Over 100 people helped clean up an area of coastline at Tikapa near Tikitiki after resident Graeme Atkins put the call out. Photo / Supplied
Over 100 people helped clean up an area of coastline at Tikapa near Tikitiki after resident Graeme Atkins put the call out. Photo / Supplied
“Absolutely stunned” is how Tikapa resident Graeme Atkins reacted to over 100 people helping clean up an isolated stretch of East Coast beach last weekend.
Atkins, a taiao tohunga (environment expert), put out a call on social media a couple of weeks ago asking for help to collect debris and rubbish deposited along the beach at Tikapa following ex-tropical Cyclone Hale.
Atkins lives close to the beach at Tikapa, near Tikitiki, and with the help of his whānau has been cleaning it up for the past 25 years.
After each heavy rain event, forestry slash, woody debris and rubbish wash up along the beach.
One shocking find in the wake of Hale was a huge number of crayfish and paua among the debris — a sight that brought Atkins to tears.
In his Facebook plea for help for the latest clean-up — titled “The Forgotten Beach” — Atkins got confirmation that several individuals, organisations and agencies were “stepping up” to help but was still stunned at the response.
“If someone told me on Friday that 100 people would be on our beach to help clean her up I would have thought they were bonkers. How wrong was I,” he said.
Organiser Graeme Atkins was stunned by the turn-out to a beach clean-up. Photo / Hillz Kahaki Photography
“Needless to say it was a very emotional day for my whānau and our hapū.”
The crew ranged from a nanny in her 80s and other kaumatua and kuia to several babies and toddlers. The crew worked along 8km of the beach.
“We had representation from every Coast community, plus heaps of people came up from Gizzy.”
Many of those from Jobs for Nature projects came to help out, along with people from Hawke’s Bay.
“I’m a great believer in giving credit where it’s due and top of the thankyou list must go to Heke and Henare Blackbee,” Atkins said. “If they hadn’t cleared the logs for vehicle access on to our beach and reinstated our road down to our beach, Saturday wouldn’t have happened.”
Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou provided financial support for food and water, plus koha of fuel vouchers for machinery on the day.
“Thanks to uncle Eddie Clarke for the use of one of his skip bins. [It] made life so much easier not having to travel backwards and forwards to the Ruatorea landfill with trailer loads of rubbish — a 50km round trip,” Atkins said.
“After three hours the skip bin was overflowing with rubbish and you couldn’t squeeze any more into it.”
Gisborne District Council also helped out while Mitre 10 provided its barbecue “to cook kai for everyone on . . . very much enjoyed by the many who came over home for a kai after the clean-up”.
Atkins said it was also “great to finally get some representation from the forestry industry”.
Two companies helped out, he said, and it was “so good for them to see what we have to put up with in regard to their activities”.
“To the many people who gave putea for the kaupapa, it was much appreciated and was enjoyed right to the wee smalls around our fire.
“A big hearty thank you to all the people who helped clean our beach. No longer the ‘Forgotten Beach’ . . . right now the most beautiful beach in the world.
“As a veteran of many beach clean-ups I can safely say that the amounts of rubbish ending up on our beach are decreasing.
“In the past, with a storm of the magnitude of Cyclone Hale, we could’ve expected to fill two or three skip bins with rubbish,” he said.
“All this rubbish is locally derived. So keep getting those important messages out there, whānau.
“Stop throwing your rubbish out the car window. Put it in the bin when you get home and stop using our awa as your private landfill.”
