footprints & photographs: Tauwhitokino Bay

Today we ventured out east, way east, past Kawakawa Bay, to the walk from Waiti Bay to Tauwhitokino Bay and back. You drive to Kawakawa Bay on the Pacific Coast Highway, then keep heading along Kawakawa Bay Coast Road for quite some time. The drive itself is wonderful, but the walk is even better.

At Waiti Bay we parked the car and headed off to the southern end of the beach, then around the headland over the rocks. There's quite a lot of going around headlands via rocks, and it would pay to check the tide - we didn't and it was nearly high tide when we got back (and a higher than usual tide too) which meant getting a bit wet.

The walk isn't purely coastal though, there's also a section up and down a hill through bush, with a clearly laid out track that is largely stepped.

Ultimately, after several others gorgeous bays, as only NZ can do, we ended up at beautiful Tauwhitokino Bay, a long expanse of beautiful sand, with a few bright red jellyfish, and one lone beach fisher. There's a very basic camp ground there, basically just a non-bush area of ground with a sign saying no more than twenty people. It's got an ace drift wood swing though.

Unfortunately the camera stopped working early on, so at this stage I only have pics from Waiti Bay, one of gulls on the sand and the other of the beach itself, looking back from the rocks where you start heading around the coast.

If I ever work out how to retrieve pics off my phone there may be more added to this post.

All in all, a slightly challenging walk due to the hill and the rocks, I'd recommend walking sandals and shorts so there are no worries about splashing about a bit. Fantastic views of the Kawakawa coast and across to Coromandel. Plus we saw gulls, cormorants, kereru, a canada goose, and heard fantails. And of course there were sheep.

Updated, 19th Oct 2006 8.43pm: To add aforementioned pics from phone.