Why Kaikoura?

From the heights of Te Tapuae o Uenuku above, to the depths of Hikurangi below, it is Te Tai o Marokura in between which sustains the wellbeing of the people.

Kaikoura is a place of outstanding universal value to humanity that deserves protection and international recognition for:

Its sheer beauty, the way those snow-capped mountains stand so close to the restless sea, separated by a thin band of green cultivated land.
The wonders of the deep sea canyon so close to the coastline.
The outstanding abundance and diversity of marine life flourishing in the nutrient-rich upwelling of deep oceanic water.
The diversity of habitats from deep ocean to intertidal shores and the convergence of warm and cold water currents.
The great diversity of marine habitats in a small geographic area.

The whales and dolphins, in great numbers and diversity, with large whales such as sperm whales seen here so reliably by visitors.
The second highest number of seabird species ever counted around New Zealand, a country more deservedly known for its seabird diversity than for its famous land birds.
As the site that characterises New Zealand in its current mountain building phase so well that our time (24 million years of it) is known as the Kaikoura Orogeny.
Exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights

Kaikōura District and Kaikoura Marine Area

Kaikoura district is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most breath-taking natural landscapes. Kaikōura’s majestic mountains lie within two ranges, the Kaikoura ranges and the inland Kaikoura range, with the Seaward Kaikōura’s dominating the coastal skyline, with its highest peak rising straight from the bottom of the underwater Kaikoura Canyon.

The coastal landscape of Kaikōura is both spectacular and accessible, being traversed by State Highway 1. The intertidal shore and its wave formed backdrop of cliffs, is the core of this visual feast. The character of the area is a unique blend of dramatic eroded rocks, high energy waves and richness of plants and animals.

Kaikōura District incorporates terrestrial area of 2,046.81 km2 (790.28 sq mi) and the Kaikoura Marine Area of approximately 4,000 km2.

Kaikōura is a remote rural region with a low-density population on the East coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Latitude 42° 24' 2.94"S & Longitude 173° 40' 52.99"E. and had an estimated population of 4,230 as of June 2023, with the majority of those living within the township itself.

Protected Publicly Owned Land (55%)

Approximately 50% of the district is in public ownership under the Department of Conservation, largely as part of New Zealand’s Conservation Estate - Ka Whata Tu o Rakihouia Conservation Park and various reserves and 5% as Crown Land covering the rivers and waterways. (Green & yellow).

Privately Owned Rural Land (45%)

The remainder of the district is classified as urban and rural land and includes several large high country stations. (Grey).

Kaikōura Marine Area

The Kaikōura Marine Area approximately 4,000 km2 and is all waters enclosed by a line starting from the mean high water mark at Clarence Point (at 42°09.809oS and 173°56.379oE); then proceeding in a straight line in a south-easterly direction to a point on the outer limit of the territorial sea (at 42°16.440oS and 174°09.855oE); then proceeding in a south-westerly direction following the outer limit of the territorial sea to a point at 42°40.715oS and 173°44.093oE; then proceeding in a straight line in a north-westerly direction to a point on the mean high-water mark approximately 300m north of the mouth of the Conway River (at 42°36.909oS and 173°28.173oE); then proceeding in a generally north-easterly direction along the mean high water mark to the point of commencement.

The Kaikōura Marine Area area includes:

The Hikurangi Marine Reserve.

A marine reserve of approximately 104.16 km2, extending offshore for 23.4 km and including 1.95 km of shoreline near Goose Bay, south of the Kaikōura township. All marine life and habitats within the marine reserve are totally protected with no fishing, netting, hand gathering, taking or killing of marine life; no polluting, disturbance or damage of marine life or the sea bed; and no removal of any natural material from the marine reserve allowed.

Te Rohe o Te Whānau Puha Whale Sanctuary

The sanctuary encompasses 91 kilometres of shoreline and covers an area of 4686 square kilometres. It extends out beyond the 12 nautical mile limit to a maximum of 56 km from the shore.

Ōhau New Zealand Fur Seal Sanctuary

Ōhau Point has the most significant breeding colony for New Zealand fur seals along the eastern coast of the South Island.

Mangamaunu Mātaitai, Oaro Mātaitai andTe Waha o te Marangai Mātaitai

Specific sites in the Kaikōura marine area have been identified as traditional food gathering areas of special significance to Ngāti Kuri.

