Image: Russell Hughes | DOC
Sunrise at Te Angiangi Marine Reserve.
Te Angiangi Marine Reserve

Located in the Hawke’s Bay region

Te Angiangi Marine Reserve protects a piece of the central Hawke's Bay coast, between Aramoana and Blackhead.

Te Angiangi Marine Reserve review

Ngāti Kere holds mana whenua over the area of the coast that includes the Te Angiangi Marine Reserve.

Ngāti Kere supported establishment in 1997 so long as DOC agreed to a ‘generational’ (25 years on from establishment) review of the reserve. They saw this as important because of the importance of kaimoana as a staple in families’ diets, and a way to help maintain the connection between Ngāti Kere and the reserve.

To fulfil that commitment, DOC has partnered with Ngāti Kere to complete a review. The review will examine indicators to assess the health of marine life within the reserve, management practices, and community engagement with the area. We expect to complete the review in 2024.

Read about Marine Protected Area reviews.

For tide, boundaries and other information you can download the MarineMate app.

View map and boundaries of Te Angiangi Marine Reserve.

Rock pools

Visit rock pools - on the large tidal platform you may see octopus, crayfish, and wandering anemones among many other species, including migratory wading birds.

When exploring the rock pools, return any rocks you look under to their original position. This will help protect the plants and animals living on and under them. Also avoid walking on the eel grass beds. Trampling will kill these plants and result in the sand trapped around them being washed away.

Turn off State Highway 2 at Waipawa or Waipukurau. The drive will take approximately 30 minutes from either town. From Waipawa follow Pourere and Gibraltar roads to Aramoana. From Waipukurau follow Farm, Motere and Long Range roads to Blackhead.

Poaching

There is evidence of widespread poaching at Te Angiangi Marine Reserve. As at 2013, 20% of marine reserve convictions nationally were for fishing here.

The extent of poaching has compromised scientific study and the integrity of Te Angiangi’s ecosystem.

Report offences to the Department of Conservation on +64 6 759 0350 (office hours), or the 24 hour conservation emergency hotline 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468).

The rules

All plant and animal life, alive or dead, in the marine reserve is totally protected. No fishing, seaweed or shellfish gathering is allowed. The reefs and sea floor are also protected so nothing can be removed from the reserve.

It is illegal to discharge any firearm, or any substance which may harm, or threaten plant and animal life in, or into the marine reserve. It is also illegal to release any plant or animal into the reserve which does not naturally occur there.

Horses and motor vehicles can be ridden or driven along the sand at the top of the rock platform but are not permitted on the rocky areas below mean high water.

Avoid disturbing wildlife. Birds and marine mammals should be observed from a distance and dogs kept on a leash at all times.

At low tide a broad mudstone platform is exposed, revealing beds of Neptune’s necklace, pink coralline seaweeds, and patches of sea grass mixed with a lively rockpool community of fish and shellfish, including golden limpets.

Offshore the interplay of the warm East Cape current and the colder South Wairarapa current means many typically ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ marine species occur in the reserve.  Sometimes these can even be seen swimming together, or sheltering in the same crevice. Rock lobsters are conspicuous.

In April 2011 a heavy rainfall event coincided with a shallow  magnitute 4.5 earthquake, resulting in inundation of the rock platform by 14 landslides. In places landslides covered the full width of the platform (more than 100 m), completely burying or sweeping away the biological communities living there. Within a few months however relentless wave action had begun to uncover the platform, and positive signs of recovery were evident throughout the intertidal zone. A couple of years later, the reserve had almost completely recovered.

The name of the reserve was chosen by Ngāti Kere to honour local history. When Ngāti Kahungunu settled the region, central Hawke's Bay was divided between Te Aomatarahi and Taraia.

Te Aomatarahi, a descendent of Porangahau, was given the lands east of Tukituki River and mana whenua passed to his descendents Tu Mapuhiarangi and Te Angiangi. The area covered by the mana of Te Angiangi included what is now the marine reserve.