A Family Holiday Destination on the Firth of Thames
Ōrere Point is a small coastal settlement on the western shore of the Firth of Thames in southeast Auckland. It is accessed from the Pacific Coast Highway, between Kawakawa Bay and Tāpapakanga Regional Park. The village has a local store, a well-established holiday park, a beach reserve with playground and picnic facilities, and a much more attractive and dramatic beach setting than you would expect.
Discovering the Beach
The beach at Ōrere Point is about 1.5 km long and faces north-east across the Firth of Thames toward the Coromandel Peninsula. The main beach access is at the east end, alongside the Ōrere River. The river itself is an attractive feature, and can be explored. Around the river’s mouth, the beach is particularly wide and heavily pebbled. However, as you walk west along the beach, it transitions from pebbles to sand. The east side of the river mouth is entirely rocks and pebbles characteristic of the coast in the Firth of Thames.
Behind the beach are cliffs that rise from 20 metres to 40 metres high as you walk west. The cliffs are gold and orange, topped by big overhanging pōhutukawa trees. These cliffs provide the colour for the sand. You can drive along the beach for a few hundred metres before vehicle access is blocked by a string of boulders. New Zealand dotterel and oystercatchers nest on the beach and in intertidal areas near the reserve in season, and temporary fencing is erected to protect nesting sites.
From the car park at the east end of the beach, there is a short walkway with steps that takes you to the top of the cliff and the Ōrere Point Beach Reserve. The reserve has a playground, including a flying fox, toilet blocks, barbecues and picnic tables.
Alternative Access to the Beach’s West End
The most attractive part of the beach is further to the west, which is about a 1 km walk from the car park. An alternative is to drive to the end of Howard Road, above the cliff, where there is a signposted path that winds its way through a forested gully in the cliff to the beach. Along the way are several fabulous pōhutukawa trees, including a large tree just above the beach, whose centre and roots provide natural steps to the sand. This tree and others nearby provide natural shelters for a day on the sand. The water here is safe for swimming.
How to Get There
From Downtown Auckland, the drive takes just over 60 minutes. Take the southern motorway to the Hill Road off-ramp, then head east-northeast via Hill Road, Stratford Road, Alfriston Road, Alfriston-Ardmore Road, Clevedon-Takakani Road, and Clevedon-Papakura Road to Clevedon. From Clevedon, continue northeast on the Clevedon-Kawakawa Road for 15 minutes to Kawakawa Bay. From the bay, head south on Kawakawa Orere Road. The road curves east, then north. Take Orere Point Road, where signposted and follow this to the car park at the east end of the beach.
Other nearby places to visit on the Pacific Coast Highway include Waitawa Regional Park, Tawhitokino Beach, Waharau Regional Park, Kaiaua, Pūkorokoro / Miranda, and the Robert Findlay Wildlife Reserve on the Seabird Coast.