Upon establishment of the mātaitai reserves, commercial fishing is prohibited

Te Taumanu o Te Waka a Māui Taiāpure and Oaro-Haumuri Taiāpure,

Two taiāpure-local fisheries to protect the traditional food gathering areas around the Kaikōura Peninsula and Oaro Blocks/Haumuri Bluff. In taiāpure-local fisheries all fishing can continue until changes to fishing regulations are made as recommended by the taiāpure management committee.

Geography and Geology - Land, Sea, and Sky

Kaikoura Ranges

The Kaikōura Ranges are two parallel mountain ranges running along the island’s northeastern coast for 100 km’s..

Formed along New Zealand's Marlborough Fault System, they can be seen as the northernmost extension of the Southern Alps in the South Island. They take their name from the town of Kaikōura at the southern extreme of the more eastern range, the Seaward Kaikōuras. This range rises straight from (and dominates) the coast to the north of the town and reaches its highest point with the 2,608-metre (8,556 ft) Mount Manakau.

The long straight river valley of the Waiau Toa / Clarence River separate the Seaward Kaikōuras from the longer and loftier Inland Kaikōuras. This latter range contains the highest peak in the ranges, the 2,885-metre (9,465 ft) Tapuae-o-Uenuku, the translation from the Māori of which is the poetic "Footprint of the rainbow."

Formed initially during the Miocene epoch, the ranges are composed primarily of greywacke and argillite. Further mountain building occurred during the early Pleistocene, and it was during this period that the dramatic uplifting occurred raising these mountains to their current heights. Manakau is the highest mountain in the Seaward Kaikoura Range, at 2,610 metres / 8,562 feet. Tapuae-O-uenuku is the highest mountain in the Inland Kaikoura Range at 2,885 metres / 9,465 feet. The long river valley of the Waiau Toa / Clarence River separates the two ranges.

At the eastern foot of the mountains is the Kaikōura Peninsula. Geologically the peninsula consists of an asymmetrical anticline bounded on either side by two synclines, the axis of which strikes northeast to southwest.

Kaikoura Canyon

The Kaikōura Canyon is the most biologically rich ocean habitat known in the world at depths of below 500 metres (100 times richer than the next documented area at this depth outside areas with the life-support system of hydrothermal vents).

The Canyon holds a special significance to the people of Ngāti Kuri

“The ocean is known as Te Tai o Marokura or the sea of Marokura. Marokura was the atua (god) who with his magical patu (war club), carved the underwater trenches and canyons, which is why we have our whales here, off our shoreline. The underwater trenches also connect us back to where we first came from. It was Paikea the whale rider, who come on the back of the whale from Hawaiki along the whale route. He arrived here along the east coast of the North Island. He had two sons. One of those sons was Tahu Potiki the ancestor of Ngai Tahu. Tahu’s people travelled down the east coast of the North Island and settled in Kaikōura where we are still today. The Hikurangi trench is what connects us to where we came from some 700 years ago.”

The undersea Kaikoura Canyon stretching up to the Kaikoura mountains, form a natural feature of international significance. The Canyon itself is part of a landscape made up of a unique combination of land and sea, with the Kaikoura ranges rising steeply inland and the deep waters of the Canyon dropping sharply seaward. Together with the nutrient rich water upwelling from the depths close inshore, this adds a richness of wildlife and biota rare in the world.

Night Sky

Kaikōura is officially designated as an International Dark Sky Sanctuary.

International Dark Sky Sanctuary status is awarded to locations that possess an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and a nocturnal environment that is protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural heritage, and public enjoyment.

The dark skies in Kaikōura are already acknowledged and protected as important scientific, natural and as a scenic resource. Over half of the Kaikōura Sanctuary is protected in public ownership, largely as part of New Zealand’s Conservation Estate – Ka Whata Tu o Rakihouia Conservation Park as well as other Department of Conservation Reserves. We are also very fortunate in that the preservation and protection of Kaikōura’s natural environment and wildlife has been recognised and is well supported through conservation and sustainable practices.

The twenty-second location globally to earn this recognition, the third New Zealand sanctuary alongside Aotea Great Barrier Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura, and supporting New Zealand’s intention to become a dark sky nation. It’s an important achievement for the Kaikōura Dark Sky movement that began in 2020 to help protect the endangered Hutton’s shearwater. The recognition also underscores the continued commitment to preserving the natural darkness of the Kaikōura night sky.

Marine Species and Communities

The marine communities of plants and animals are special both for their diversity and for the special and valued species that occur here:

Whales

Baleen whales including:

Southern right whales.
Humpback whales which pass northwards along the Kaikoura coast in winter, on their annual migration from their summer subantarctic feeding grounds to their breeding grounds in the tropics.
Minke whales.
Fin whales.
Sei whales.
Blue whales.

