Cox's Creek reflections

A very pleasant walk late this afternoon; down the hill to go through Grey Lynn Park then through Hakanoa Reserve, across a couple of road to the Cox's Creek walkway beside which the tide was pushing water back up the creek.

This creek was known as Opoutukeha (or Opou) by Maori before the colonists arrived. It formed the boundary between Ngati Riukiuta and Ngati Huarere. This area was a good source of seafood, particularly shellfish and flounder. They also harvested flax fibre for weaving and grew kumara (a sweet potato) around the headwaters of the creek.

In the early days of the settlement by immigrants from Britain, there was a sawmill near here. In later years there was a carpet factory which discharged dyes and other chemicals into the creek, destroying it as a habitat. That has been reversed in recent decades, and there is substantial birdlife, and especially herons, indicating good fishing.