Before the big earthquakes of 2010 and 11, high banks – called bunds – were engineered and installed in this area to try to prevent flooding of nearby land. When the jolts and tremors altered the landscape here, a decision was made to remove the bunds and allow the area (once populated with houses) to revert back to wetlands. 

I can fly high enough to see the landscape from above. It allows me to get a great view of the adjacent awa (our iconic Ōtākaro Avon River) and the 9 hectare area between Anzac Drive and Pages Road that is now designated as a flood management zone. On the perimeter is a new stopbank, 472m long and about 3m high.

The newly bounded site is formally called the “Waitaki Street stormwater and flood management basin”. It is one of 9 basins to be constructed by the city council, as a means of reducing the impacts of flooding on the city and its houses, roads and businesses. 

Red-zoned Bexley homes (such as those of Pacific Park) have been replaced by a flood basin; bunds have made way for the creation of a large wetland. It seems Nature is re-asserting herself, with human help and with people’s safety in mind!