The surf beach and Sail Rock, the clifftop walkway, the calm harbour behind the spit and the long quiet of Te Arai. Then everything you can hire, learn or play.
Swim between the flags. The surf and the rips here are real.
01.
The long surf beach on the ocean side of the sandspit, patrolled by Mangawhai Heads Surf Life Saving Club over summer. Open coast, so the surf and the rips are real — swim between the flags when the club is on patrol.
02.
A coastal loop climbing from Mangawhai Heads onto the cliffs, with views back over the harbour and out to the Hen and Chicken Islands. The full loop returns along the beach, which means the tide decides whether you can close the circuit.
03.
The sheltered harbour behind the spit, calmer than the ocean beach and shallow at low tide. The sandspit itself is a wildlife refuge and a breeding site for shorebirds including the New Zealand fairy tern, so parts are closed or restricted in the nesting season.
04.
Open white-sand surf beach south of Mangawhai, reached through pine forest to car parks at the north and south ends. Unpatrolled, undeveloped and often quiet, with nesting shorebirds in the dunes.
