The fight to save a beach

'It is huge what they have done'

Te Rauone Beach last week.

There is a watercolour, dated February, 1840, which is believed to be the first picture painted of eastern Otago.

It shows Te Rauone Beach, on the Otago Peninsula “dotted with Maori whares and food platforms, and two French vessels and several whalers lying in the stream”. (Otago Daily Times, June 28, 1944).

It is an idyllic image, but the beach has not fared as well. Compare it with this stark submission regarding the same location 180 years later:

“Te Rauone Beach has had a history of sand loss and beach realignment over the past century.”

But that is changing.