Pakawau Beach

Pakawau sits on the road between Collingwood and Farewell Spit, at the far northern end of Golden Bay where almost nobody goes. The campground is right on the beach, and at low tide the water pulls back several hundred metres to leave a flat expanse of hard sand you can walk on for as long as you like.

It makes the natural base for Farewell Spit and Wharariki Beach — the one with the arches and the seal pups in the rock pools, twenty-five minutes further on down an unsealed road and then a twenty-minute walk over the dunes. Go at low tide, and go in the late afternoon for the light.

Getting to Golden Bay at all means crossing Tākaka Hill, which is a long climb with tight hairpins on both sides. Take it in low gear, allow an hour from Motueka, and do not do it after dark for the first time.