Important information regarding flying from the NW Face, Otakamiro Point, Muriwai - 19 January 2025

 As some members will know, immediately before Christmas we were finally successful in obtaining Auckland Council's permission to again use the NW Face launch site on Otakamiro Point at Muriwai.

However, it transpired that the track access that Council proposed we use was totally unworkable.

I subsequently met with Wallis, one of the Council rangers, walked the area and proposed an alternative that involved cutting a new access path through 90m of head-high flax. Wallis obtained Council agreement to this proposal, so a big thank you to the efforts of Wallis, Joe Ward, Evan & Janice Lamberton & Robbo Robinson who helped cut this new path and also cleared an area of the previous launch site on Tuesday 14 January.

Apart from issues arising out of last year’s cyclone that caused the Council to close public access to Muriwai, there is another reason Council has been reluctant to allow the resumption of public access to Otakamiro Point:  For more than ten years it has been known that a small number of grey-faced petrels have been nesting in the small forested valley on Otakamiro Point. As a result of volunteer activity pest control by locals, less human activity through Covid, and the recent closure due to slips, the number of grey-faced petrels is slowly increasing, with a second species of petrel also now being found at the site. 

The petrels come ashore at night, nesting under the roots of the trees in the forested valley, which is along the route that we've previously been using to access the NW Face. Their breeding cycle means the adult petrels and/or chicks are present for two-thirds of the year. Human activity and pests, including dogs, are the major deterrent to the petrels’ continued existence.

Hence the Council is trying to restrict public access to this area and why it is essential that we stick to the new track delineated in the attached map. The start of this new track is marked with blue tape on some flax at the top of a bank alongside the well-used public track between the road to the Maukatia carpark and Muriwai beach proper. From there the track continues west past the water tanks (Photo 1) and up a short rise (Photo 2) to where the new cut track starts (Photo 3 ), again marked with a blue tape. 

N.B. Both ends of the track are deliberately poorly defined as Council is keen that it doesn’t become heavily used by the public – please do not be tempted to cut back the vegetation at these entrances.

Over the period that the launch site has been closed there has been substantial growth of flax and other vegetation that made it much more difficult to take off. Council has allowed us to undertake some limited clearing of vegetation to re-establish the launch site, but please do not carry out any additional vegetation clearance, especially given the amount of interest in the area by local conservationists, pest control volunteers, Council and Iwi. In particular, please take care not to damage the historic kumara pits located at the rear of the launch site (these now appear as small depressions in the ground).

For any queries please contact:

Tony Seaman

AHGPC Council Liaison

tony@promoco.co.nz

0274 933023