NOT SO POPULAR: Mount Maunganui has failed to gain a place in an online competition searching for New Zealand's best beach.PHOTO/FILE
NOT SO POPULAR: Mount Maunganui has failed to gain a place in an online competition searching for New Zealand's best beach.PHOTO/FILE
Mount Maunganui is often marketed as the Bay of Plenty's best beach but it has lost out to Ohope and Waihi Beach in an online poll of people's favourites in New Zealand.
The AA's (Automobile Association) "Most Loved Beaches of NZ" competition pits beaches from each region against each otherto put one through into a national final.
Mount Maunganui scored 8000 votes, failing to even make it into the final 10. However, Ohope received 59,133 votes and Waihi Beach received 46,825.
Ohope has now gone through to the national final, where it is in the lead against Matai Bay in Northland, which has 38,469 votes, and Whangamata Beach (which comes under the Coromandel region), which has 10,845 votes.
AA general manager of membership and brand Dougal Swift said Ohope and Waihi Beach were "neck and neck" at one point but Ohope came away with the votes to carry it through to the finals.
It was now the lead contender, he said.
Mr Swift said some beaches seem to be loved because they were extremely accessible and popular, others because they were tiny and isolated and few people knew about them beyond the locals.
