4WD enthusiasts are invited to a sand dune planting and beach clean up day for off-road vehicle users at Muriwai Regional Park on Sunday 27 July.

The Auckland Regional Council and the 4WD Association are co-ordinating the event with support from Rodney District Council, Franklin District Council, Forest & Bird and the Department of Conservation.

"This is a great opportunity to take your vehicle off road for the first time under controlled conditions, whether you have ever been off-road before or not, come along and give it a go while at the same time doing something that assists the environment." said 4WD enthusiast Mike Hirst.

The event will start at 10am with a short briefing within the carpark adjacent to the northern Muriwai beach access (just past the Muriwai Golf Course). People are encouraged to bring spades. Every participating vehicle will receive an information pack and be organised into groups for planting and clean-up.

A barbecue after midday will conclude the event. The event will take place rain or shine, promises Ana Lovell, the ARC officer involved in the event organisation.

"The day is an opportunity for us to meet 4WD owners and to highlight the fragile parts of the environment to vehicle drivers, such as bird breeding sites and eroding sand dunes, and to discuss appropriate speeds and places to go," said Ms Lovell.

"Responsible use of vehicles on beaches will help ensure continued access for beach fishing and other recreational vehicle uses," said ARC Coastal Manager Hugh Leersnyder.

Representatives of recreational interests, local and regional authorities, the Department of Conservation and Forest & Bird have been discussing ways to enable the growing recreational pressures on our beaches and growing use of a variety of vehicles to exist alongside other beach users and coastal protection. "We have all been working together to encourage responsible recreational vehicle use on beaches," said Ms Lovell. "We're looking forward to having a great day out on the beach and we encourage people to come along," said Ms Lovell.

For more information please call

ARC Manager Coastal Environments Hugh Leersnyder, PH 366 2000 ext 7002

ARC event organiser Ana Lovell, PH 366 2000 ext 8192

4WD enthusiast Mike Hirst, PH 0210 474 273.

Also here is a neat weather site, similar to Manukau site but covers all of nz plus antartica, in case anybody is going kitefishing there

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/tmcgavin/current_nzweather.html

Cheers Trish

Where to Kitefish from July to Early August

Although we haven't had any fishing reports in this week, we do have the benefit of the archives to look back on what people were catching around this time last year.

Newsletter 24 confirms that it is nearly time for the big fish to arrive on the east coast. Now is a good time to pull out your fishing gear, dust off the cobwebs, do any running repairs, and get ready for the start of another very productive fishing season.

Good catches of gurnard, with the occassional snapper which have been reported recently from the Bay of Plenty area should continue for another couple of months yet.

By September pre-spawning snapper should be turning up around the east coast from North Cape to East Cape and good numbers of large gurnard should be available on the west coast until November when the school snapper arrive.

It is this time of year that some VERY BIG solitary snapper are caught on both the east and west coast. Hot spots for these large fish are generally Mokau, Port Waikato, Kariotahi Beach, the west coast out from Dargaville and 90 Mile Beach on the west coast. On the east coast big fish are taken at this time of year from Cape Rodney to Devonport, (particularly night fishing at Orewa), Ti Arai Point and Northlands east coast.

Paul's pick for Auckland kitefishers this weekend is the top of Muriwai Beach on Saturday using dropper rigs.

Please send in your fishing reports!