Mahia Tombolo Whangawehi, North Island, New Zealand
By SixHix on 30-Oct-09. Waypoint GC20EJ5

Day 4 of our epic Auckland to Napier and return caravanning road trip during the school holidays. Staying at the Mahia freedom campsite right next to the beach. We had a drive around the peninsula to see more of it. With miniAG. The night we stayed here was the highlight of all the 7 nights we were away, such an amazing place. TFTC.

This "stone" looks really cool. Never seen such clay structures.TFTC

Gevonden samen met Bald Eagle op onze trip door Nieuw Zeeland op 12 apr. 2024 14:10. Dank je wel SixHix voor deze cache. Groetjes van mij 1752 uit Eindhoven

Found it with ciela.This is truly a beautiful peninsula!!Thanks for the interesting cache.

Very interesting geology here. Answers sent to CO. Very beautiful drive around this area. Tftc

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I now live full-time in our caravan & travel the country visiting places we want to visit & doing the things that we want to do we are currently parked up at Opoutama Bay on the Mahia Peninsula we thought we should go for a bit of a drive out towards Rocket Labs Launch Site & see what we could find on the way we like Earthcaches so we were particularly keen to do this one answers have been emailed to the Cache Owner and we are logging this in anticipation of receiving the all clear pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally TFTC ... TN except photos:LN except footprints, which will be washed away with the next high tide or blown away with the wind:no L to S ... #4,802 for us!

I couldn't have picked a better day to pick up this cache whilst doing a road trip for work. Really enjoyed reading the description for this cache and then looking at the beach and surrounding land structures. TFTC

Popped over here for this EarthCache today.

Beautiful weather to enjoy the views.

Nice to learn something from this EarthCache. Very educational!

Thanks for that!

Just browsing my profile and realised I hadn't logged some caches from my holiday last year. This was a beautiful spot and would love to return for longer one day. TFTC

Was awesome learning about tombolos and how this stretch of land is technically an island. TFTC

Fascinating to read about this. When you get down onto the beach and look at the open hillface, it all makes sense!
Thanks for putting this info together and making an earthcache here!

Found it.

We were on a road trip with Cape Palliser our ultimate destination. But after a fantastic night at Mahunga Beach, we detoured out here. The beach was very different to Mahunga. This beach had very interesting features. Thanks for setting up this earth cache SixHix.

This is a unique set of rocks that branches out to sea, I also noted an other set along further. There shape is distinctive with strong hints of hexagonal shape.I have only ever seen a similar set of rocks almost forming a walkway out to sea up in the top of the North Island....this set was used as a wharf by early settlers...thanks for the cache SixHix and drawing my attention to this unique bridge

I sent my answers in to the CO. Hopefully they like my answers and this log can be counted.
I am on a North Island Figure of Eight tour. For the first 4 days I spend time in the Bay of Plenty with my husband JDScout in Rotorua. Now I am on part one of the eight loop going around the Eastern Cape. This part is being done with my good friends Ethness and Jude_E.
Thanks SixHix for creating this hide. It was find 9004 for me.

======== NZ Mega 2021 ========
Planning for the NZ Mega 2021 event is well underway. It will be held in Auckland over Labour Weekend, October 2021

Travelling from Gisborne today to Napier with Nosynel and Ethness. Our goal is to find all the TMGT caches in a big figure 8 across the centre of the North Island. We sampled the hospitality at the local café. Lemon loaf to die for. Not long out of the oven. So good. I have sent my answers to the CO and hope they are okay. I enjoyed learning about the tombolo. I had never heard of one before. Thanks for the earth cache.
#6116

This was a lovely spot to drive to (as was the afternoon tea we had just before arriving). I did like the different views of the peninsula and the new learning I had answering this questions for this cache. If we had had more time I would have liked to have driven down to the southern tip of the island where Rocket Lab has its launch pad.

Jude_E, NosyNel and I are continuing on our figure of 8 tour of the North Island collecting the ‘Tour’ caches, plus others, plus seeing the scenery, plus having a good old time. TFTC.

A nice little beach alright. I also explored the nearby small urupa which is very well kept. A nice way to spend some time . Thanks SixHix

Enjoyed our walk along the beach. Found a paua shell and odd sand erosion. Answers have been messaged. TFTeC

On a beautiful and sunny day we made a detour on our way to Gisborne to Mahia Peninsula / Island and came across this cache. It was a lovely beach, definitively worth a stop. Thank you for leading us here.

Found

Off on a 5 day mission from Northland to the East Coast with the main target being the last two CANZ caches that I had not yet found. The opportunity to grab some $25 airfares to Napier was just too good to miss, even though it was winter and the days might be short and the weather might be dodgy.

Day one though was a real mission, with early morning fog for the drive to Auckland, untold time navigating the long Akl parking lots, delayed flights before we took off and then again in the air before we could land causing a missed connection for the rental cache mobile pick up. To top it off, the weather was cold and wet, but I still managed four caches in the dark.

