Work Starts At Wainui

For the next three or four months, the peaceful calm of Wainui Beach, usually broken only by the sound of the surf, will be punctuated by the staccato hammering of a pile-driver, as 28 steel groynes are driven into the sand and soft papa rock. Estimated to cost about £17,000, the groynes will assist the build-up of sand and provide protection against the erosion which has periodically plagued Wainui, and sometimes has required houses to be shifted out of danger.

The groynes, of the interlocking steel pile type, will each be about 60ft long. They consist of 12ft piles, with an occasional 16ft length for additional strength. They will be spaced (Four chains apart, from the point above the pile-driver in the picture above, to the Okitu stream in the picture below (marked by an arrow). If the scheme works out right, the groynes will eventually be completely covered by sand.