Te Kākahu Kahukura is a large scale collaboration of landowners, residents, organisations and agencies on the southern Port Hills.
The vision is that by 2050 the Southern Port Hills has a thriving and resilient indigenous forest supporting an abundance of native birds and invertebrates. The area will be a taonga for the Ōtautahi / greater Christchurch and adjoining communities to value, protect and engage with.
The project will help to facilitate and co-ordinate native forest revegetation and restoration on the Southern Port Hills. Around the core area of regenerating forest, landowners are encouraged to plant native plants and do pest and weed control in a way which supports a thriving indigenous forest plant community and allows native birds and other native fauna to move through the landscape.
As part of the Banks Peninsula and Port Hills/Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū Ecological Vision 2050, Te Kākahu Kahukura will contribute to the social, cultural and economic, as well as environmental wellbeing of the community of greater Christchurch – a community that is connected, resilient and healthy.
The focus of Te Kākahu Kahukura is south of Victoria Park/ Rāpaki, extending towards Gebbies Pass, from the plains to Whakaraupō / Lyttelton Harbour, including Ōtamahua/Quail Island.
The Southern Port Hills and Ōtamahua/Quail Island provide a unique opportunity for a large forested area on the doorstep of metropolitan Christchurch and its surrounding townships. While a substantial area on the Port Hills was affected by catastrophic fires in February 2017, the development of Te Kākahu Kahukura allows us to build on the collaborative projects that developed after the fire, as well as the substantial biodiversity work that was already underway, to plan for the regeneration and revegetation of the fire affected areas.
The project area already contains significant areas of existing and regenerating native forest and shrublands within reserves administered under the Reserves Act and private land under Covenants. In addition to the reserves and other protected areas on the hills, Ōtamahua/Quail Island also has a critical role to play in Te Kākahu Kahukura.
There are no hard and fast boundaries to the project – anyone is invited to participate, but the core area has been chosen as a matter of practicality and because it already contains significant areas of existing and regenerating native forest.
Kākahu means to dress or clothe as well as being a generic name for clothing and garments. It also references the actions of Tāne Mahuta in clothing his mother Papatūānuku following the separation from his father Ranginui.
Kahukura is a significant atua known in Ngāi Tahu traditions as being responsible for cloaking the wreckage of Te Waka o Aoraki with plants, forests and swamps, and populating these places with all the varieties of indigenous birds that dwell there.
Kahukura is particularly important to the creation of the forests of Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū/Banks Peninsula and is remembered through the naming of a number of prominent peaks of the Port Hills including Te Tihi o Kahukura (Castle Rock) and Te Heru o Kahukura (Sugarloaf).
Visit http://www.tekakahu.org.nz/ for more information.
