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Hawkes Bay hapu Ngati Hori ki Kohupatiki has joined with Fish & Game, Whitewater NZ and Jet Boating NZ to seek a water conservation order for the Ngaruroro and Clive rivers.
The order, if granted by the Environment Minister, would be New Zealand’s 16th.
It would give the rivers National Park-type protection.
The Ngaruroro River rises high in the Kaimanawa Ranges and emerges onto the Heretaunga plains at Whanawhana before flowing through Hawke’s Bay into the Pacific Ocean at Clive, just south of Napier.
The Clive River is the old bed of the Ngaruroro at the mouth.
The application seeks to protect the Ngaruroro catchment from the source to the sea in its near-natural state and will not displace existing operative water resource consents.
Ngati Hori ki Kohupatiki chair Margaret McGuire says the application recognises the Ngaruroro’s significance to Ngati Hori, and Ngati Kahungunu generally, and strengthens the hapu’s efforts to restore the mana and mauri of the waterways.
Fish & Game’s Bryce Johnson says anglers treasure the upper Ngaruroro catchment because of its outstanding backcountry rainbow trout fishery, spectacular scenery and some of the clearest water in the country.
It also has two outstanding whitewater rafting and kayaking trips, and the lower braided reaches provide habitat for equally rare species of indigenous birds and freshwater fish.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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