Where to find the best beaches in New Zealand

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Everyone in New Zealand seems to have their favourite beach and Kiwis will passionately argue for their chosen strip of sand.

Top-selling weekend newspaper the Herald on Sunday asked its readers to help decide which was the best beach in New Zealand and they were besieged with votes for all types of beach, ranging from quiet, family-safe beaches to wild, black sand beaches with rampant surf.

The west coast beach at Piha was voted New Zealand’s best beach. The beach, about an hour’s drive west of Auckland, was chosen as the nation’s top beach.

Piha only just saw off a strong challenge from another of Auckland’s iconic beaches, Takapuna Beach.

Beyond that, votes came in for beaches as far apart as Dunedin’s St Clair in the south and Ninety Mile Beach in the north.

The contest for most scenic beach was also hotly debated. Coromandel Peninsula’s Cathedral Cove eventually took the public vote but only just ahead of Kaiteriteri in Nelson Bays.

The best beaches in New Zealand

Top choice

Piha, Auckland’s West Coast

Best of the rest (not in order)

Takapuna, North Shore

Mission Bay, Auckland

Kaiteriteri, Nelson Bays

Tahunanui, Nelson

Cathedral Cove, Coromandel Peninsula

Cooks Beach Coromandel Peninsula

Mt Maunganui, Bay of Plenty

KariKari Beach, Northland

Coopers Beach, Northland

Ninety Mile Beach, Northland

Best beach in New Zealand for kids

Top choice

Waiake Beach, North Shore.

Best of the rest (not in order)

Orewa Beach, Rodney

Thornton Bay, Coromandel Peninsula

Cheltenham, North Shore

Takapuna, North Shore

Tahunanui, Nelson

Best beach in New Zealand for surf

Top choices

A tie between Piha and Whale Bay, Raglan

Best of the rest (not in order)

Whangamata, Coromandel Peninsula

Mt Maunganui, Bay of Plenty

Wainui, Gisborne

Best secret beach in New Zealand

Top choice

Awana, Great Barrier

Source: Herald on Sunday


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