Smaills Beach (often spelled "Smails Beach") is a beach on the Pacific Ocean southeast of the city centre of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Located within the Ocean Grove Reserve adjacent to

Tomahawk Beach Tomahawk Beach is a beach on the Pacific Ocean southeast of the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located within the Ocean Grove, New Zealand, Ocean Grove Reserve between Ocean Beach, Otago, St Kilda Beach and Smaills Beach, at the point w ...

, at the point where

Otago Peninsula The Otago Peninsula () is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies south-east of Ot ...

joins the mainland of the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

, Smaills Beach is a white sand beach for much of its length, but its western end is covered in volcanic boulders. Just offshore from the beach, dominating the wave patterns of the surf, is the rocky outcrop known as Bird Island. Smaills Beach is clothing-optional, renowned for its wildlife, and popular with

surfers Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

Physical geography

Smaills Beach has a length of around and faces almost directly south. Boulders are scattered along the westernmost part of the beach. To the west, it is separated from

by Tomahawk Bluff, a small promontory of black volcanic rock punctuated by

sea cave A sea cave, is also known as a littoral cave, a type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea. The primary process involved is erosion. Sea caves are found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as re ...

s, on the top of which stands the Jack Fox Lookout. At very low tides the base of the promontory is exposed, making Tomahawk and Smaills effectively a single beach. To the east the beach is bounded by Tomahawk Creek, hugging the base of the high cliffs of Māori Head, beyond which rise Pudney Cliff and Highcliff. Northward an assortment of scrub-covered

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s rises up to meet Tomahawk Road. Southward the incoming waves of the Pacific Ocean are deflected into complex patterns by Bird Island, so named for its popularity with seabirds.

Rip current A rip current (or just rip) is a specific type of water current that can occur near beaches where waves break. A rip is a strong, localized, and narrow current of water that moves directly away from the shore by cutting through the lines of bre ...

s are a known hazard. Access to Smaills Beach is by a number of walking-tracks leading down through the dunes from the Tomahawk Road carparks, the chief one being alongside Tomahawk Creek. NZ sea lion Smaills Beach

Wildlife

Smaills Beach is frequented by

yellow-eyed penguin The yellow-eyed penguin (''Megadyptes antipodes''), known also as hoiho, is a species of penguin endemic to New Zealand. It is the sole extant species in the genus ''Megadyptes''. Previously thought closely related to the little penguin (''Eud ...

s, little blue penguins, and

New Zealand sea lion The New Zealand sea lion (''Phocarctos hookeri''), once known as Hooker's sea lion, and as (for both male and female) or (male) and (female) in Māori, is a species of sea lion that is endemic to New Zealand and primarily breeds on New Zeala ...

s. Visitors are advised to take care and keep their distance, for the sake of these animals' safety and, in the case of the sea lions, their own. In particular, beachgoers are asked to keep dogs under control around sea lions as aggressive interactions could result in injuries on either side.

Oystercatcher The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family (biology), family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and Sout ...

red-billed gull The red-billed gull (''Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae scopulinus''), also known as tarāpunga and as the mackerel gull, is a native gull, seagull of New Zealand, being found throughout the country and on outlying islands including the Chatham I ...

s and black-backed gulls are often seen on the beach. Smaills' invertebrate community is similar to that of the surrounding coastal area, but with greater diversity of habitats.

Environmental concerns

Wind erosion of the sand dunes is a concern at Smaills Beach as for much of the adjacent coastline. The

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council () is the Local government in New Zealand, local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since O ...

is addressing this concern by an ongoing programme of contouring and revegetation, through a memorandum of understanding with the Tomahawk Smaills Beachcare Trust.

Social geography

History and name

Prior to European colonization, Smaills and Tomahawk Beaches formed part of a walking track for

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

travelling between

Ōtākou Otakou ( ) is a settlement within the boundaries of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located 25 kilometres from the city centre at the eastern end of Otago Peninsula, close to the entrance of Otago Harbour. Though a small fishing villag ...

and

Tomahawk Lagoon Tomahawk Lagoon is a twin-lobed lagoon, located at the western end of the Otago Peninsula within the city limits of Dunedin, New Zealand. It lies close to the southeastern edge of the city's main urban area, near the suburb of Ocean Grove, whic ...

. Smaills Beach is named for the Smaill family, who were central to the local farming community in the 1870s and 1880s. Their original homestead still stands near the beach and is listed as a Historic Place Category 2 by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of Archaeology of New Zealand, ancest ...

. It is presently in use as the clubhouse of the Tautuku Fishing Club. In 1897 the local area including both Smaills and Tomahawk Beaches was classified as a government reserve, and in 1931 it was formally established as the Ocean Grove Reserve.

Current use

Smaills Beach is regarded as a good surfing beach and hence is popular with surfers, but due to the rip currents is a recurring source of rescue callouts. It is not patrolled by lifeguards, and the public are urged not to surf or swim alone. Smaills Beach is the site of the Tomahawk Smaills Beachcare Trust's

plant nursery A nursery is a place where plants are plant propagation, propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry, or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which se ...

, which the Trust estimates produces 4000 plants each year for the purpose of revegetating and stabilizing the dune system throughout the Reserve. The Tomahawk Road carparks above the beach are frequented by freedom campers. Tension has arisen between these campers and local residents, who want their presence banned. The reason given by residents is that the campers habitually defecate in the Reserve; however, the solution of providing public toilets at the site has been rejected in favour of the proposed ban. Smaills Beach is periodically used by

naturists Naturism is a lifestyle of practicing non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...

for nude bathing. New Zealand has no official nude beaches, as public nudity is legal on any beach where it is "known to occur". This has not prevented some beach users from calling the police on visiting naturists.

References

{{reflist Beaches of Dunedin Naturism in New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Category 2 historic places in Otago Nude beaches Otago Peninsula Surfing locations in New Zealand