Wharariki Beach

Wharariki Beach is wild, gorgeous and a perfect place for landscape photography. It is located in the far North Eastern corner of New Zealand’s South Island.

The photos in this post were taken during a recent winter visit to the beach and Golden Bay whose shores you travel along to reach the beach.

Wharariki has a lot of diversity including sand dunes, surf, nearby offshore islands and rock stacks, sea caves and seals. The beach runs for about 2.5 km but should be visited at half to low tide as many of its interesting features are only accessible at lower tides. The first 1kilometer is walkable at high tide but lots of rock features are beyond this point. There are four very near shore islands named the Archway Islands from the two rock arches in the largest island.

The beach and surrounding park land is managed by the Department of Conservation and the trail to the beach is about 2 km at first through rolling farm land and coastal forest. There are several other walking and biking trails including a trail to Farewell Spit and a 3-5 hour walk along the hills parallel to the beach. For DOC information go to: https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/

The beach is in the Tasman District about 1 hour drive from Takaka and an hour and one half from Nelson. There is a campground near the trail’s car park so you can stay near the beach and trails yet the area is not developed as the campground is the only commercial presence. One of the reasons the area has retained its remote character.

For the linguistically curious, Wharariki is the Maori name for a native New Zealand flax.