Whose beach is best?
North and South square off
You know the South Island is lacking in good beaches when two lads are prepared to drive more than 1000km to get to the best beach in the country.
Christian, 26, and Dominic Nicklin, 24, travel from Christchurch every December to spend a month in the picturesque township of Whiritoa on the Coromandel.
It’s just 13km south of Whangamata off State Highway 25.
The permanent population consists of a few hundred people. However, come summer holiday time, that number can swell to more than a thousand.
There’s a small lagoon at the north end of the 1.5km beach, and past that it’s a short walk to Waimama Bay.
Beautiful pohutukawa line the surrounding streets and coastline. The water is a picture-perfect blue.
The Nicklins have been coming since they were knee-high to a grasshopper.
‘‘I think there is a really cool community feel that is a bit different to Waihi and Whangamata and we grew up here and belonged to the surf club and so we made a lot of mates through that and they are still here,’’ Christian said.
With the sun shining for the majority of their month-long break
they don’t have much to complain about.
‘‘With the weather like this, what can we say,’’ Christian said. ‘‘It’s that getaway and the sense of having a really cool holiday – being in a different part of the country makes it feel like a real holiday. With sand, pohutukawa trees and when the surf is on it’s just primo.’’
Younger brother Dominic is based in Queenstown. ‘‘You can actually say you’ve got beaches in Whiritoa rather than pebbles and stones – especially coming from Queenstown where it’s a freshwater lake, not even a beach.
‘‘Down south you’ve got to travel two and a half hours, rather than 25 steps to a beach up here,’’ Dominic said.
The Coromandel also allows Dominic to use his summer wardrobe.
‘‘The temperatures here, both with the sun and the water, are a lot warmer than down south.
‘‘Down there you make do, but you can’t do it in Speedos. I would rather have Speedos than a full wetsuit like I have to down south.’’
The boys aren’t being too oneeyed. They’ve attempted to give the South Island beaches a go – they’ve tested out the likes of Colac Bay and the Catlins coast – but while they were pretty they aren’t quite up to scratch.
‘‘There are also some spots around Christchurch, but you’ve got to pick your days, pick your spot, pick your wetsuit,’’ Christian said.
For Christian and Dominic ‘‘a hundred times out of a hundred it’s going to be Whiritoa.’’
And Coromandel for the win.
Down south you’ve got to travel two and a half hours, rather than 25 steps to a beach up here.
Dominic Nicklin