The New Zealand Coastal Experience: A case study from Great Barrier Island

Abstract

The coast plays a profoundly important part in the New Zealand psyche. It is a place of recreation and residence, holidays and hard work. It is also a place with which many New Zealanders feel an inherent personal and cultural connection. While the coast is a fundamental attribute within the New Zealand lifestyle, little research has considered what it might be which fuels this powerful connection, instead, choosing to focus on issues of physical landscape modification or development. This thesis investigates what the place of the coast means for New Zealanders. It explores the significance of the New Zealand coastal setting as a context for everyday life. Set upon Auckland's Great Barrier Island, the research in this thesis explores the perceptions of, and connections which the island's residents feel towards the coastal landscape, including investigation into the place of coastal attachments and identities. Through the review of geographical place theory, and a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted in 2010 with 25 Great Barrier Island residents, findings reveal that the connection with the coast is a highly complex and emotional process. It is manifested to be a highly individualised, subjective and dynamic practice, constructed through an elaborate assemblage of distinctive and divergent factors, which operate both with and against each other. In light of this, the thesis contends that while the New Zealand coastal connection is often suggested to be an attribute which is inherent to the country's population, it is, in fact, a complex and individualised process, operating on a different level for all those who associate with the coast.