About 67km north of Gisborne on SH35, between Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay, Anaura Road peels off towards the coast and drops you into Anaura Bay: a long, quiet sweep of sand that regularly gets named among the best beaches in the country, with Motuoroi Island sitting just offshore. Most people stop for the beach, but the free Anaura Bay Walkway is the best way to take it all in.

The track starts at the northern end of the recreation reserve (look for the walkway sign on the true right bank of the stream) and makes a loop of around two hours. It’s graded easy, but don’t let that fool you: there are some steep climbs, a boggy patch about halfway and a couple of crossings of the Waipare Stream that can be more than ankle-deep, so wear shoes you don’t mind getting wet.

The payoff is the variety. You climb through coastal forest and pine-clad valleys into dense native bush, then top out on a ridge saddle with a big panoramic view over the whole bay, out to Motuoroi Island and down the coast to the south.
There’s history here too. On 21 October 1769, before moving on to Tolaga Bay and Cooks Cove, James Cook landed at the southern end of Anaura Bay and met local Māori. The bay is home to Hinetamatea Marae, a gathering place for Te Aitanga-ā-Hauiti and several Ngāti Porou hapū, so please treat the area and the community with respect.

It’s free, but it’s remote, so bring water, food and everything else you’ll need. A few genuinely useful local tips: only walk it in dry weather, as the track gets very slippery when wet; skip it on windy days because of falling branches from the pines; and the landowners can close it when fire risk is high. If you want to stay, DOC’s Anaura Bay campsite sits right by the beach but closes from the end of Easter to Labour Weekend.

Photos: Wildman NZ via Wikimedia Commons.