In the first of our summer series celebrating the best Kiwi beaches, Greg McGee embraces the classic white-sand delights of a Coromandel jewel.
KEY POINTS:
I'm east coast wuss, not west coast macho: white sand, not black; recreation rather than survival; westerlies at my back, not in my face; off-shore islands, rather than emptiness then Australia.
Mind you, on my favourite stretch of coastline, a 25 kilometre strip (as the crow flies) along the eastern edge of the Coromandel from Opito Bay in the south, working north through Otama, Kuaotunu, Rings, Matarangi and Whangapoua to New Chums, there's a beach for most tastes - wild dune beaches with big swells, cozy pocket beaches, and rocky bluffs hemming sandy coves: some fronted by architectural statements in a bewildering variety of languages, some a nostalgic time-warp of cute fribro baches, and at least one still pristine and undisturbed, apart from boaties and day-trippers.
For me the centerpiece of this sliver of coast is Matarangi, four kilometres of white sand spit which faces due north to the whale, Cuvier, with a winking lighthouse on its tail, and Great Mercury, which my wife's great, great grandfather Henry Dods, came close to buying in 1884, when he was looking for a place to settle and farm.
"After leading our horses over a rather steep hill, we came in sight of a very pretty bay, with fine white sand and intensely clear water. Beyond this lay Peach Tree Grove, which was our destination," reads his diary. He eventually chose Gisborne, for which Michael Fay and David Richwite can count themselves lucky!
Matarangi's waves are mostly benign, big enough for a body surf or to tip you out of a kyak, but they don't often swallow you up and spit you out. For me, the length and shape of the beach itself is as critical as that of its wave. I don't want a pocket beach which goes nowhere, except back on itself in a perfect crescent.
At Matarangi, I can turn east and walk the crescent of sand to the bluff and on round the bluff road past the fishermen's rocks to Rings Beach and Kuaotunu, and a coffee in a caf which must have one of the best outlooks anywhere.
Or, more often, I can go west, following the crescent towards a succession of green-bushed promontories arcing away to the north - Whangapoua, New Chums, Kennedy Bay, Tuateawa, round towards the north western tip of the Coromandel, then on to Great Barrier Island, itself an extension of the Coromandel land mass.
The special charm of Matarangi is that as you walk west, instead of maintaining that predictable crescent, the beach begins turning back the other way, taking you past the protected dotterel nests to the entrance of the Whangapoua Harbour, gradually delivering you a vista of the Coromandel divide presided over by The Sleeping Giant, whose somnolent presence acts as a bearing for everyone, particularly all the little boats with their fill of scallops, snapper and crays looking for the track home.
At the end of the spit, if the tide's in, the still, translucent water and white sand can look like a tropical lagoon. There's a track back around the edge of the harbour to the jetty, bordered on the other side by a golf course, for most of the year an almost deserted manicured woodland sanctuary for pheasants and quail, and a rambler's short cut home.
Top New Zealand Beaches
Coopers Beach, Northland
Karikari Beach, Northland
Hot Water Beach, Coromandel Peninsula
Cooks Beach, Coromandel Peninsula
Hahei, Coromandel Peninsula
Bethells Beach, Auckland
Piha, Auckland
Cheltenham, Auckland
Raglan, Waikato
Mt Maunganui, Bay of Plenty
Ohope, Bay of Plenty
Wainui, Gisborne
* For a bigger list of options see Summer Detours in the Herald on Sunday.
What's your favourite NZ beach?
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