Birdlings Flat, on Banks Peninsula, is known for its collection of riverstones, driftwood and agates. Photo / Frank Film
Birdlings Flat, on the southern side of Banks Peninsula, is a place where taonga of all kinds end up. Nestled in the crook of the peninsula’s arm, it sits at the northern end of the Kaitorete Spit, where longshore currents carry riverstones up the coast, along with all sorts of
These bits and pieces find their way into collections in the yards and living rooms of the baches and houses that congregate along the narrow “L” of civilisation that is Birdling’s Flat.
The village sits under the gaze of an old pā site, where Māori warriors once watched for incursions as cold mists rolled across the peninsula. It remains a deeply special place to the people of Ngāti Irakehu and Ngāti Makō, manawhenua of this area. Each autumn, they gather here to harvest tuna/eels from Wairewa/Lake Forsyth, which nudges up against the northern side of the village.
Exposed and remote, Birdlings Flat attracts a certain type of inhabitant – self-resilient, nature-loving, free-spirited. “The elemental nature of the place was a huge drawcard, I think, for everybody,” resident Steve Lowndes tells Frank Film. “It’s a really tight-knit community. Everybody knows about everybody else, but aren’t too intrusive. People like their privacy.”
