In 1981, a Tasman-wide survey found Kaiteriteri/Marahau and Rabbit Island to be the most popular beaches, while the Lee and Roding were the most popular rivers. A total of 287 people were interviewed at river and sea beach locations known to be popular on the four most popular bathing days of the summer. The Roding River at Twin Bridges and Busch Reservations had by far the greatest use.
Waterfront erosion, or slipping into the river, was a problem for about a quarter of the respondents. While these two studies were useful and a large amount of information was produced in the case of the Waimea study, the methods used did not provide definitive information on the relative use of particular sites. Waimea River (Barlett's Rd to SH60) > Takaka River at Kotinga > Waimea SH60 to mouth > Roding River at White Gates > Wairoa River 300m upstream Lee River = Motueka River at Penninsula Br = Kaihoka Lakes > Lee River at Firestone Reserve = Motueka River at Alexander Bridge > Lee River 400 m downstream Lee Reserve = Motueka River at Durants = Motueka River at Whakarewa St = Motueka River at Blue Gum corner to 200 m downstream.
User Numbers
For Roding and Lee Rivers consumption dropped below 200 vehicles/day after 6 January, likely due to wet weather. The second highest consumption was the period from 30 December to and including 5 January, when over vehicles in total for 12 hours until 19.00 every day). For the Roding River, the number of vehicles counted in the peak week was almost 2700 and almost 2800 for these two week periods respectively.
From field observations at several locations in the Waimea catchment on 6 February, the estimated number of people steadily increased from approx. 440 people at 13:00 to on top of approx. 1500 people around 15:30 (Figure 4). Unfortunately, we are unable to compare the swimming site use rates relative to population for the Nelson-Richmond-Waimea Plains area for the full season listed in Table 1 for 1985-86, which appear to be inaccurate, probably due to the lack of site. counting. We have chosen that in the 1985-86 season there were an average of 5.4 swimming days per population in the Waimea catchment throughout the season.
Aniseed Valley Rd, 6 Feb
February 2nd was the peak weekday and February 6th was the peak weekend day of the season. In 1986, the Lee River was the most popular river swimming spot, while the 2010-11 survey showed that the Roding River was clearly the most popular (Table 1). This is probably due to the sealing of the roads, acquisition of additional reserves and provision of more and better facilities than were present in 1985-86.
Also, the methods used to estimate the total number of users over the season based on the vehicle count over 2.5 months are not known and the raw data is not available for recalculation. This previous data is disproportionate to the vehicle count data compared to the 2010-2011 season, i.e. it appears that the number of swimmers has dropped by about half (115.00 plus another 10,000 for the remainder of the season ), but the raw number of vehicles has increased almost 1.5 times (see Table 2). In this study, it was estimated that there is 2.0 swimming per capita in this basin during the period from December 17 to February 27.
Aniseed Valley Rd, 2 Feb
On-site scores from Twin Bridges/Busch Reserve and Lee Reserve site users are marked as red diamonds on the chart. No new reserves along the Lee River have been acquired since 1986, but there have been minor upgrades.
Lee Valley Rd, 6 Feb
Lee Valley Rd, 2 Feb
The median of total (24 hours) traffic to Rabbit Island (December 17 - February 27) is approximately three times greater than for recreational traffic (total minus number of baselines) on the Roding, Lee and Wairoa combined (assuming the background traffic is removed from each traffic counter site). Traffic to Rabbit Island is even more dominated by weekend or holiday traffic than to Roding or Lee Valley, with weekend peaks about 2-4 times the average for the previous week. Even when the base count (wet weather count of about 400 vehicles per day) is subtracted, Rabbit Island usage is still much higher than the Roding or Lee Valleys.
Traffic meters on the approaches to and on Rabbit Island show a clear pattern that most people (over 80%) go to the reserves on the main beach (Figure 6). Water skiing and boating at Rabbit Island's Back Beach (accessed from Boat Ramp Road): The average percentage of traffic crossing Redwood Rd going to Boat Ramp Rd is only 3.5%. Rabbit Island Main Beach: The average percentage of traffic crossing Redwood Rd going to Rabbit Island Main Beach is 78%.
On-site surveys
The rest of the non-local users were scattered from many other places in New Zealand. This is probably due to the need for local knowledge to find many of the river's swimming holes. Across all sites, over 80% of respondents swam at the site where they were interviewed on the day of the interview (<20% on site but not swimming).
The small majority (42%) of the respondents considered the water temperature to be "very important" or "important" (Appendix 2). This has implications for what we consider the start and end of the swimming season. The water temperature of the Roding River upstream of the Hackett Swimming Hole (data record: 2003-11) is more variable than seawater locations, but peaks at a similar time of year (Figure 11b).
