This wave is called the Whanga Bar and it has excellent left-hand waves when the swell is large enough. Unfortunately the wave is generally crowded when it is worth surfing. The harbour mouth and river mouth will usually have anglers present. The Whangamata Wharf is a popular spot all year round for ocean fishing. Boats can be launched from the Whangamata Harbour at the northern end of the beach. The beach is our favourite playground, but it can also be a dangerous place.
Learn about the hazards at Whangamata Beach and be prepared so you and your family can enjoy the sun, sea and sand safely this summer. We want you to have a great time whilst visiting Whangamata Beach. But take a moment to learn more about being safe on New Zealand Beaches.
In an emergency call and ask for Police assistance. Surf Lifeguard patrols will resume in October But take a moment to learn more about being safe on New Zealand beaches and looking out for each other. Whangamata Beach is located 86 kilometres north of Tauranga. The beach is metres in length and faces towards the northeast, at its central point is Whangamata Surf Life Saving Club.
The beach is a unique set up. At the northern end there is a harbour inlet Whangamata Harbour. The central beach area has a large curve in it. Located just slightly south of the Surf Life Saving Club is Hauturu Island and a few other smaller islands and large rocks.
Continue to the southern most point on the beach and you reach Otahu River mouth that runs along the small headland. Whangamata Beach is golden sand and is very appealing to the eye. It has a well established permanent population and this increases greatly over the summer months with holiday makers and tourists boosting the population of Coromandel beaches. When a few from the Whangamata surfing fraternity noticed they were getting sick more frequently than their landlubber counterparts, they started taking an interest in the health of the harbour, since they were spending hours at a time surfing at its mouth on outgoing tides and ingesting its water.
Shanks, a stocky, barrel-chested Westie, had grown up surfing the rugged west coast beaches of Piha and Karekare.
Not really intending to cross swords with officialdom, Shanks raised concerns with the council about the state of the harbour when a red discolouration, caused by algal blooms, appeared around its fringe. Environment Waikato EW was called on to assess the situation and locate the source of the problem—if, indeed, there was one.
He also found that the wastewater spray-irrigation area—the main source of contamination in the harbour catchment—was not large enough. His study discovered that almost as soon as it had commenced operation, the wastewater plant had sprayed only 38 ha of forested hills above the town, when the original proposal was for an area of 72 ha. By , the area being sprayed was down to 24 ha, causing an overload of treated waste on the steep hillsides that inevitably drained into the harbour.
The study also found that when the treatment plant had been installed, provision had been made for upgrading it as the town grew in size, but no such upgrade had taken place. After all his lobbying to improve the quality of the water he surfs in, Shanks now fears the dredging for the marina will disrupt the process of sand deposition at the harbour entrance and have an adverse effect on the bar.
A bunch of youths parked up on a driveway shelter beneath beach umbrellas, several garbed in wet suits, quietly sipping beers while trying to appear oblivious to the melancholy skies above. This seemed to work. I decide to take my leave early this year. The weather has extinguished all likelihood of high-spirited festivities, and most people are huddled indoors.
Will the marina development really be the blessing for the town that the Whangamata Marina Society claims, bringing jobs and stemming the tide of departures indicated by the last census? Or might it instead bring about the loss of an important estuarine ecology and a one-of-a-kind surf break, as others in the community believe?
No one seems able to say conclusively. What does seem certain, though, is that the marina, like the causeway it is destined to abut, will impose further changes on the harbour and this once sleepy little town by the sea.
More by Peter James Quinn. Unlimited access to every NZGeo story ever written and hundreds of hours of natural history documentaries on all your devices. Signed in as. Sign out. Lost your password? Create an account. Ask your librarian to subscribe to this service next year. Related items. Go back.
The Wentworth Falls walk is particularly lovely. Arts and crafts shops provide interesting browsing, and surf shops cluster along the main road with boards for hire. Let us show you the best of New Zealand on other platforms by selecting 'On' and allowing us to share data from your visit s with our partners. Our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy explain how we use your data and who our partners are. In addition to above, we use other cookies and analytics to provide a better site experience.
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