Waikato Herald <\/a>that residents were not prepared to move.<\/p>\n![\"Sunset]()
Sunset Beach Surf Lifesaving Club president Malcolm Beattie. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our home, and we\u2019re not leaving town.\u201d <\/p>\n
The trust is a non-profit organisation that supports the Sunset Beach Lifeguard Service, which manages the community hub and funds local lifesaving. <\/p>\n
Beattie, also the lifeguard club\u2019s president, said residents had fought for three years to get council consent for the sea wall.<\/p>\n
The trust raised funds and received grants to pay for the wall. It was done without council funding, but with its support. <\/p>\n
Beattie said the sea wall was a \u201clong time coming\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Construction]()
Construction of the sea wall at Port Waikato’s Sunset Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor something to happen, it was either don\u2019t find the money and don\u2019t do it, or find the money and make sure we\u2019ve got it so we can do it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe chose the latter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The dune restoration project includes the sea wall made of 950 225mm wooden poles, each 4m high and buried 3m into the sand. They are backfilled with sand and rock along 800m of coastline. <\/p>\n
It is paired with what Beattie calls \u201cNew Zealand\u2019s West Coast-first sand push-ups,\u201d which transfer low-tide sand to dune toes (where the dune meets the beach) to slow erosion.<\/p>\n
Resident Josephine Poland, who has lived at Sunset Beach since 1994, believes that, without the sand push-ups, \u201cmy home probably wouldn\u2019t be here anymore\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The house with the slide is Josephine Poland’s, where she’s lived for over 30 years. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wall is like a permanent push-up and buys us time, so we can wait for the sand slugs (large accumulation of sand) to make their way up here. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s saved my home and given me hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rereokeroa Shaw, chairman of Ng\u0101ti Karewa and Ng\u0101ti Tahinga, a Waikato-Tainui hap\u016b, said, \u201cAs tangata whenua, we wholeheartedly support this country-first project\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said iwi already had the local knowledge, energy, and commitment to protect the coastline because of their relationship with the land.<\/p>\n
![\"Construction]()
Construction of the sea wall at Port Waikato’s Sunset Beach has been completed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project is a significant step forward in collaborative, locally led responses to climate change and coastal erosion, grounded in m\u0101tauranga M\u0101ori, community commitment, and environmental responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beattie said the sea wall was \u201cmeeting all expectations that I thought it would deliver\u201d, but it was not a cure for erosion. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe never promised anybody this would be the end of erosion, but we\u2019ve said this is definitely our target to slow the erosion down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Mother Nature brings more sand in, we\u2019ll be well equipped to get with it.\u201d <\/p>\n
The next priority will be to restore public road access to Sunset Beach. <\/p>\n
![\"Timelapse]()
Timelapse of erosion at Port Waikato since 2013.<\/p>\n
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakat\u0101ne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2022, the Waikato District Council asked residents to \u201cmanage retreat\u201d after two homes were left uninhabitable when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[161865,4886,7972,1558,6658,9191,52151,71,6800,111,43,139,69,29268,3263,30308,3008,23851,42903,61,1524,65861,13558],"class_list":{"0":"post-292424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-380metre","9":"tag-aims","10":"tag-beach","11":"tag-been","12":"tag-built","13":"tag-coastal","14":"tag-erosion","15":"tag-from","16":"tag-homes","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-port","22":"tag-project","23":"tag-protect","24":"tag-sea","25":"tag-slow","26":"tag-sunset","27":"tag-to","28":"tag-waikato","29":"tag-waikatos","30":"tag-wall"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}