Kaitorete Spit
This long sandy spit that separates Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) from the sea was once an important thoroughfare for Māori travelling from Horomaka (Banks Peninsula) to settlements such as Kaiapoi and Kaikōura.
Kaitōrete provided ease of travel when compared to the swampy route inland around the edges of Te Waihora.
The remains of many ovens and middens along Kaitōrete’s length are an indication of the great numbers of people who travelled this ancient highway which extends for nearly 30 kilometres down the eastern coast.
The area is steeped in the histories of Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Māmoe and Waitaha.
Geology
At its eastern end Kaitorete Spit is attached to Banks Peninsula. The peninsula is formed from the remnants of two shield volcanoes. Since the development of the volcanoes, erosion has greatly affected the landforms as evidenced by the drainage cut valleys, shore platforms, sea cliffs
and sea stacks found all around the peninsula.
To the north the uplifted sandstone and mudstone sediments form the Southern Alps. The erosion of the Alps has provided the material from which the Canterbury Plains has been constructed. A combination of climatic fluctuations, resulting in glacial and interglacial periods, and tectonic uplift during the past 25 million years led to the development of vast amounts of coarse grained sediment in the Southern Alps.
The gravel you are standing on has started its journey far from here. It started it's life as a piece of sharp and irregular Greywacke. It may have been broken off during a landslide or earthquake and had ended up in the river high up in the Southern Alps. After a long and shape changing journey down a rather long braided river out to the ocean and then worked to this beach. This action and movement has altered its appearance somewhat.
So now we have the material source. We must now determine how it got here. The formation of the spit is from the prevailing wave action from a south to north direction and is called longshore drift. This action brings the gravel to this beach from the massive deposits from a major river to the south of this beach.
Logging Tasks
- Knowing that this gravel has travelled from the Alps. Tell me the river that would have deposited the material you are standing on?
- Grab a handful of the gravel and describe the texture and colour and explain in your own words why you think that the gravel is this shape and texture.
- Take a photo (optional).