'I'll beat the sea outta here': Port Waikato resident's home on borrowed time

Sunday, 24 January 2021

The sea could wipe out both sides of houses on Ocean View Road if erosion continued in the next 20 - 50 years.

When Jo Poland bought at Port Waikato in 1994, she looked at the turquoise ocean through rows of undulating dunes and thought she'd won big.

The $34,000 section on Ocean View Road was the 68-year-old’s ticket to building a family holiday home and a relaxed retirement.

But living by the beach isn’t relaxed when the sea could wipe out your home in two decades.

Erosion has made the dunes, once deep gullies where Poland’s family lit bonfires, precarious cliffs.

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Jo Poland's house peeks out from the sand dunes. When she bought the section in 1994, she could only see the sea through rows and rows of dunes.

At Port Waikato, the sea has eroded about 50 metres in the last 10 to 16 years.

“It's burying your head in the sand if you don't think the erosion will affect you,” Poland said.

The popular holiday spot on the North Island’s West Coast has long been affected by a natural phenomenon where sand movements build up, then erode the shore.

But scientists agree climate change will exacerbate coastal erosion through sea level rise and frequent, severe storms.

In 2019, a beach-front house and the community’s surf club was demolished as they teetered too close to the sea.

Jo Poland, property owner on Ocean View Road, in Port Waikato. One erosion map predicts the sea may be through her house in the next 20 years.

One erosion map shows a street of houses washed away in 20 to 50 years’ time if potential rates of erosion continue.

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” Poland said with a sigh, looking at the map.

Sunset beach erosion in December concerns locals.

By these estimates, Poland's house would be wiped out in 20 years if two and a half metres of erosion a year continues.

Behind the house is a garage-turned office where Poland co-runs a charity, the Rural Youth and Adult Literacy Trust.

That could be wiped out in 50 years.

“I don’t think anyone knew the erosion was going get this bad so fast.”

When Poland purchased at Port Waikato in the mid 1990s, erosion wasn’t mentioned.

She started to worry seriously about it following a Waikato District Council report in 2015.

“We knew for a couple of years before that the erosion was happening, but most of the locals would say things like ‘oh this has happened before, it comes and it goes, that’s just the sea.’”

A 2019 drone shot of houses at Port Waikato. Since this was taken, the white roof house (to the far right) has been demolished.

Coastal scientist Jim Dahm has previously told Stuff the shoreline has built up seaward with sand almost 100 metres since 1940, then in the past 10 years it’s eroded rapidly.

Nobody knows how much more the shore will erode or whether it will build back up again, he has said.

He does not think the recent rapid erosion has been caused by climate change.

Poland disagrees.

She sees the dramatic storms and high waves at the Port.

Sometimes, she and her kids turn all the lights off in her house and watch the lightning flash in the pitch darkness.

Between the last 10 to 16 years, there has been 50 metres of erosion at the Port Waikato shoreline.

The next morning she'll wake to a mound of sand at her back doorstep.

It’s been picked up off the dunes and whipped over the roof by the wind, she thinks.

“The guy who built this place said to me: if you live on this road you need to love the sea in all her moods.

“He was right.”

As the sea comes closer, Poland has considered selling up and moving inland.

But she thinks the erosion has taken at least $200,000 off the value of her property, so is not sure she can afford to.

Climate economist Belinda Storey said people tended to still want coastal property because they were attached to the sea, and optimistically thought they could hold it back.

But around the country, there’s still a strong appetite for coastal property, despite climate change or environmental risk.

A recent Quotable Value (QV) survey of property consultants and valuers named coastal areas in most regions the most likely to increase in value in 2021.

Climate economist Belinda Storey said Port Waikato was a “glaring example” of how New Zealanders still want coastal property.

“Like a domino effect”, more houses on Ocean View Road will likely be condemned in the next 5, 10 or 15 years, Storey said.

Despite this, people still want to stay beside the sea.

“The way our minds are built is that we are really good at ignoring events, even if they are catastrophic.”

Even when there’s a high probability an event will happen people don't adjust their expectations.

“We tend to be optimists, we think it won't happen to me, and we’re too reliant that we can change nature, that we can hold back the sea.'

Poland has Plans A, B and C in mind as the sea advances, because despite the value loss on the house she's still got a “million dollar view”, she said.

She could make her house into a rented holiday home and convert the garage-turned office into a sleep out.

Or if the sea heads towards her front door, she will try moving her house, built on tiles. back from the edge.

But she expects she will have to pay for managed retreat, or even demolition.

“It’s a little house and it’s not worth much, the cost might be more than its worth.”

Poland has been through worry and anxiety about the rapidly encroaching sea.

But after considering her options, Poland will stay put and enjoy the ride and continue watching the waves.

At 68, she thinks she’ll “beat the sea outta here”.

“It's an adventure if nothing else.”