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Revealed: Auckland s dirtiest beaches
Revealed: Auckland s dirtiest beaches Sun, 22 Jan 2017, 6:55AM
Swimming has been banned at 10 Auckland beaches this summer because of worsening pollution from human and animal wastes.
Permanent signs declaring that the water is not safe for swimming went up at the start of summer at Laingholm and Wood Bay near Titirangi, the north and south lagoons at Piha, and at the Bethells Beach lagoon - all popular swimming spots for children too young to swim in the wild west coast surf.
Auckland Council has now stopped routine monitoring of water quality at all five sites, as well as at five other beaches that already had permanent warning signs - Cox s Bay, Meola Reef, Weymouth, the Wairau Stream outlet at Milford Beach and Little Oneroa lagoon on Waiheke Island.
Te Henga dream site for Te Kawerau a Maki marae 22 Dec 2020 14:51 PM Photo: Wikipedia.
Te Kawerau ā Maki chair Te Warena Taua says the transfer of a five-acre block at Te Henga/ Bethells Beach for a dream realised.
The iwi lived in the area until about 1920, but their kainga was hit by floods after the building of water storage dams in the Waitākere Ranges.
Mr Taua says the land was very important to Te Kawerau, and he acknowledges the contribution of John Wheeler, a descendant of the original Bethell settler family, and his friend Eli Friedlander. They were the last, under the Pākehā system, legal owners of the land, and he came to me and said Te Warena, I m calling you from hospital. He said his aunt came to him in a dream and said you need to sell this land to Kawerau. So here we are today. It took a long time, over 20 years, he says.