Tawhitokino beach

Day 221, Friday 30 March 2018

Today I rode to Waiti Bay, east of Kawakawa Bay, and then walked further around the coast to Tawhitokino beach. At Kawakawa Bay, the road from Auckland takes a sharp right turn to go to Orore Point and Kaiaua. If instead you go straight on, on Kawakawa Bay Coast Road, you ride along a narrow twisty country road which ends up at a nice little beach called Waiti Bay. The road ends here, with a small carpark.

At low tide, you can scramble across the rocks at the south end of Waiti Bay, and after a few minutes you find yourself at Tuturau Bay, which is a sandy beach at bit larger than Waiti. A track then goes steeply up over the headland and down to Tawhitokino Beach, which is about a kilometre and a half long, white sand, with pohutukawa trees providing shade, and mostly deserted. This might be one of the world’s best beaches! There’s a campground here but there are no facilities other than toilets.

It is possible to go further around the rocks to reach Taiwawe Beach. I didn’t go that far but it is apparently a very nice beach. A few more small beaches later, you can get to Orore Point. I intend to investigate these beaches at a later time, starting at Orore.

Distance travelled: 122 km. Total distance so far: 29,151 km