After spending a whole day at Piha Beach, Mataitai Bay was my first stop of my second day of driving around Auckland. My goal was to drive on a road that was as close to the coast as possible and the farthest point of my visit within 2.5 hrs driving distance from origin.
Right now, I prefer driving around, stumbling upon a spot and then deciding how much time I want to spend there. I have always preferred doing this, but this is the first time in my life that I get to choose, independently. Mataitai Bay, from the looks of it, from whatever I could find online, isn’t much of a tourist attraction per se. It is smallish compared to most popular Auckland beaches and the sand on the beach isn’t sand – it’s crushed shells, which are much larger than sand grains. It has its own appeal, especially the way waves create this magical tinkling sound when they hit the beach.
On the far-right side, there’s also a pier where several people were spending their day fishing.
There’s a patch of well-maintained grass, with several picnic tables littered around, including two literally on the beach. One is usable when the tide is low, which is where I photographed myself around driftwood.
Walking around on the rocks and sandy hillside, be careful of wasps / bees (I’m not sure which but I believe they are wasps). There’s at least one massive ocean-facing wasp nest built into the sandy hillside, which I walked to, accidentally. Then my eyes caught motion, and I realized there were a million tiny buzzing bodies going in to and coming out of the side of the hill. I booked it out of that spot quickly.
There’s also a couple of barbecue / grills and plenty of parking. The spot is more for hikers than beachgoers as there are several marked and unmarked trails into the hills and I saw plenty of people parking their cars and heading straight to one of the trails without a second look at the beach.
I spent about 4 hours here, ate lunch, photographed myself and then picked another spot along the same road that brought me here, to drive further down the coast.
I also visited Piha Beach, Haroto Bay, Whakatiwai, Ngarunui Beach at Raglan, I drove along State Highway 22 and ended my trip with a day spent photographing more of myself and writing, at the Les Batkin Reserve on the Waikato Riverside. Obviously, more photo stories coming soon. I also plan to wrap it up all with a comprehensive post about the entire New Zealand trip.
Thank you for reading!
