Te Rereatukahia

The Te Rereatukahia catchment is five kilometers south-west of Katikati and is 1857 hectares in area.

The sub-catchment is about 8.5 km long and two km wide and includes 44 km of stream margins and 1.2 km of harbour margin. The primary waterway in the sub-catchment is the Te Rereatukahia Stream (seven km). There is one named tributary stream, Ngututuru (4.4 km) and numerous unnamed tributaries (32.6 km).

Indigenous vegetation covers approximately 62 % of total area (mostly in the upper catchment) with the balance in pasture (20%), horticultural (13%) and exotic forest (5%).

Soils are vulnerable to erosion under poor vegetation cover or intensive land-use and continue to be lost from the catchment at moderate to high rates, especially where steep land is subject to cattle or deer grazing, or where earthworks are not carefully managed.

Water quality monitoring by the Regional Council in 2011 shows the Te Rereatukahia Stream met the requirements of the Ministry of Health guidelines for swimming but exceeded the median faecal coliform standard of 100 cfu/100ml for stock water supply.