Te Henga and Wigmore Bays

I time my arrival at Te Henga two hours before low tide, intending to skirt Raeakiaki Point and explore Wigmore Bay. I cut through the Te Henga sand dunes, around Raeakiaki to Wigmore Bay, and then as far around Momori as I could before a sheer fissure with a ragged rope slung across it halted progress. 

I was the only person in Wigmore Bay (understandable given the treacherous rock scramble and tide dependency and unending wave action along that coast). It was spectacular. Steep sided in all directions with one landslide and a couple of steep rivulets that could be clambered down with some hazard – otherwise only accessible by sea or at low tide. 

The back of the beach hosts a small spinefex-covered sand dune and a small copse of pōhutukawa, before ramping up through toitoi to sheer cliff-face – pinnacled in places, pyroclastic in others. It’s glorious, magnificent, hearty, heartening.

I photograph riroriro | grey warbler, kaireka | Eurasian skylark, kāruhiruhi | pied cormorant, tōrea | South Island pied oystercatcher, pīhoihoi | New Zealand pipit, tarāpunga | red-billed gull, and tūturiwhatu | New Zealand dotterel.

6.6 kilometres, negligible elevation, over two-and-a-half hours.