Wharariki Beach is a

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

on the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 wa ...

, west of Cape Farewell, the northernmost point 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 ...

of New Zealand.

Geography

The north-facing sandy beach is accessible only via a 20-minute walking track from the end of Wharariki Road. The road end is approximately from the nearest settlement, the small village of

Pūponga Pūponga is a tiny settlement in New Zealand and is the northernmost settlement in the South Island. It is in the Tasman District, north of Collingwood, at the foot of Farewell Spit. The spit's airstrip, Triangle Flat Airstrip is just north ...

. A camping ground is located along Wharariki Road, but the area surrounding the beach is devoid of any development. Wharariki Beach is bordered by Puponga Farm Park, with the wider area more or less surrounded by the northern end of

Kahurangi National Park Kahurangi National Park is a national park in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the second largest of the thirteen national parks of New Zealand. It was gazetted in 1996 and covers , ranging from the Buller River near Murc ...

. The beach is flanked to the east and west by cliffs, but due to the flat topography of the area behind it, the beach area and the grassy dunes behind it are quite exposed to winds.

Archway Islands

Wharariki Beach is perhaps best known for the

Archway Islands The Archway Islands are a group of four rock stacks or small islands in New Zealand. The islands are located in Tasman District's Golden Bay / Mohua at Wharariki Beach. Geography and name The Archway Islands are located just west of the northe ...

, a small

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

of four islands ranging from the beachside (part of the beach at low tide) to roughly offshore. The islands are featured frequently in photos in New Zealand landscape calendars. It is also the default lock screen image on

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

operating system.

Attractions

The beach is popular for its colony of

fur seal Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family Otariidae. They are much more closely related to sea lions than Earless seal, true seals, and share with them external ears (Pinna (anatomy ...

pups; during low tide, people have access to the pools where pups play in front of the easternmost of the Archway Islands.

References

{{Tasman District Beaches of the Tasman District Golden Bay