Stony Beach, Banks Peninsula - Tom Evans

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Current Situation: Located on the north eastern corner of Banks Peninsula, Stony Beach is a small indentation west of Okains Bay and is home to an range of unique landforms. Pastoral country dominates the lowland flats, steep marginal country and rolling hill tops. The landscape is degrading, with eroding cliff faces and hill slopes, and point source pollution having major effects on waterways.

A blanket of native podocarp forest used to engulf Banks Peninsula, but with the arrival of Maori and the European settlers it was soon decimated. A mixture of native and exotic scrub sprawls sparsely across the grazed slopes, with the occasional patch of regenerating forest. Only an estimated 2% of remnant native forest and only 12% of remnant wetland environments exist today.

The beach’s character itself is relatively minor compared to the dramatic sea cliffs that fortify the coast line surrounding it, the coast is highly modified and unvegetated, and its slowly being eaten away by the sea. Northwest bay and Raupo bay are both highly natural and have a unique sense of isolation with the intimate scale of their visual catchments. Access to these sites is currently only available through private land or by sea.

There is a decline in sustainable revenues for the conventional generational farmers on Banks Peninsula, we see people living and working the land as a lifestyle. On some generational farms there is no real desire to leave, so changing the style of farming might encourage future generations to stay and care for their land.

Vision: To animate and activate the eastern bays of Banks Peninsula in the 21st century. My design concept is a land use model that creates a more conservative vision for the extensive pastoral land that currently dominates Banks
Peninsula. The model is designed to refit current highly modified agricultural landscapes, improving agricultural productivity, honoring and expressing the scenic and cultural landscape, while rebuilding compromised and dilapidated ecological systems. Access to some of the most spectacular and unique landscapes in New Zealand, only one and a half hours from Christchurch will become available for the public to explore. Envisioned as a day trip and weekend get away destination, accommodation will be readily available to those touring Banks Peninsula or visiting for a holiday.