There is no doubt Ngunguru Sandspit should be kept as a regional park. People all over New Zealand are fighting to save coastal areas from development. The groups are usually small, community based organizations with little or no funding. It appears members of the public are fighting battles the regional and central governments should be fighting. It is time each and every one of us asked 'What can I do to help'. It is up to you and I to network amongst friends and colleagues, write to the government and councils, and get active and support the groups trying to save our precious coastlines. www.savetearai.co.nz

we have visited the tutukaka coast several times over the last 5 years and are incredulous that anyone - including local govrnment - would even consider developement of a pristine coastal area like Nunguru Sandspit.The infrastructural requirements(sewage collection and treatment and roading)would completely destroy the untouched nature of the sandspit.Furthermore,the earthworks for seawalls and other installations to protect the homes of the kinds of people who would want to lve in such a place would be a visual crime.Such people are already well catered for in places such as Pauanui and the Gold Coast(Shudder!!)
Keep up the fight.

My Family has lived in Ngunguru for the last 70 years and I have had the pleasure of being able to take my family back home to Ngunguru on many many occasions. The Sandspit has brought my family very many special memories. I must admit after recently visiting Ngunguru it's starting to look like Mission Bay. Ngunguru no longer looks like an untouched paradise. I think the sandspit should be left as it is for the animals that live on it, for our children and for the environment. Stop thinking about money for a second and think about what natural environment will be left after all the housing is to be completed. What will happen to the sea life that surrounds the sandspit??? If you want city life, go live in Auckland!!

Don't let them take away our Ngunguru sandspit! Fight for it! There are endangered native birds who have made home on the sandspit after there old homes were destroyed in the same situation as this! Do all you can! Try your best! Stop these devolopers and save our endangered New Zealand dotterel bird!!
I wish you the best!
Emma Bowering

My mother has resided in Ngunguru for at least the last 10 years and i have visited fished and collected shell fish from the Ngunguru estuary and sand spit since i was a child, and it realy disapoints and angers me that developers want to take such a beautiful and very important part of the enviromental food chain as well as the significant historical importance and turn the Ngunguru sandspit into bloody high rise buildings. Some people must have rocks in their heads and are far to involved in lining their pockets. The sand spit is not a very big area and to strip it of vegitation which is important to nesting sea birds will make the sand move in effect eroding the sandspit. With the ever rising waters it won't matter how much the developers try to build up the sandspit it will all fall into the ocean, think about that before you purchase a section on the sandspit. The local Maori IWI of the area must be furious and i hope that the minister for Maori affairs is very vocal about this in parliment, the historical significance to the local Maori hisory and beliefs is very important to keep the culture alive. I now live in Australia but my mother keeps me well informed in the Ngunguru sandspit situation every phone call and i get more frustrated, so i just wanted to get on my soap box and let people out there know that your voice is being heard across the Tasman. Keep up the fight, never qui...

From July 1996 to July 1997 I was on the Youth for Understanding exchange to New Zealand. I got to stay with the wonderful Power Family who then owned the Sea Breeze Motel. Many exchange students would have found it, let's say, rather calm in Ngunguru. But I loved it! And, guess, what I did and enjoyed most throughout that year: already in July, the people of Ngunguru thought me crazy, I used to swim across the estuary river to then walk across the sand spit to the far side. When my mother joined me to visit my host family and Nunguru in 2000 I took her over there on a dinghy. She loved it, too! The great landscape with only a few people at the beach. I can only say, this is what I dream of again and again, even though I'm perfectly settled back here in Germany. You know, if I wanted crowded beaches with lots of houses or huge hotels I could go to Mallorca/ Spain. I needn't go that far. Don't repeat the mistakes that have been done over here. Preserve the sand spit. This is what especially tourists come to NZ for. And, myself, I call it home. If there is any way I can support you, let me know.

Claudia Bublak

My family stayed at Ngunguru many years ago, and we enjoyed an iconic Kiwi summer holiday staying at the local motel - learning to paddle a raft, exploring the spit, swimming and running wild as Kiwi kids are supposed to.

Keep these beach landscapes for all Kiwis, not just the wealthy. Our beachscape is disappearing, and a Kiwi way of life is being destroyed. This represents our nationhood just as much as the high country in the South Island. We should invest in preserving Ngunguru for all New Zealanders.

Save the spit so that my kids can enjoy the same Ngunguru experience that my generation did. Don't price Ngunguru out of the reach of ordinary Kiwis.

Chris and Glenys Carter
and Avalon (3) and baby Dane (7 months).

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