Avon Heathcote Estuary

The Estuary formed around 450 years ago and covers around 880 hectares (3.3 square miles).[4] In 1989 the Canterbury Regional Council and the Christchurch City Council drilled an exploratory bore near the mouth of the Avon River / Ōtakaro discovering layers of fossils and sediment types that showed the area had experienced shifts between being marine, estuary, swamp and floodplain over the last 2 million years.[5] The land underneath the Estuary consists of gravel embedded between fine silts and sands deposited by the rivers and sea.[6] The Brighton Spit which encloses the Estuary was formed by sand carried by the Ashley / Rakahuri and Waimakariri Rivers and as the Spit grew, the mouth of the Avon River / Ōtākaro was forced southward towards that of the Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River, forming the estuary of today.[7]

Māori people were the first settlers in Canterbury and arrived around the 13th century according to western archaeological evidence, though Māori whakapapa (genealogies) date settlement before this period of time with the discovery of the South Island by Waitaha ancestor, Rākaihautū.[8] Traditional food gathering or mahinga kai sites of Waitaha, Rapuwai, Kāti Mamoe and subsequently Ngāi Tahu iwi included Ihutai (The Estuary).[8] The nearest kāika (settlements) included Orua Paeroa at Travis Wetland and Te Kai a Te Karoro pā, which was located near to South New Brighton Park, the latter supporting iwi to reside there throughout each year due to the abundance of food supplied by Ihutai.[9][10][11] Traditional food sources around Ihutai included pūtangitangi (Paradise Shelduck), pārera (grey duck), tuna (eels), kanakana (lamprey), īnanga (adult whitebait), patiki (flounder) and pipi (shellfish).[12] In former times a soft-shelled perwinkle snail called whetiko flourished.[13] In March 1848 Governor George Grey negotiated sale of 20 million acres between Kaiapoi and Otago via the land purchaser Henry Kemp who obtained Māori signatures to a deed of purchase now referred to as Kemp's Purchase or Kemp's Deed. Governor Grey did not uphold all the terms of Kemp's Deed which included a promise to allow access to traditional mahinga kai and kaika nohoanga (seasonal camps) and by the 1850s Māori were barred from access to their mahinga kai sites around the estuary.

Sealers and whalers were often valued by Māori who traded flax and potatoes for steel adzes, axes, muskets and other supplies and the Estuary provided an important trading route.[14] In 1837, a whaler named James Robinson Clough also known as Jimmy Robinson married Puawai a local Māori and is said to be the first European to access the Estuary.[14]