Kohimarama Beach

Kohimarama Beach
by The Auckland Psychogeographer

Kohi beach is possibly one of the most deeply Auckland places, a kind of uncommercial suburban amenity that is genuinely eye-popping to visitors, but is hardly remarkable to locals. Yet in a low key way, this place is deeply treasured by Aucklanders, and many lives are lived out here. People have trained racehorses here, and in Maori the name refers to collecting chips of wood from the carving of waka. Kohimarama is where people come to meditate in some fashion with Rangitoto, as it offers one of the most dead-on views of the volcano.

It’s not a village like St Heliers, nor a ridiculous tourist trap like Mission Bay, but it’s also not rugged or natural like a conventional beach. It’s a reinvention of the seafront, a transformation into something approximating ‘beach’ but with all the uncivilised sandy, wet and windy bits removed.

Erosion had increased over the 20th century to the extent that the seawall and Tamaki Drive was under threat. Reinstating that would have meant removing the long line of mature pohutukawa trees, and incredible disruption for the area, so 50,000 cubic metres of new sand was barged in from off the Pakiri coast of the Harbour Gulf, and today Kohimarama has soft golden sand and seashells. The project here has pioneered Auckland Council techniques in other coastal areas, meaning many of the region’s beaches will continue to have a certain fantasy element to them. You could call this fight against erosion a phoney thing to do, a mere pose. But for Aucklanders the preservation of Kohi (and the other beaches) is an act of psychic self-preservation, reminding us that - in theory - we all live at the seaside.

Kohi’s boardwalk compliments the beach, and most days it’s a thriving but not overly busy place of walkers, children and dogs. There’s heritage changing rooms, the Kohimarama Yacht Club, and a small cluster of shops and cafes (including one of the city’s few traditional German restaurant-bars, Der Metz) nearby. Everything is in proportion to the volcano - that is, modest and humble.

Feel free to sniff at Kohi. It’s hardly the epic, soul-crushing style beaches of the west, or the picturesque infinities of the Far North or Coromandel. But it is Auckland’s own invention, a convenient, soulful, unwrecked little touchstone.

Please feel free to submit a photo.

Image Credit: Google Maps