Wreck pou could watch over Shipwreck Bay's swimmers and surfers

Replace the wreck's missing crankshaft with a pou, says Craig Cooper.

Shipwreck Bay in Ahipara is a special place.

Comedian and actor Billy Connolly once described it as one of the most spiritual places in the world. That might seem odd coming from one of the world's funniest people, but at the time, the context of his statement was within a travel show - he wasn't being funny.

In mid-August, someone hacked off or broke away what looked like the mast, but was apparently the crankshaft, of the wreck that gives the bay its colloquial name.

The paddle steamer Favourite, a kauri gum trade barge, wrecked at Te Kohanga, now known as "Shippies" or Shipwreck Bay , at Ahipara, on April 1, 1870.

For more than 145 years, the wrought-iron shaft was an indicator of where the wreck lay.

It was also an indicator, says Ahipara man Reuben Waipari Porter, of "historic pillage of the environment and natural resources".

Reuben had previously tried to cut the shaft off, but stopped at the request of locals.
Now nature, or someone with a more powerful angle grinder or welder than Reuben, has taken the shaft.

It has left behind a hazard though - maybe not to savvy locals who know the lay of the sand but certainly to visitors.

At full tide, someone is going to smear themselves over the wreck this summer, and come away bloodied and angry.

And there is no longer a crankshaft for locals to cut down in anger.

Northland Harbourmaster Jim Lyle says no one has raised the issue with him, but staff would "take a look".

That's reassuring because they will see that it is potentially dangerous.

Rather than mar the environment with a fluorescent marker buoy or plain steel post, which runs the risk of being seen as another example of colonial arrogance, why not place a pou on the beach to warn of the hidden dangers at full tide.

History can't be changed, and the barge remains are going nowhere, but the process of creating and installing a pou could be healing, as well as warning people of the dangers of the hidden wreck.