Continent |
Oceania |
Country |
New Zealand |
Next Big City |
Auckland, North Island |
Next Town |
Beachlands, Omana Beach |
|
Type: |
Ocean |
Rider Ability: |
Beginner, Intermediate, Expert |
Features: |
Toilet, Parking |
Water
Type: |
Shallow, Chop |
Hazards: |
Shells |
Quality: |
Clean |
Best Tide: |
High tide, Coming tide, Falling tide |
Flat water, small chop. High tide is ideal waist depth. Low tide can still be ridden but 100m walk required from beach. If your riding at low tide make sure you wear boots, lots of oysters and foul bottom.
Beach
Type: |
Sand |
Size: |
Small |
Hazards: |
Shells |
Beach Users: |
None |
Beach is pretty small, about 100m long and backs onto a reserve. Mostly shells, odd bit of sand, a few branches around the place. The reserve is ideal for landing kites.
Weather
Spring:
|
Normal |
Summer:
|
Shorts, Shorty |
Fall:
|
Normal |
Winter:
|
Normal |
Water is pretty warm, about 25°C in summer, cool in winter though, about 15°C. No wetsuit needed during summer.
Wind
Best Months: |
September, October, November |
Wind Type: |
Thermal, Frontal |
Best Direction: |
N, NE, NW |
Main Direction: |
NE, E, SW, WSW, W |
Best directions here are from the N, NE or NW. Northerlies have a fairly consistent spread throughout the year so there is no real ON/OFF period at this beach. Still touch and go though as Northerlies aren't the prevailing wind direction in AK. The N/NW winds that work well at this spot don't come around that often. Prevailing directions out East Auckland way: Summer: NE isobaric winds. Northerly Sea Breezes. Autumn: NE isobaric winds, odd westerly day. Winter: Anything goes, but mostly SW. Spring: Mostly from WSW, W, windiest season in Auckland. Auckland has no real off season with good winds year round.
How to get there
Transport |
Car |
Access
|
Medium walk |
From the airport head to Pakuranga, then head to Whitford and carry onto Beachlands. Past Beachlands head to Omana, just before Omana turn a left into a reserve/car park. You can see the firth of Thames and the beach from there. Walk across the reserve to get to beach.
Extra information
No rules here but commonsense prevails of course. Kiteleash recommended as while reserve doesn't pose a problem for runaway kites, the open road behind it does.
Nightlife
Nothing. Howick is the closest night spot and that's 20km away. Auckland city is over 50km drive.