Bream Bay

Bream Bay’s giant arc of white sand shaped by the often gentle but sometimes tumultuous Pacific Ocean contains a hinterland rich in culture, wildlife and natural beauty. This huge sweep of pristine beach is framed by dramatic headlands and alluring but forbidden offshore islands.

It is a part of the country that has always appealed to visitors. With vast beds of shellfish the area was a favourite waypoint for pre-European Maori navigators. In 1769 that original British tourist, Captain James Cook, dropped anchor in the Bay. His crew went fishing and were rewarded with a rich haul of snapper, a fish known to the English as Bream, and the area gained a name on Admiralty charts that has endured.

In 1817 Scotsman Norman McLeod began a migration that eventually saw around 900 of his followers settle in and around the Bay’s epicentre at Waipu after first trying to establish communities in Nova Scotia and Australia. This Scots heritage remains strong in the district and has lead to the longest running Highland Games in the southern hemisphere, with an annual event which attracts, kilt clad athletes, caber tossers, dancers, musicians and followers of Celtic culture from around the world.

But long before Cook and McLeod latched onto the bounties of Bream Bay visiting and resident seabirds had given the area a five star rating. Internationally significant wildlife refuges for shore birds and waders, including a number of species which pass through on annual migrations, are found at the Waipu and Ruakaka river mouths. Among the species which feed, preen and breed in these estuaries are the New Zealand dotterel, variable oyster catcher, wrybill, reef heron and the now critically endangered NZ fairy tern. It is an easy stroll in a stunningly beautiful environment to get close enough to identify many of these rare birds.

 

Horseriding on the beach, Waipu