Quiet Sunday on a drowned river

By COLIN MOORE

Beyond the Auckland Harbour Bridge, Kauri Pt, the Hobsonville Air Base and the Upper Harbour Crossing, lies a drowned river.

It's been hidden under water - up to 18m of it in some places - since the last ice age melted 17,000 years ago. But, increasingly, the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour are being exposed as a waterway for quiet enjoyment.

From Herald Island, which is as far as Hobson's ship of the same name ventured in search of a site for a new capital, to Riverhead, where they once grew tobacco, made paper and milled flour, the mangrove-fringed estuary is the nearest thing the Auckland region has to a quietly flowing river.

Maori paddled these waters on their travels to the Kaipara and the north, fighting over its ownership until the Ngati Whatua and the Kawerau settled the matter with a boundary marker at Riverhead.

Samuel Marsden used the same transport artery on his way north in 1820, as did the Albertlanders and other Kaipara Harbour settlers on their way to Hellensville, dreaming of a canal to link the two harbours.

Herald Island became a popular picnic spot for colonial day-trippers and before the turn of the century the SS Vivid , of Bradney and Binns' shipping company, was steaming up to Riverhead from Auckland every day - a shilling single and 1s 6d return.

A century later, we slip our sea kayaks into what is a tranquil haven, undisturbed this winter Sunday morning by wind or jetski.

The Auckland Canoe Club has a club paddle to Riverhead and as far up the Rangitopuni Stream as our craft will take us. We meet at Christmas Beach at Herald Island, a collection of kayak designs - including a home-made cedar-strip work of art getting its first feel of water - and paddlers who refuse to bow to age or lie in bed on a Sunday morning when there is a drowned river to explore.

The 6km or so paddle to Riverhead is a gentle affair that I have done many times, and it never ceases to be enjoyable.

At Riverhead are the concrete remains of the Waitemata Flour Mill, which began milling in 1856 and eventually spawned the giant Northern Roller Milling Company.

By the 1870s the mill was employing 30 people and supplying Auckland with flour. When the mill moved to downtown Auckland, the Riverhead plant was converted into a paper mill.

All that remains now is a concrete wall, crying out for a big historic plaque proclaiming its illustrious heritage as a major industrial site in colonial Auckland.

Beneath the Highway 18 road bridge, where a natural weir stops navigation at low tide, the Rangitopuni is tanin and mud-stained from recent rain. The peace is shattered by the marksmen at the nearby gun club, but between rounds, tui troll melodiously in kowhai trees.

Another natural weir sends us in retreat to the Foresters Arms, which has been welcoming boat people since 1876 and is the second-oldest tavern in New Zealand.

Among the pub's patrons this Sunday morning is a group from the Otahuhu Rotary Club, tucking into a sumptuous barbecue buffet. They've come from downtown Auckland on the weekly upper harbour cruise and barbecue, run by Sea City Cruising, on the motor launch Okahu, a veteran of Bay of Islands tourist cruising.

At $45 for adults, ($35 for seniors and $25 for children) it is a winning way to spend a Sunday - unless, like my fellow paddlers, you consider that quiet waters are best appreciated from quiet craft.

For information on Sea City Cruising, phone (09) 624 2499.