Despite a total fire ban sign on the beach along Napier’s Marine Parade near the pump track, it turns out you can light a fire on the beach.
Napier City Council has quietly revoked a bylaw that banned fires on its beaches, Hawke’s Bay Today can reveal.
It is now open season for those wanting to naturally toast some marshmallows on the stones over winter.
Fires on Marine Parade beach have, in fact, been permitted since December 2024, provided Fire and Emergency NZ doesn’t have any weather-related bans in place.
Attempts at getting clarity on fire lighting on the beach have been a long and hazy journey.
For starters, if you walk down to Marine Parade beach to light a fire, you’ll walk past “total fire ban” signs to get to the stones.
And until recently, the official Napier City Council website also explicitly stated that all beach fires were prohibited year-round.
That has now been removed after Hawke’s Bay Today inquiries.
Napier City Council said it revoked the fire ban, part of its 2021 Parks and Reserves bylaw, after a vote by councillors in December, because it “contradicted” the Fire and Emergency NZ Act of 2017, which took precedence.
A council spokeswoman said the bylaw stated that Napier City Council could prescribe a restricted or prohibited fire season.
It can’t – that’s Fire and Emergency NZ’s job.
The removal of the bylaw has now paved the way for future Matariki fire events to continue without concerns about legality, to the chagrin of some environmentalists.
The hugely popular annual Matariki Mahuika Ahi started in 2023 – inspired by a desire for community and excess driftwood burning after the cyclone.
It now draws thousands of people to Marine Parade beach and further along the coast every winter.
In the event’s first two years, those involved in it were technically breaching Napier City Council’s all-year-round fire ban bylaw.
Not in 2025.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Hawke’s Bay community risk manager Nigel Hall said the Hawke’s Bay District was currently in an open fire season.
“In an open fire season, people can light an open-air fire without a permit,” Hall said.
A spokesperson for Fire and Emergency New Zealand said councils were allowed to have fire ban bylaws.
However, the bylaws could not be “inconsistent with the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act”.
Winter smoke from beach fires is another place where legislation could thwart the burning.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has the potential to be involved in placing restrictions on beach fires.
It is responsible not just for the management of the beach from the high water mark to the sea, but also air quality in the region.
Smoke from fires becoming trapped in a cold-air inversion layer is one of the region’s biggest issues during winter.
But Hawke’s Bay Regional Council says it is comfortable with beach fires, and that they don’t breach its Regional Coastal Environment Plan as long as they’re done with natural materials.
“Only natural materials like vegetation, paper, cardboard, and untreated wood that has come from the same property, or a property under the same ownership, can be burned,” a spokesperson said.
“Fires must not produce objectionable smoke or cause any impact on nearby residential properties or public spaces.”
From May 1 to August 31 there is an HBRC ban on outdoor burning within designated “airsheds” - which cover much of the flat land environment in Napier, Hastings, and Awatoto.
However, the “airsheds” do not extend to the coastal environment where the beach fires are lit, so the fires cannot be considered a breach of the airshed fire ban.
“We have yet to receive any complaints about Matariki burning since it became a public holiday in 2022,” a Hawke’s Bay Regional Council spokesperson said.
“As per the last three years, favourable offshore wind conditions helped disperse any smoke away from residential areas.”
Councillor Juliet Greig, who said she voted against revoking the bylaw at a meeting on December 12, 2024, is frustrated that people are now allowed to light fires on Napier beaches with impunity during open fire seasons.
“As a council, we need to protect Napier beaches from rubbish, air pollution and destruction of native animal habitats.”
Greig said she had specific concerns about the Matariki fires.
“During the recent beach fire event, some groups responsibly put out their fire and removed all rubbish.
“However, other groups left their fire burning (posing a public burns hazard), surrounded by cans, bottles and burnt rubbish.
“Central Hawke’s Bay has signs on their beaches stating: ‘There is a total fire ban on all beaches in Central Hawke’s Bay all year round. There are no exceptions to this’.
“Napier could do the same,” Greig said.
Hawke’s Bay Today asked Central Hawke’s Bay District Council about its total fire ban at its beaches.
Mark Kinvig. CHB council’s group manager of infrastructure and asset management, said the council had no jurisdiction over fires on beaches in the district and didn’t have a specific bylaw.
“Fire and Emergency NZ regulates all open-air fires, sets fire seasons, and issues permits.
“Because of this, councils are legally prohibited from making bylaws that conflict with or duplicate these fire controls.”
But it has signs up on its beaches banning fires?
That’s because Fire and Emergency NZ made a decision to ban fires year-round, Kinvig said.
“CHB beaches ... are so far away from the water infrastructure and if a fire got out of control, it could cause a lot of harm to our environment.”
Napier resident Lynne Anderson wrote to Hawke’s Bay Today recently in a bid to stop Hawke’s Bay’s Matiriki beach fires from continuing again in the same form in 2026.
She said she fully supported Matariki celebrations to bring people together to share stories and kai and honour ancestors and the stars.
“But do we have to celebrate this special occasion in such a destructive way?
“Please consider our beaches – they are not wastelands to be burned and degraded.
“From what I have read of Matariki it is a time of renewal, of regeneration, of respecting nature and the natural world – surely it can be celebrated more appropriately.
“Beaches are valuable ecosystems in their own right and need to be respected as such.
“They are an extension of the ocean; seaweed and driftwood should be left.
“Beaches harbour invertebrates and skinks and shore nesting birds nest on Hawke’s Bay beaches during spring and summer.
“Driftwood provides vital shelter for lizards and birds and habitat for invertebrates. Fire destroys everything,” Anderson said.
Matariki Mahuika co-organiser Neill Gordon said people loved burning fires on the beaches at Matariki.
“Thousands have come each year to sit around small fires on the beach, sharing kai and the warmth of their fires with strangers,” Gordon said.
“Getting people together like that to share in this celebration is the heart of the event.”
He said the majority of fires were about the size of a beer crate or a shoe box.
“Just big enough for a whānau to cuddle around on a winter’s night.
“People sit enjoying the simple age-old pleasures of watching an open fire, listening to the waves on the shore, sharing memories and making new ones. It is simply magical.
“I’ve surveyed the Marine Parade the morning after each event and there is little left behind.
“This year, a crew of 20 volunteers did a beach clean-up on the Sunday morning and there was little for us to do, less than a wheelbarrow or two worth of rubbish between the port and Awatoto,“ Gordon said.
“I‘d say don’t light a fire on the beach when the dotterels are nesting, don’t light a fire at New Year, do it when the time is right at Matariki.”
There are permanent fire bans on all Mahia Peninsula beaches, on Waipatiki Beach and on all Central Hawke’s Bay Beaches and adjacent public areas.
Fires can be lit on all other Hawke’s Bay beaches during an open fire season, provided the fire is not left unattended and is completely extinguished with water.
Follow Hawke’s Bay Regional Council environmental guidelines before burning anything other than driftwood.
A permit is required during a restricted fire season and no fires can be lit during a total fire ban, which is common in Hawke’s Bay over summer.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.