Mrs Henry, a community champion in the Coromandel, now sits as chairwoman on Sea Change's access roundtable. Among other tasks, the roundtable has been investigating how the so-called "commons" of the gulf, those areas for all of us, can be preserved and improved.
It seeks to tackle barriers such as affordability and physical access, exclusive uses and landowner restrictions.
About 58 per cent of the 2500km-long gulf coastline is adjacent to publicly owned land or roads, though it is not clear just how much of the coast the public can access.
Importantly, she said, the group is searching for ways that the impact of human activity can be reduced, in the face of projections forecasting the gulf region's population will grow to some 2.3 million people by 2031.
"Our big blue backyard provides a wealth of experiences from busy, vibrant, high urban use to smaller destinations where you step back in time - places offering a nature experience on an island or in a marine reserve, to others that provide a remote peaceful wilderness," Mrs Henry said.
"This is also a place with commercial fishing boats, aquaculture industry, container vessels, and cruise liners working alongside pleasure craft, small boats and yachts, kayaks and paddle boards."
Recreational boat ownership in the gulf is increasing with population, and trailer boat numbers are growing by around 3 per cent each year, while the number of jetskis, small yachts and kayaks is rising by up to 10 per cent each year.
The holiday tourist influx to Coromandel also sees the region's population of 27,100 swell by six times that - and visitor numbers are expected to increase in future.
In trying to come up with solutions for what all of this will mean, the roundtable began with a clean sheet of paper.
"Knowledge has come from listening to what people have said and from information available from studies done on many aspects of recreational, commercial and environmental values and uses of the gulf," Mrs Henry said.
"There were no expectations about what we would find and probably no surprises, but the process has drawn the many threads of knowledge into one place to provide the base for recommendations on how to preserve and enhance access to the gulf."
What was missing, she said, was an over-arching "sense of place" - that the gulf belonged to everyone, and we all had a role in caring for it.
Her group's work, which will be presented next month, is linked to another roundtable focused on infrastructure.
This covers economic assets like ports, recreational assets like boat ramps and community assets like sea walls.
That roundtable's chairman, Matt Ball, said infrastructure was woven into Sea Change as all people used and relied on it, yet there never seemed to be enough of it. That's despite the gulf already having at least 169 boat ramps and more than 11,000 moorings and marina berths.
"Obviously, infrastructure is extremely important to gulf communities. It connects them, enables economic activity and it protects them and their environment."
Mr Ball said like all other parts of the region's future, population growth would put pressure on infrastructure.
"It's not a case of 'if we build it they will come', it's more like 'they are coming, so we have to build it'."
For example, he said, the development of new housing would require infrastructure including stormwater, which would make its way into the gulf.
These people would also want access to the water through already crowded boat ramps, bringing more demand for marinas or dry stacks.
"The big challenge will be meeting the needs of our growing population in a way that meets the aspiration for improved environmental outcomes."
While there was general awareness of population growth, Mr Ball suspected people didn't grasp what this would mean for their lives or the environment around them.
"Other things have been surprising. For example, we have found that the rules already in place in the various local authorities around the gulf can in some cases make it more difficult to build new infrastructure than may have been intended."
He said it would be important to deliver a plan that would assist local governments to create consistent rules. "All of us have agreed to be open-minded participants in the process and to work toward finding solutions."
The series
Monday: Sea Change and water quality
Tuesday: Conserving our fish stocks
Wednesday: Biodiversity and biosecurity
Thursday: Growing the gulf's aquaculture
Today: An accessible gulf
Help us work out priorities on Gulf options
Over the last week you will have read about the Sea Change - Tai Timu Tai Pari project and a group of committed citizens in a stakeholder working group (SWG) who are developing a marine spatial plan which will protect and enhance the Hauraki Gulf for us all. This project was established by a project steering group, co-chaired by Auckland councillor Penny Webster and Paul Majurey, representing the co-governance partners.
The focuses of Sea Change's six roundtables - which each look at a different aspect of the project and which have framed this series - have introduced you to the science and stories from communities in the gulf.
There is much more on the Sea Change website, seachange.org.nz.
From next year the SWG moves into its most interesting and challenging phase; taking the work done by roundtable meetings and the options they have identified and weaving these into an integrated plan that will achieve their vision for the gulf. There are "low-hanging fruit" that have been identified. Ideas which really ask "why aren't we doing this already?".
But some issues are challenging and will need a lot of work.
There is a survey on the website which seeks your opinion on the priority of the options identified and also asks if we have missed out essential items.
One of the major learnings for me, as independent chairman of the SWG, has been the strength of the vision-led, collaborative process in finding solutions to problems that might have seemed intractable.
We have based all our analysis on science, traditional knowledge and the views of communities. We would love to hear from you.
• Nick Main, Sea Change - Tai Timu Tai Pari stakeholder working group chairman.
