D'urville Island delivers a rich heritage

Friday, 13 July 2018

OPINION: The best thing about D'urville Island these days is the on-demand vehicle barge service put on by Craig and Christine Aston.

Drive on at the French Pass boat ramp and drive off at Kapowai at the start of the D'urville Island Rd. There's just under 60km of road to explore on this 30km x 10km wide island which today boasts a permanent population of around 45 hardy residents.

Centrally located and well-endowed D'urville has always enjoyed plenty of comings and goings.

Every coastal tribe in the country knew sailing directions to the mineral-rich island where massive amounts of tool grade argillite was quarried on hilltops and traded all around Aotearoa.

Our first commodity crash sparked off by discovery of a specialised technique to saw superior greenstone put paid to that massive argillite effort around the 16th Century.

Fourteen major quarry sites remain as our greatest industrial heritage sites in the country, their sloping flaking floors measured in hectares and still so deep with discarded flakes (such as Mt Ears) that not much has been able to grow there in the 500 years since.

Right at the bottom of D'urville, off the green grassed slopes of Ohana, Hautai Island was long used as a cemetery island by local Maori. You get a great view of it along the ridgetop road coming into French Pass.

Early settlers described the sight of rows and rows of canoes pulled up on the beach for tangi at Ohana. Reflecting mid-morning sunlight still makes some of the protruding headstones appear to twinkle. Fearsome ghost stories abound about those who dare touch foot on this island. 

It was in 1910 that the government released its first report on the developmental potential of D'urville, concluding…

'The island is currently 3500 acres in 'natural' clearings, 3500 acres is already cleared and 30,630 acres are in need of clearing … part of the north eastern side and also the southern end would be suitable for dairy farming.

'Other areas could be allocated for  sawmilling and village settlements, while the hilltops could be conserved for forest conservation. The tourism potential is great and there is a good climate for holiday purposes. There are fine harbours and some of the best sea fishing to be had in New Zealand.

'With a steamer passenger service going on a regular basis between through Nelson and Wellington, communication will not difficult.'

Roughly half the place did end up one big Scenic Reserve, and the 2005  government purchase of the 1797ha Leov farm at the entrance to Greville Harbour, which runs all the way back to the lake at Otu Bay, secured the heritage of this remarkable place for all New Zealanders.

Notable features include a long sweeping surf beach, big lagoon, Bottle Points Cliffs, a stunning lowland forest and dramatic dune lands.

European settlers drained the 120ha swamp which ran south from  Greville's lagoon, years of monumental work that involved shovels, crawler tractors and excavators kept afloat on rafts of saplings.

Eight kilometres of ditches got dug and the lagoon level was lowered by four metres. Drainers found huge tree stumps growing on a mat of manuka and sticks lying flattened, supporting Maori oral history telling of a devastating tsunami which hit here sometime around 1600.     

Administered by DOC, you can camp on this former farm (Moawhitu Conservation Campsite) on a first come, first served basis.

Sadly, the five bedroom farmhouse that used to stand here burnt down in June 2012. Access is by boat, flying in to the airstrip (1km away), or by mountainbike or car along the 27km of road from Kapowai.

Be warned though, it pays to have 4WD out here, the roads can get slippery after rain and there are steep drop-offs everywhere.

Driving on D'urville is not for the faint-hearted.

The public road out here which opened in 1967 changed everything for the islanders, but it was their rightful compensation.

Residents became aware in the early 1950s that the government intended phasing out the daily Nelson to Wellington ferry service and rerouting the daily interislander service through Picton.

Those passing ferries had brought in everything – supplies, mail, passengers -  so putting in a new road became a top priority for residents who wanted to be connected by just a short boat trip to French Pass and its road out to the highway at Rai Valley. They lobbied politicians hard and eventually got what they wanted.  

At the start of the job, Alan Johnson of Havelock used his biggest punt to barge in all the heavy machinery to Kapowai.

Apart from a few more rolling slopes over the mineral belt along the top of the island, much of the road was cut around steep and rugged terrain covered in thick bush, with only the heaviest rainstorms ever stopping work.

Bulldozer drivers carried rifles to shoot curious deer, tallies of 100 deer being common for virtually every worker over the 18-month job, top score four stags before breakfast.

Local MP Bill Rowling cut the ribbon at the road's official opening on 11 September, 1967, the event held right on the spot where the road went through the first 'thousand-foot-contour'.

He congratulated the assembled islanders and invited mainlanders for their huge efforts in achieving what mainlanders took for granted - an all-weather access road.

It is recalled the wind that day blew cold and hard for the bush picnic, but Len Leov from Greville Harbour did a good job getting a good fire roaring behind a couple of sheets of corrugated iron so everyone could share steaming billy tea which was complemented by a huge array of home baked goodies.

Afterwards, a loud procession of Land Rovers and tractors towing trailers packed with people did a jubilant tour of the island's new roads. 

It could be said the modern world really arrived though on D'urville with the switch on to mains power on 20 April 1975.

The cables strung over French Pass have a pylon to pylon unsupported span of 1081m, the droop in the cable clearing the high tide by 76m. Bright orange fibreglass balls were added along its length to warn pilots of low flying aircraft.

Not that much has changed on D'urville though.

Four sheep and beef farms still grow some of the healthiest stock in the country which must (I can't help but muse) get 'pre-salted' by the strong winds off the sea around here.

Mostly the marine climate is largely beneficial to settlers and tourists alike though, just not like last weekend when a ferocious nor westerly storm lashed this writer's family fair and square at Kapowai.

The only reason to venture out of our cosy bach in the lulls was to cast out from the rocks for some more blue cod for dinner. All part of the D'urville Island experience.