Before humans arrived

Little natural vegetation remains due to the
modification resulting from people's ready access on the relatively gentle terrain, combined with the harsh climate, which is dry, often hot and frequently windy.
Originally the land would have been almost entirely forest-clad. Totara would have been dominant on hill country, accompanied by matai, black beech, kanuka and a range of broadleaved species. Kahikatea would have grown on the margins of wetlands, which would
have had fringing zones of harakeke, raupo, cabbage trees and various rushes and sedges. Coastal slopes and terraces would have had forests dominated by ngaio. All these forests would have been alive with birds (including flightless species), lizards and invertebrates.

Coastal Environment

The dunes, raised beach terraces and beach ridge systems are large and distinctive. Their primeval cover would have been a mosaic that included sand-binders, tough shrubs, cushion plants and hardy trees such as ngaio. Quite a lot of this still remains, although mostly reduced to remnants. Marram grass now dominates
the dunes, smothering them and preventing the mediated ebb and flow of sand that provides optimum conditions for native coastal birds, lizards and invertebrates.
A recovering remnant of the originally prolific coastal fauna is present in the growing number of New Zealand fur seals. Burrowing sea birds (petrels and shearwaters) have gone completely, but could be re-introduced.

Birds

Waders including wry bills and Caspian terns, black fronted terns and South Island pied oystercatchers migrate along this coast, roosting or congregating on coastal platforms and exposed reefs outside of the breeding season. Banded dotterels  and variable oystercatchers nest in coastal pea gravels between Cape Campbell and the Ure/Waima. Little penguins, white fronted terns and red billed gulls are resident breeders along this coast. Thousands of gulls and terns congregate here to roost and feed all year round. Fiordland crested penguins and hoiho (yellow-eyed) penguins sometimes visit. Thousands of Hutton’s shearwaters feed in the breakers along the coast. Various seabirds would wash up, dead or alive, after severe storms.

Reptiles

A significant lizard habitat runs the length of the coast. Geckos and skinks are fairly common, especially among log debris which edges the land on the interface between grass and gravel and also on cobble strand (sand and gravel bars). Species known to be in the focus area are Waiharakeke grass skink, Marlborough mini gecko, Raukawa gecko, and perhaps the rarer Marlborough spotted skink,  Reptiles need cover (rocks, driftwood etc) and vegetation, for shelter and protection from predators, and a flood-free area above high tide not impacted by people. Favoured native plants – Muehlenbeckia and Coprosma species, grasses and sedges (including pīngao and spinifex) - are also important requirements for reptiles to thrive in this area.

Invertebrates

Host plants are also essential to invertebrates including declining numbers of red katipo in dunes south of Cape Campbell. Specialist dune species Pimelea prostrata and raoulia mat daisies provide a home for endemic species including the nationally endangered “Cape Campbell” Pimelia looper moth and more widespread Pimelia leaf roller. The area also supports high numbers of large indigenous coastal sand invertebrates including the seashore earwigs, black cockroaches and sand scarab beetles.

Flora

Tenacious plant communities, including many endangered species, cling to cliffs, escarpments, dunes and coastal flats. Much of the original indigenous coastal forest is long-gone, eliminated by fires, land clearance for farming, introduced browsing animals and invasive weeds. However, the dunes have endured, and one of New Zealand’s best populations of coastal mat daisy (Raoulia hookeri “coast”) survives at Cape Campbell, among several nationally threatened or at-risk plants along the coast.

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Over half of the coast (28.5km of the total 48.5km) from the Awatere to the Waima/Ure mouth is recognised as ecologically significant.

Marine Life

Exposed and undersea reefs extending south from Cape Campbell are rich in biodiversity, being at the southern end of Cook Strait. More than 200 species come and go over the course of a year.

Numerous seaweeds including bull and giant kelp grew in inter-tidal channels and pools and sub-tidal reef structures providing a rich habitat for multiple species including abundant rock lobsters and paua.

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Marine Mammals

Dusky dolphins swim by, rounding Cape Campbell/Te Karaka, on an annual seasonal migration between the Kaikōura coast and sheltered shallow waters of the Marlborough Sounds. Nationally Endangered Hector’s dolphins live and breed here, protected by the Clifford Bay Marine Mammal Sanctuary. Humpback whales and southern right whales pass through on their northward winter migration, while sperm whales, and Orca  have also been located along the coastal stretch.

Historically the stretch of coast has been a haul-out area for fur seals which are now becoming more abundant again, compared with 10-20 years ago. Elephant seals are making more frequent visits to the coast line and one or two have bred in the area, which is a rare event on the New Zealand mainland. It is also known that Leopard seals stop on this coastline to rest.

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