Anti-bank-erosion measures include the placement of large rocks (from Linton and elsewhere) and the planting of willow trees, an exception to the nativism that pervades official attitudes.
In this location the main river channel is within a metre of the bank holding the path and in a deluge threatens to wash it out. The obvious answer may be to get a bulldozer to excavate and push the gravel against the bank so that the channel is in the centre of the bed; however, fluid dynamics have to be considered with other options.
Over 70 people, including the mayor as well as GWRC and KCDC staffers, showed up at the top of the south bank shared path on a grey but dry day for this annual event, although that number fell a bit after the morning tea stop.
The Waikanae River is the second biggest in Kapiti after the Otaki River and is important as the source of reticulated water for Waikanae and Paraparaumu/Raumati; see the post on the visit to the treatment plant in November 2015.
The river periodically makes the news when there is a deluge resulting in flooding, but there are regular maintenance needs, particularly involving erosion of the banks on each side and the inexorable carriage of gravel down the river from the hills which causes the formation of gravel beaches and islands; these affect the river channels and course within the bed. Regular extraction of it is needed and it’s better to do this before it gets to the Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve.
A stop was made at the Otaraua Park boundary for a mention of what may happen there (see earlier posts).
At the final stop on the north bank by the lagoons the representatives of the Friends of the Waikanae River and the Waikanae Estuary Care Group spoke about what their groups do and the concerns they have.