Exploring The Upper Heathcote

E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga karangataha maha o nga hau e wha tenei te mihi ki a koutou, ki nga tipuna kua haere ki te po, haere, haere, haere atu ra. Ki te hau kainga, Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe, Ngai Tahu he mihi, he mhihi, he mihi. Ki Ngai Tuahuriri te kaitiaki o te awa he mihi. Usually I work at Hillmorton High School teaching science, horticulture, Te Reo Maori and working with whanau students. This year I had the good fortune to be awarded a Royal Society Teaching Fellowship. This has given me a year’s sabbatical and time to pursue two interests, the natural world and taha Maori. I have concentrated my research on the Upper Heathcote River and its environs because this is where I live and work. I want to get an understanding of the natural processes and human activities that have changed the landscape.

Maori have a long association - over 1000 years -with the Upper Heathcote River. A number of settlements were established beside the river because it was a source of fresh spring water, it was a mahinga kai resource producing eels, mud eels, native trout, aruhe (fern root) and kiore (native rat), and it was a pathway to Lake Waihora. The river meandered through large swamps where harakeke (flax), toetoe (sedge grass) and raupo (bullrush) grew in abundance. These plants had a myriad of uses but one interesting use unique to the South Island was the manufacture of reed crafts or boats called mokihi. In fact the Ngai Tahu name for the Upper Heathcote was Waimokihi, the river of reed boats.

The river’s role changed dramatically after Pakeha settlement. Some of the trivia I have collected and enjoyed so far:

• Did you know that in the 1880s Sunnyside Hospital would dispose of its sewage directly into the Upper Heathcote River? This effluent would float pass Spreydon School which was then charged by the District Health Board to improve the infectious disease rate of its pupils!
• On Mondays the Heathcote River would run “blue”. Women would boil the week’s wash in their coppers and then rinse the whites in Rickett’s Blue. This solid block of cobalt blue dye was encased in a little white cotton bag and slowly dissolved out into the rinsing water making the clothes ‘whiter than white’. All the wastewater from the whole area then emptied into the Heathcote River.
• The water of the Heathcote River was not always polluted. The name of the bridge over the Heathcote River at Lincoln Road was Watercress Bridge. A John Leaf Wilson leased the Upper Heathcote mill from Cracroft Wilson and he was required to keep the race clear of watercress. When Cracroft Wilson applied for permission to dam the river for his flour mill, he was required to erect a fish ladder.
• Kids in the 1930s would paddle in the springs at Lincoln Road and they loved to watch the cones of sand form above the springs. They would swim in the river and used kerosene tins as boats.

I have read a lot, learnt heaps and I am amazed that so many developments, such as the City Council’s restoration projects, have gone unnoticed by me for so long.

Jacky Tonkin