Kaitorete Spit, Canterbury, New Zealand
A bank of sand and shingle separating Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) from the Pacific Ocean, the Kaitorete Spit is nearly 30 kilometres long. It was once an important route for Māori travelling from Banks Peninsula to southern settlements. The remains of camps, ovens and middens can still be found along the spit.
The spit (actually a barrier formation) is an impressive landform. It was formed about 5000 years ago by gravels transported by the Rakaia River and pushed into place by the Pacific Ocean.
It’s the largest remaining area in New Zealand of native sand binder/pingao, a bright-orange plant prized for weaving. Kaitorete is also home to other threatened plants and animals, some of which are unique to this location, such as woollyhead Crapspedia ‘Kaitorete’, and a flightless moth! It’s a fantastic place to spot katipo spiders and lizards too. The dune landscape has in paces been altered by pastoral development, nevertheless the spit is a wide, open, wind-swept landscape very desert-like in its appearance and features and plant adaptations. It is the driest place in Canterbury. A great many shore and wading birds frequent the spit and Lake Ellesmere and some, including terns and dotterels, breed on the shingle and sand flats along its length.
Kaitorete Spit, Canterbury, New Zealand
A bank of sand and shingle separating Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) from the Pacific Ocean, the Kaitorete Spit is nearly 30 kilometres long. It was once an important route for Māori travelling from Banks Peninsula to southern settlements. The remains of camps, ovens and middens can still be found along the spit.
The spit (actually a barrier formation) is an impressive landform. It was formed about 5000 years ago by gravels transported by the Rakaia River and pushed into place by the Pacific Ocean.
It’s the largest remaining area in New Zealand of native sand binder/pingao, a bright-orange plant prized for weaving. Kaitorete is also home to other threatened plants and animals, some of which are unique to this location, such as woollyhead Crapspedia ‘Kaitorete’, and a flightless moth! It’s a fantastic place to spot katipo spiders and lizards too. The dune landscape has in paces been altered by pastoral development, nevertheless the spit is a wide, open, wind-swept landscape very desert-like in its appearance and features and plant adaptations. It is the driest place in Canterbury. A great many shore and wading birds frequent the spit and Lake Ellesmere and some, including terns and dotterels, breed on the shingle and sand flats along its length.