A Thing of Beauty

The Coromandel’s long coastline, mountainous backbone, islands, rivers and wetlands make for a wild backyard. Home to a rich biodiversity and a wealth of natural resources, it is a region where you are always close to nature. And the closer you are, the more connected you feel to the living ecosystem that breathes here, one that has nurtured human visitors for centuries.

Have you ever stopped to think that our towns and settlements are nestled between great areas of protected landscapes, and the 400km long coastline of Tīkapa Moana and the Pacific?  We’re effectively living in a national park, something that has become the backdrop for our communities and our existence. There’s growing acknowledgment that nature must return as the focus, rather than remaining as the beautiful, wild backdrop. That locals must coexist in this environment, not to sustain nature but to help it regenerate and thrive.

We are proud of the fact that there are no multi-storey hotels on our beaches or on our predator-free islands and marine reserve, that shelter wild underwater communities. The Coromandel is home to taonga like the scallop, the Archey's frog and countless other treasures, the natural riches of the land and sea that continue to feed our souls.

A combination of complex volcanic geology, dense forest and wetlands means diverse local climates, and a large number of plants and animals make their home in The Coromandel, some of them are found nowhere else.  Subalpine plants cling to the summit of sacred Moehau and regenerating rewarewa, kāmahi, kānuka and mānuka forests cover the lower slopes of the Coromandel Range, but the original kahikatea forest, flax and raupō has all but disappeared.

The Coromandel is one of the few New Zealand regions where kiwi numbers are growing, yet there are more than 107 threatened species (51 plants and 56 animals) living within our great green canopy. Archey’s frogs, one of only four frogs native to New Zealand, live in The Coromandel, and the Moehau stag beetle is found only in the northern part of our peninsula.  But we may never have heard of most of the species in a precarious state.

Some of our offshore islands are sanctuaries for birds. Whanganui Island in Coromandel Harbour is a breeding place for the endangered North Island weka. Other islands such as Atiu/Middle and Green Islands in the Mercury Group have never had introduced predators established and they are internationally significant.  They give us a window into life in the time of the great navigator Kupe, and inspiration for how this place could again flourish.

Being part of the wild beauty of this place is our privilege, and it is also in our nature to engage.

Our hunter-gatherer culture is increasingly popular as we look to our backyard as our local supermarket, and to fill our basket with good times, fishing, surfing, hiking and biking.

Those who dive below the surface or venture off the beaten track may be intent on forging a path, leaving more than a footprint. To understand that human impacts on and around our forest canopy will consequently effect the surrounding ocean life, is to understand that everything is connected. While many are happily oblivious to the poor state of much of our biodiversity, with conservation edging towards mainstream the balance of human influence will tip towards the positive. It is then that our surroundings will truly thrive.  And so will those of us who have the privilege to live here and visit.

Many people in our communities do connect with nature, take care, restore and protect the sensitive places in their backyards. We have a solid conservation history with predator management being a key focus. The Hauraki Coromandel Forest Park is surrounded by more than 100 community conservation projects, many of long-standing, and areas of private land protected forever. 

The Predator Free Hauraki Coromandel Community Trust (PFHCCT) supports more than 60 community conservation groups in The Coromandel under the national Predator Free programme. This regional conservation project covers an area of almost 286,000, from Moehau to Te Aroha. Projects planting kauri, restoring wetlands, cleaning up beaches, trapping backyard pests.

We have the privilege of sharing this beautiful habitat and we must make a positive impact. The recovering number of kiwi in The Coromandel gives a great assessment of and focus on the health of our place.  As an environmental health indicator species, the kiwi represents everything we love about our wild home.  We even have our own identifiable Coromandel taxon or whanau of kiwi.

With so much more to do, you too can connect and engage with local initiatives that invite you to help restore our home for the kiwi, and leave more than your footprint behind.