverbank willows were more signs:
* TREATED INDUSTRIAL LIQUID WASTE PRESENT IN WATER BELOW THIS POINT
2009. Toxic Water Sign, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
* WARNING DRINKING OR SWIMMING IN THIS WATER IS A HEALTH HAZARD
2009. Toxic water / Swimming Sign, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
While tourists were lured with "Clean Green NZ" images, locals had to put up with toxic waters. No way would I eat salmon or trout caught in Waimakariri River, which flowed too fast and cold for safe swimming.
2009. Shared Track going below State Highway 1 Waimakariri River Bridge, Christchurch
As it was Thursday afternoon, I had the shared bike / walking track to myself. I walked on shingle and mud through leafless willows and Yunan poplars, crossed gravelly Hamilton Quay, passed under the double State Highway 1 Waimakariri River Bridge, and continued along the track beside the stopbank through thousands of willows, some poplars, a few cabbage trees and karamu, Coprosma robusta. The willows looked old, and had already been chopped down, but most swamp stumps had grown new willow branches.
2009. Willows, Shared Track, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
Early spring male catkins gushed pollen, leaf buds burst, and in a week Waimakariri willows would green again. I understood the need for willows and poplars to soak up swamp water, and trap flood silt, and protect the stopbank from erosion, but I wondered when Environment Canterbury would eradicate exotic willow weeds and replace them with riparian native shrub and tree succession?
2009. North Bank Stopbank north-eastern view, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
I crossed a duckboard bridge over a dry creek, and watched a rabbit hopping along the track. Side-tracks on my right enabled me to climb the stopbank to the freshly graded shingle road on top, and look at farmland and willow / poplar views. Distant Southern Alps were covered in snow.
On one side-track I found hindquarters of a dead rabbit. As I'd passed several discarded Magnum shotgun cartridges, the rabbit was blown to bits.
2009. Half Rabbit Carcass, Northern Stopbank, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. North Bank Stopbank western view, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Shared Track Willows overlooking grass towards Hays Road, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
From the stopbank I saw noisy quarry trucks churning dust clouds on Hays Road. Dust settled on wide grass strips both sides of Hays Road. The quarry trucks were extracting shingle from Waimakariri River bed.
More willows lined the river banks. An hour of trudging over muddy MTB tracks and dog paw prints, willow after willow... became boring. Beyond an electricity pylon a direction board gave me the option:
<- SMITH STREAM LOOP
RETURN VIA STOPBANK ->
2009. Shared Track Smith Stream / Stopbank Direction Sign, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Smith Stream Flax & Willows, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Smith Stream, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. North Bank Stopbank View of Willows by Smith Stream, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
I walked beside Smith Stream still waters, clogged with water weeds and lined with willows. I disturbed two ducks which flew off. They were the only bird life I saw amongst the willows. The track climbed the stopbank, which gently S-bended for about 300 metres, with willows on one side and farmland on the other, wafting cow dung smell.
2009. North Bank S Bend in Stopbank near western end of Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Gate on Stopbank Road, western end of Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Concrete Block, Waimakariri River North Bank western view, Trail Bike Park, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Waimakari River River North Bank western view, Kaiapoi Island, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
Beyond a locked gate across the road on top of the stopbank, with strong cable fencing each side, I sidled back to Waimakariri River. Intermittently I walked through riverbank willows and big concrete blocks to look at fast flowing waters. In some places riverbank shingle was steeply eroded.
2009. Smith Stream Sign, Trail Bike Carpark, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Trail Bike Learners Area Sign, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
I crossed a dusty trail bike circuit and looped back to Smith Stream by the trail bike carpark, where I saw two more ducks in Smith Stream. I passed a trail bike rule board and a couple of easier trail bike circuits: "Learners Area 16 years and under only..." While I coolpixed an info board a quarry truck barrelled by covering me in dust.
2009. Kaiapoi Trail Bike Park Sign, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Hays Road, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
I walked on grass beside Hays Road back to my car. Every step I took, puffs of dust blew up. After several quarry trucks roared past carrying Waimakariri River shingle, and flinging dust clouds at me, I hated those trucks.
2009. Shingle Extraction Quarry Truck, Hays Road, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Recreations Sign, Hays Road, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
After a long trek over dusty grass, with some tree plantings between riverbank willows, all with planting tops chopped off, and past a mixed recreational area - kayaking, birdwatching, fishing, biking, walking - I arrived at old Hamilton Quay where I stopped at a memorial bench and cross for Marie Davis (1992-2008).
Marie was a Papanui schoolgirl murdered by a local creep, recently judged quilty at Christchurch Courts. I placed a stone on a cairn below the cross, glanced at the friendly message book in a plastic box on the cross, and watched Waimakariri waters flow downstream.
2009. Marie Davis Memorial Cross, Hamilton Quay, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Bully's Rock Plaque, by Jet Boat Ramp, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Jet Boat Info Board, Jet Boat Ramp near State Highway 1 Waimakariri River Bridge, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. Jet Boat Rules Sign, Jet Boat Ramp near State Highway 1 Waimakariri River Bridge, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
I looked at a bronze plaque below a rock commemorating "Bully's Rock..." I lingered at the Jet Boat Ramp near the state highway bridge and coolpixed boatie rule boards.
Across the river I saw Otukaikino Creek mouth spewing waters over shingle into Waimakariri River. As Otukaikino Creek went past Belfast oxidation ponds, I wondered how many fishermen, water skiers and boaties got doses of Escherichia coli downstream of Waimakariri River bridges?
2009. Jet Boat Ramp, Waimakariri River, opposite Otukaikino Creek Mouth, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
2009. North Bank Waimakariri River view of Main North Road Bridge, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
Back at my car, my walk time was 3 hours 15 minutes, several coolpix stops en route.
2009. Kaiapoi Island Sign & State Highway 1 Waimakariri River Bridge, Waimakariri River Regional Park, Christchurch
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Didymo Rock Snot (Biosecurity NZ)
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