By ANGELA GREGORY and ANNE BESTON
Jack Mountain first thought the floating debris off his Far North farm was a giant tree.
Now he is left with the problem of 14 huge paper rolls that litter the coastline of his farm on the Purerua Peninsula.
"It's a disaster, looks disgusting - a damn nuisance," he said yesterday, surveying the beach from his farm, which is listed as a scenic spot in the Far North District Council's district plan.
"My farm dogs think they are something to pee on."
The rolls are among 29 littering the Bay of Islands coastline as the ocean gives up some of the tonnes of cargo tossed off a container ship in stormy weather last Saturday.
The Malaysian vessel Bunga Kenari lost six containers carrying the rolls, refrigerated products or wool.
Mr Mountain found the first 11 of the nearly 2m-long tatty and peeling paper rolls on Monday morning.
Another three washed up yesterday and 15 rolls were spotted by air along nearby coast.
For nearly seven hours on Monday, Mr Mountain and his son Shane battled strong winds and a 2.5m swell to drag the rolls by tractor out of the surf and past the high-water mark.
It was like moving giant cylindrical toy blocks in a sandpit.
"They weren't easy to move."
Mr Mountain is still worried about boats in the popular recreational area hitting undiscovered rolls.
"They could still be bobbing around all over the place."
Mr Mountain, whose family have owned the 344ha farm at the northern end of the Bay of Islands since the 19th century, is upset that the otherwise pretty Te Puna Inlet has been left looking like a dump.
Polystyrene and aluminium debris that he suspects came from the smashed-up containers is also strewn on the beach.
He said the Northland Regional Council had offered help to clear the mess, while Carter Holt Harvey, which owns the rolls, was willing to pay him $80 a tonne to cart them away.
"Otherwise I will have to dig a hole in the sand and bury them."
Some of the rolls of kraft lining - a type of heavy industrial packaging - are marked as weighing up to 2000kg each, and despite two days in the sea, are mostly dry from the middle out and in remarkably good condition.
Carter Holt could not be reached for comment, but Mr Mountain understood the rolls were worth about $2000 each.
The council harbourmaster, Captain Ian Niblock, said an extensive aerial search of the Bay of Islands had found rolls washed up on rocky outcrops in the Kerikeri and Te Puna inlets, and one roll in a cove at Cape Wikiwiki.
The rolls would be difficult to retrieve, but it must be done otherwise they would disintegrate and the paper would blow everywhere.
Captain Niblock said a Carter Holt representative had told him the company was keen to retrieve the rolls and reprocess them.
Three of the six containers carried the rolls, and he was still trying to establish how many were missing. Fortunately, bad weather meant few boats were out in the bay.
"Our biggest concern is that there is still another container floating out there below the surface. But it is possible the other three containers sank, as they were much heavier."
Auckland harbourmaster James McPetrie said containers falling off ships in bad weather was an international problem.
"Anything can end up in the water and almost everything comes by container these days, whether it's explosives or deckchairs."
In May last year, the Union Rotoiti lost 12 containers on a trip from Sydney.
Mr McPetrie said containers with dangerous goods were usually put on the deck as it was considered more dangerous to put them in the hold.
Farmer Jack has a 28-tonne headache
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