Muritai - Robinson Bay

A few folk live in the small streets between the wild Robinson Bay Beach and the bush clad hills of East Harbour Regional Park.

South of Eastbourne Village, a kilometre of suburban streets peters out toward Point Arthur, then Korohiwa Bay where there is the memorial to the Wahine disaster, and the home of Hutt Valley Buses. The road after that becomes the Coastal Trail to Pencarrow Lighthouse.

The beach itself used to be sandy and friendly like other Eastbourne Bays Beaches until the 1970s. Coastal drift has since then brought in masses of riverstones, washed down from the Orongorongos in the 1855 earthquake, to rest on this coastline, the beach growing as surely as others are eroded.

Now a wide stony foreshore it is a breeding ground for protected birds and is looked after by a local conservation group. Kite surfers enjoy the middle section and during a Southerly the far end provides a couple of breaks. Makaro (Ward) island is a healthy kayak, challenging optimist trip, or a decent swim for the adventurous. During and following WWII a favourite activity for locals was to walk the anti-submarine boom which connected the mainland and the island. This is no longer in place.