Port Waikato

Port Waikato
By Celia Walker

The future is coming with a rush to Port Waikato. This sleepy bach community loved by surfers and whitebaiters is facing the full force of the erosion effects of climate change, with the coastline here receding at a massive five metres a year since 2012. It lost its local hall to these forces in 2019, the surf club car park has been disappearing in great chunks, and a few owners of once premium sea-front properties are facing up to the realities of a gradual relocation further back.

Despite these very contemporary concerns, the settlement has a feeling of being lost in a much quieter past – a largely no-frills holiday town with all the essentials and none of the pretensions of many east coast beaches near Auckland. It is 120 years since the town’s heyday as a port and as a connecting point between steamers plying the Waikato River and Northern Steamship Company vessels operating along the coast. The general store still operates from the same place as it did in 1893, but there is little else suggestive of its commercial past.

The real glory is in the shapeshifting natural landscape surrounds – the black sand dunes are constantly on the move, and the beach is long, wild and largely empty. Locals suggest coming dressed for all weather, wind is a constant presence to be embraced. The Jurassic-era fossils found within the rocks at the southern end of the beach suggest a 90 million year age for the bones of this landscape. This is similar geology to the more celebrated sedimentary rocks further south at Kawhia. Tides have carved away at the outcrops on the beach, giving their ancient forms the look of fresh wet clay sculptures – visually stunning, but also the perfect playground for nature-curious children.

Image Credits: Celia Walker