Several species of toothed whales including:

New Zealand’s only resident sperm whales. These are present off the Kaikoura coast all year, although their distribution and numbers vary seasonally.

Dolphins

A variety of dolphins including:

Pods of orca or killer whales which regularly visit the coast as part of their long-distance foraging migrations around New Zealand.
Pilot whales.
Common dolphins,
Dusky dolphins - there are an estimated 2,000 dolphins along the Kaikoura coast at any one time.
Hector’s dolphins – a New Zealand endemic species found around much of the South Island, including the Kaikoura coast. Southern right whale dolphins.

Seals

Haul-outs and breeding colonies of New Zealand fur seals.
Occasional Leopard Seal

Sharks

Almost half the sharks, rays and ghost species found around New Zealand are recorded from Kaikoura. This high diversity will largely be due to the habitat complexity of the region, particularly the variety of deepwater habitats found within the Territorial Sea. By far the greatest diversity (66% of species) occurs at outer shelf and upper slope depths (i.e. below 100 m depth).

Endemic species include all of the skates and electric rays, carpet shark, rig, dark ghost shark and northern spiny dogfish.
Great white shark -The frequency of reports from Kaikoura and the results of satellite tagging of white sharks at the Chatham Islands and Stewart Island suggest great whites do not aggregate in the region, but probably migrate through it.
Basking sharks are also believed to be in gradual decline, however their status may be more serious than this. Newspaper reports from the mid 1960s indicate schools containing up to several hundred basking sharks (6-9 m total length) were seen each spring off the Kaikoura Peninsula, however anecdotal reports suggest very few have been seen in the area for at least 15 years.

Habitat Communities

Some of the most diversely populated intertidal shores in New Zealand:
The studies of the Kaikoura Peninsula highlight the area’s high physical and biological diversity. Kaikoura Peninsula has the greatest range of intertidal habitat types of the shores studied in the area. Overall, subtidal seaweed forests at Kaik ura Peninsula are notable for their 44 diversity and abundance of species, mostly mixed stands of large brown algae and carpets of red algae.
Haumuri Bluffs, platforms, and the large boulder beach west of Spy Glass Point, are the most biologically rich in the area.
Limestone platforms and the boulder beach at Oaro have a rich invertebrate fauna and the greatest diversity of red algae.
Rocky headlands, outcrops and boulder shores from Waipapa to Hapuku, and again between the Kahutara and Oaro rivers, have diverse plants and animals, including a wide range of invertebrates, especially on the boulder shores.

Sea Birds

From a local conservation perspective, particularly notable seabirds in the Kaikōura region include:

Hutton's shearwater - only breeds in the hills and mountains of Kaikoura.
Red-billed gull
Little penguin

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Notable seabirds that are seen off Kaikōura include:

14 species of albatross: Wandering, Antipodean, Northern royal, Southern royal, Black-browed, Campbell, White-capped, Salvin's, Chatham, Buller's, Atlantic yellow-nosed, Indian yellow-nosed, Light-mantled, Sooty
10 species of petrel: Cook's, Grey-faced, Cape, Black, White-chinned, Westland, Grey, White-headed, Mottled, Soft-plumaged
7 species of shearwater: Buller's, Sooty, Hutton's, Fluttering, Short-tailed, Flesh-footed, Pink-footed
4 species of skua: Arctic, Pomarine, Long-tailed, Brown
4 species of storm petrel: White-faced, Wilson's, Grey-backed, Black-bellied
4 species of penguin:Little, Yellow-eyed, Erect-crested, Chinstrap
4 species of giant petrel: Southern Giant Petrel, Northern Giant Petrel

Other notable seabirds observed off Kaikōura include:

Also regularly seen are:

Terresterial Fauna and Flora

Within the mountain conservation areas vegetation forms a complex mosaic of tussock grasslands, shrublands, forest, flaxes, scree fields and also bare rock. Threatened plants, several species at their northern or southern limits and numerous plants endemic to the region are found here.

These include:

the rare pink broom
New Zealand lilac
coral daisy
Marlborough rock daisy.

The Seaward Kaikōura Range is a very important area for a whole range of endemic and native animals.

The world’s only breeding colonies of Hutton’s shearwater are found on the cliff faces in the area.
Eleven species of lizard have been recorded including the threatened black-eyed gecko, and scree skink.
The New Zealand falcon occurs throughout the area, and kea live in the alpine zone.

Blind Saddle is one of the most important areas for large invertebrates in New Zealand:

two wētā species,
a tussock butterfly
two speargrass weevil

species survive there.