A guide to south Manukau Harbour beaches.

A list and description of south Manukau Harbour beaches.

South Manukau Harbour beaches starting from the Manukau heads about 90 minutes drive from central Auckland, has a lighthouse with good views of the Harbour entrance where you can see the currents and sand bars that can make the entrance treacherous for boats. The access road has a gate that is locked at between 5.00 p.m and 9.00a.m. Requiring a walk of about 1km along a gravel road to get to the best vantage point if you arrive outside those times.

Then following the coast in to the South Manukau Harbour there is:

Wattle Bay. - Has a quiet beach with about 550 metres of sand and an adjacent grassed foreshore public park. Making it more suitable for picnicking and swimming than Orua Bay beach.

Orua Bay.- Has a pleasant sheltered little beach with about 730 metres of sand at high tide. Best for swimming at high tide. The shore front property owners have claimed the land as private up to the high tide mark, leaving little space for the public at high tide. The beach is also driveway for bach owners, so you have to vigilant that you're not walking in front of a vehicle.

Big Bay. - Has a quiet sheltered beach about 500 metres long, with a small number of adjacent dwellings and a commercial motor camp with a boat ramp.

Hudsons Beach and Grahams Beach.- Are essentially one beach that has a quiet sheltered stretch of sand about one kilometre long, with a small number of adjacent dwellings with Hudsons Beach Road near one end and Grahams Beach Road at the other end for access.

Awhitu Regional Park.- Has two quiet beaches, Kauritutahi about 470 metres long and Brook about 660 metres long with safe swimming at both. (Beware of sharp shells). Theres a boat ramp at the end of Featon Avenue with water access two hours either side of high tide. There are two camping areas, one behind Brook Homestead and the other on a headland overlooking the Manukau Harbour.
Self contained campervans can stay up to 2 nights in the car park. Awhitu outdoor education centre is available for school or community groups with bunk style accommodation.
Also has walking, mountain biking and horse riding areas with farmed animals.

Clarks Beach. - Is sheltered with about 1.2 kilometres of beach . Theres a pleasant drive through a rural area to reach the beach with residential dwelling adjacent to the beach. The beach is shallow and suitable for swimming at high tide, but at low tide the sand flats extend a considerable distance. If you want to swim at low tide you need to go to the western end where there is an estuary.Beware of tidal currents passing in and out with the tide.
There's also beach access for boat launching here.

The inner Manukau Harbour is a shallow estuarine environment with many muddy areas and doesn't have anything that could fairly be described as a south Manukau Harbour beach until you get to the next page, Onehunga to Jenkins Bay beaches.

Go to Auckland Beaches from south Manukau Harbour beaches.

Go to NZ-Auckland Homepage.