Best Beach 2024: New Zealand’s top 10 city beaches - how to vote for the winner

Great! Here’s my chance to ditch journalistic impartiality and have a rant. I’m a city kid, blessed or cursed to have spent my early days in Auckland and Wellington. Even though we had holidays at the Rotorua lakes, Kāpiti Coast idylls like Waikanae and in the Marlborough Sounds, one of my prime requirements for a day at the beach today is that it’s no more than a pebble’s toss from gelato, bubbles and a decent bistro. With a view of the sea, of course.

So here, with a splash of prejudice – I mean, informed comment – are my thoughts on your 10 nominations for New Zealand’s Best City Beach 2024.

Question: is Ōrewa technically a “city” beach? The town was shoehorned out of Rodney District and into the Super-City in 2010, much against the locals’ will, still a sore point with some. Guess you’ve got to say yes, because it’s been a popular destination for holidaymakers since the 1920s, growing through the 1950s and the motorway arrived in the late 1990s. Easy to see why: when it comes to a long stretch of golden sand, mostly protected from Pacific swells and buffets, with eateries just across the road, few do it better.

Nestled below Whangaparāoa Peninsula and sunning itself in the Hauraki Gulf, Long Bay is probably the newest city beach in Tāmaki Makarau – largely because the city has only reached here in the past decade. Where once stood trees and rolling hills now sits a supermarket and shopping centre, and new-builds as far as the eye can see. Despite suburban sprawl, the spruced-up regional park, safe and sandy beach, picnic and overnight campsites remain stunning.

Long Bay, one of Auckland's newest city beaches, transformed from rolling hills to a vibrant area with a supermarket and shopping centre in the past decade. Photo / 123rf

The North Shore gets two spots this year: near-neighbours Takapuna and Cheltenham. On the more laidback, less bustling and hassled side of the bridge, “Taka” is the better known and more patronised, with its waveless, tree-lined safe beach, boat ramp, beachfront campground and great playground. With fewer crowds and beachfront attractions, Cheltenham is a pleasant alternative for those who still have the quaint idea that a beach is for picnics or swimming.

When our family moved to Auckland, at a time when there was no weekend shopping or just about any other entertainment, Mum asked her new neighbour how to entertain five kids. “There’s always Mission Bay,” she was told. Decades on, there still is: last week I took my niece and her daughters there for gelato and a stroll on the sand. Pro: safe beach; shady pōhutukawa; Rangitoto views; eateries, drinkeries, ice-creameries. Con: the crowds; hellish parking; people crossing a busy road wherever, kids in tow.

Confession: I’ve a soft spot for its sibling. Friday nights after work, Dad would pack all of us into the Morris Oxford and trek from Balmoral to ‘Kohi’, as it was then known, for fish’n chips, orange cordial and sandcastles on the beach. Kohimaramara’s great appeal is that it’s not Mission Bay: quieter, less crowded, doesn’t have a buzzy shopping strip (good cafes, though).

As a teenager, Mum and her father Monty swam a mile each way across Wellington Harbour to Thorndon and back, every morning, winter or summer. Then she got the tram to school... in Thorndon. Frankly, I’d have stayed in Oriental Bay, in the middle of town, around the corner from Te Papa and Courtenay Place, the parade lined with cafes, bars, apartments and hotels. It doesn’t even have a grass berm – you walk from the footpath down to the sand. Close enough to the business quarter to sneak out for a lunchtime sunbathe or swim on a good day in Wellington.

Oriental Bay in Wellington is conveniently located near the business quarter, making it easy for locals to sneak out for a lunchtime sunbathe or swim on a good day. Photo / Supplied

Any local will tell you that Tahunanui is NZ’s best beach. Fair bet that anyone from out of Nelson who’s hung out at the safe, 1.75km bay might agree they have a point. The beach is safe, but Tahunanui really hits the spot behind its rolling dunes with a giant playground offering a mindboggling array of entertainment and engagement for all ages.

Whether paddling to you means a dip in the sea, SUP boarding or sea kayaking, you can have a go at Tahunanui Beach. Photo / nelsontasman.nz

Disclaimer: Sumner Beach, the newbie on this year’s shortlist, is the only one of the top 10 that I haven’t really set barefoot on. Have been to a nice little restaurant there, though. A quarter-hour’s drive or bus ride from downtown Christchurch, the yellow sands run from the main road into the village, past Cave Rock, and down to nearby Scarborough. The whole stretch is packed with swimmers and sunbathers, and the surfing can be good. Off the beach, it’s only a few steps to the cafes, restaurants and boutiques on the Esplanade and Marriner St.

Sumner Beach in Christchurch offers yellow sands, good surfing opportunities, and a variety of cafes, restaurants, and boutiques along the Esplanade and Marriner St. Photo / ChristchurchNZ

St Clair, Dunedin’s most popular beach, is rated NZ’s most consistent surf break but swimming can be problematical; ask the lifeguards’ advice. As a city beach, St Clair has two USPs: the cafes and bars lining its esplanade and – a winner for me - the heated outdoor saltwater swimming pools on the headland.

HOW TO VOTE

Voting closes at 11.59pm on Sunday, January 21. The 2024 Best Beaches winners will be announced on Sunday, January 28.

Check out the New Zealand Herald from Monday to Friday this week for profiles on each of the finalists.

Go to nzherald.co.nz/bestbeach to vote or fill out the entry form below.