The presence of motorboats making noise, creating real or perceived safety risk or taking up space in the water or on the beach was the most evenly split of any of the factors discussed (Figure 15). This was a "very important" factor for young (<19) people and "very unimportant" for almost half of those people over 50. Ensuring the safety of the users of rope swings was not discussed in the survey , but most are set by private individuals and they are rarely tested or maintained.
Some of the people who didn't want dogs and the beach/hole were dog owners themselves. The impact of the proposed Lee Dam near the falls of the creek, approximately 11 km upstream of the confluence of the Lee and Roding Rivers, may have little or no effect on the cooling temperature of the river water or the reduction of stream flow. download. Releasing a lot of fresh, nutrient-rich water from the bottom of the tank would not be as desirable for swimmers.
This is the situation that disturbs many swimmers we spoke to as part of the survey who use the Maitai River. As proposed under the Lee River scheme regime, there will be more water in the lower reaches of the Lee, Wairoa and all Waimea rivers, which will benefit. Enforcement action was taken against these discharges and it is expected that this situation will be a thing of the past.
Comments made by Survey Respondents
Concerns about gravel mining affecting the health of the river and giving it the feel of an industrial area. The land is in a road reserve, but a short section at the SE end of Haycock Road, which accesses this site, is privately owned. More concern for the shore at the beach, as it is going away, e.g. more vegetation to protect against erosion.
Also very dangerous on Rabbit Island with kites, kite surfers, land yachts and dune buggies as they don't care about the people around them Dogs. More signage is needed to discourage people from bringing their dogs to the beach. Nudists: Rabbit Island is a family beach and not a nudist beach, they have to go to Mapua for that.
Something needs to be done about the sex shacks at the southern end of the beach. The highway has been good for the people of the Mapua campground and made it a lot quieter. Restrooms in the Mapua Grossi Point Ruby Bay area require more regular cleaning and maintenance.
Announcements can be made a few minutes before reaching the beach rather than almost at the beach. Would like to see better control of the erosion of the banks and monitoring of the bacteria levels. Parking spaces on both sides of the road are often full in the peak season and overflow parking along the highway has very little space.
We would like to see toilets on Selwyn St, Pohara (the seafront road at the western end of the built-up area) near the beach access.
Recommendations
Appendices
Appendix One A: Methods The Sites
Pig Valley Rd ~500m upstream Wairoa Rv Lee Valley Rd upstream of Wairoa Rv Wairoa Valley Rd upstream of Lee Valley Rd. Roding River first crossing at the base of Aniseed Hill (east side) Rabbit Is - start of Boat Ramp Rd. Rabbit Is - Ken Beck Drive (main road) just past Boat Ramp Road Rabbit Is - Redwood Road before the bridge to Rough Island.
The median was used to rank sites in popularity classes, unless the median was zero, in which case the median was used. A Newsline article about the survey was published (for all Tasmanians) just before Christmas to raise awareness and target potential respondents.
Appendix One B: Survey Questionnaire Form
Appendix Two: The main activity carried out by the respondent at the site of the interview
Appendix Two: Main activity performed by the respondent at the place of interview. blue = numbers listing activity, red = number listing this as main activity) 0%.
Appendix Three: The importance of various factors affecting the experience of swimmers
Appendix Four: Comments about specific sites
Appendix Five: Approximate Route of Aerial Survey
Appendix Six: Workings to Calculate Numbers of Swimmers Over a Day
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Roding River
Traffic Patterns On Weekdays - Roding River
Appendix Seven A: Weekend (top) and weekday (bottom) traffic patterns for the Roding River. Appendix Seven B: Weekend (top) and weekday (bottom) traffic patterns for the River Lee.
Appendix Seven B: Traffic patterns over weekend (top) and week days (bottom) for the Lee River
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Lee River
Traffic Patterns On Weekdays - Lee River
Appendix Seven C: Weekend (top) and weekday (bottom) traffic patterns for the Wairoa River.
Appendix Seven C: Traffic patterns over weekends (top) and week days (bottom) for the Wairoa River
Traffic Patterns On Weekdays - Wairoa River
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Wairoa River
Appendix Eight: Rabbit Island Weekend Traffic for the Six Highest-Use Weekends
Traffic Patterns On Weekends 2010-11 - Rabbit Island
Ken Beck Dr)
Appendix Nine: Rabbit Island Beach Weekend Traffic and Tide Times for the Six Peak Use Weekends.
Appendix Nine: Rabbit Island’s Back Beach Weekend Traffic and Tide Time for the Six Highest-Use Weekends
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Rabbit Island Back Beach 25-26 Jan
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Rabbit Island Back Beach 1-2 Jan
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Rabbit Island Back Beach 8-9 Jan
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Rabbit Island Back Beach 15-16 Jan
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Rabbit Island Back Beach 5-6 Feb
Traffic Patterns On Weekends - Rabbit Island Back Beach 19-20 Feb
