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Waverley Beach

Sea Caves And Arches

Difficulty: Easy beach walks
Bring: Tide chart
Waverley Beach
NZGps: 39° 49' 59.4876" S 174° 38' 10.8744" E
4
Average: 4 (1 vote)

Waverley Beach is WAY off the beaten track…some maps don’t even list the town of Waverley. Surprisingly, even in Waverley, the sign doesn’t point you to the “beach,” but rather says “camping/cemetery/golf.” What this beach does have, besides a golf cemetery, is a fabulously scenic sea-arch and a bunch of other neat coves, caves and features to explore. Sometimes you’ll see a photo of this arch in Taranaki’s tourist literature, but they rarely mention where this arch is located.

Waverley Beach is a polished blacksand beach backed by sheer grey/ orange cliffs—sort of like a mini Tongaporutu. Most of the beach disappears at high tide, but that’s when the waves bash the cliffs for a marvelous show of spray. Then, when the tide’s out, exploring is in. To the south are long sea caves, some with skylight holes. The north side of the beach is driftwood-a-rama with some puzzling tree stumps that Mt. Taranaki entombed under heaps of ash clay (Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth has a display detailing this “lost forest”.)

Hurry over to see the arch—it collapses little by little every year and won’t be with us for long!

Excerpt from "NZ Frenzy Guidebook" by Scott CookNZ Frenzy Guidebook

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Comments

you have to get the tides

warp factor 0's picture

you have to get the tides right otherwise you'll end up in deep trouble.
But assuming you do that, then this is a must.
Long walks on black sand beaches - lovely, if not hot in the sun......makes the sea more inviting.

4

Submitted by warp factor 0 on Sun, 2018-02-04 14:03