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New Zealand Coastal Geography

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New Zealand Coastal Geography

A kiwi recovery team is planning work near the coast. Use the field notes and location information below to investigate how New Zealand’s coasts work and how people can care for them.

Read the field notes

Talia and Rawiri are helping a kiwi recovery team at a fictional North Island coastal reserve. Their reserve includes dunes, a sheltered estuary and a rocky headland. Salt-laden wind blows sand inland, while waves and currents shift sediment along the shore. Native dune plants help hold sand in place. The estuary is where freshwater from a stream mixes with seawater; its sheltered mudflats provide feeding habitat for birds and young fish. After a storm, the team finds a worn path through the dunes and plastic caught among driftwood. They plan to guide visitors onto a marked track, remove rubbish safely and monitor the dunes before deciding whether planting is needed.

1.In the field notes, what is an estuary, and name one habitat benefit it provides.

2.Which action most directly helps reduce damage to the dunes from visitors?

Make a marked track and encourage visitors to stay on it
Remove all driftwood from the beach
Build a seawall across the estuary
Allow visitors to make new paths

3.Explain how native dune plants help shape or protect the coast.

Locate and interpret coastal places

Use these approximate north-to-south locations around Aotearoa New Zealand: Bay of Islands is in the far north; Wellington Harbour is in the lower North Island; Banks Peninsula is on the east coast of the South Island; Milford Sound is on the southwest coast of the South Island. These locations are for comparing relative positions, not measuring distances.

4.Using the location information, which named coastal place is farthest south?

5.Te Whanganui-a-Tara is the Māori name for which place in the location information?

Wellington Harbour
Bay of Islands
Banks Peninsula
Milford Sound

6.Using the field notes, identify two processes that can move sediment or reshape the coast.

7.Why should a schematic location guide that is not to scale not be used to estimate real-world distances?

Make a kaitiakitanga decision

The recovery team recorded these observations after a storm. Use the data to decide what should happen next.

Site

Observation

Dune access

Two informal paths; sand visibly loose around both

Estuary edge

Bird feeding area beside a popular shortcut

Beach

Plastic litter caught in driftwood after the storm

8.Which two actions would best protect both the dune and estuary habitats? Choose two and explain how each helps.

9.The team wants to know whether its marked track is helping. Suggest one thing to measure or record over time and explain what a useful result might show.

10.In this coastal project, what does kaitiakitanga mean in practice? Give one action from the scenario that demonstrates it.