Day three dawned a bit better with no rain and the promise of some sunshine later in the day for our trip northward from Napier up to Gisborne. Was surprised how long and winding the road seemed to be today, even though we have plenty of back roads in Northland that would qualify as well.

Even though the weather was deteriorating again, we decided to make a detour out and explore the Mahia peninsula. On arrival was able to get all the info required here, before the weather got any worse. Still a beautiful little beach though. Answers sent to CO. TFTC

Während unserer NZ Rundreise besucht.

TFTC
Greetings from Germany

Orientexpress

#6501. Decided to have a short holiday on the east coast to enjoy the warm summer weather. The girls have joined me on the road trip. Stayed the night in Waipukurau. Now heading north to Gisborne. Finally made it to Mahia later in the afternoon. Lovely place to visit. We went for a swim and watched some parapenting from the nearby hill. So hot and sunny up here. Not used to the heat. Then on to do the nearby caches. Really enjoyed doing this earthcache. Learnt a lot about tombolos and the geology of the Peninsula. Then the girls and I spent some time on the reef exploring the rockpools and intertidal area. Have emailed the CO with the answers. Thanks SixHix for the earthcache. Time now to head to Gisborne.

Visited here today and it was a stunning day for it. A few surfers out in the water but other than that it was pretty well deserted. Many thanks for bringing us here.

sunny day spent exploring the estuary and beaches out this way good to learn the geology of the area tftc

12.15: [Email with answers sent] Touring across the Māhia Peninsula. A nice place at the beach and interesting geological formations of distinctive appearence. The rocks formed long lines in the incoming tide. Too cold for swimming, but a beautiful out here, anyway. The big log is still there and it seems quite unlikely that it will be moved by human interference...

Weather: some clouds, sunny, 16°C;
Wheelchair: no, only to the landmark, steep embankment;

Thank you for showing us this place!
Oliver+Gabi

Today we made a trip from Gisborne to Mahia, again on the route of the Pacific Coast Highway, thereby visiting many new sightseeing locations and looking for caches, too. On this trip we searched, found and logged a lot of caches. The weather was very good all day long, a bit colder in the morning but it got warmer in the afternoon. Funny clouds were our compagnions especially in the afternoon.
Almost no muggels observed us as they had other things to do than observing harmless geocachers.

Thanks to SixHix for showing us this location and for the fun we had at Mahia Tombolo. The answers are almost on the way - almost.

Greetings from Germany and hope to see you soon in the forest.

TFTC says H_M_A @ 6. November 2018 @ 13:07 Uhr @ [#12353](https://coord.info/GC20EJ5)

This was quite a surprising discovery we made here. Thanks for bringing us to this interesting location that we would have missed without the EC!

Visited on a Sunny day while in area on way from Wgtn to Gisborne. Interesting spot. Thanks for bringing me here. Emailed answers to CO. Thanks

Day 4 - Monday - Wellington to Gisborne. So lets hit the road.

Just had to visit Mahia especially with 2 Earth caches to snag. Thanks fro bringing us to this amazing place and the cache page write up. There were some people in the water here playing with a large log between tow rock outcrops having great fun. Its a really calm day today so a good day to be in the water. Cheers. Fav from me. I love learning about our homeland.

The Seagnoid, Zara and I are on another epic caching adventure for the next two weeks, starting with the Wellington Mega, then East Cape, Taraunga, Waihi, Rotorua and back to Wellington. Its been an awesome journey, over 2500 klms later, visiting many amazing places. Thanks to all COs

A little jaunt across the tombolo to check out the island on the other side. Okay, its a peninsula, but I still think calling it a joined island is a better description. What will it be like in 100 years with global warming going the way it is now?
Anyway, Taybeedragon and I stood on the beach debating what it was that we were seeing while a number of local kids played in the water around the main feature here. They were playing wth a large log the size of which could do some serious damage if a swell pushed it against a wall with someone on the wrong side. On the other hand, it's a beautiful day, no swell at all. We probably should have joined them!

Logged as a write note till I get the CO's okay.

---

Day 4 of my Mega trip: Upper Hutt to Gisborne, although we did not start caching till after Napier. Two weeks of travel with Taybeedragon, from Blenheim to the 2018 mega event, then on to my mum's eightieth birthday in Rotorua via the East Cape and Tauranga and the hole in the ground that is Waihi. Dropped the dragon off in Wellington while I continued on to Motueka for more family time before at last arriving home. We may have only found 230 caches over that 3000 km, but I qualified for 4 badge upgrades, hit the 10,000 cache mark, and even have a missing month ticked off! Throughout most of the trip we targeted special caches - earth caches, virtuals, wherigos, etc, although there were a lot of traditionals too. On the cache maintenance side about eight caches were replaced, and many more logs were added to or replaced. Many thanks to everyone who made this an awesome trip

One week off during school holiday time, combined with some cheap flights made a great adventure in the HB and Gisborne area, popping into BoP a couple of times also. I had great fun and I am grateful to all CO's who placed the caches for others' entertainment!!
Lovely spot and certainly some interesting geology around! TFTC!!

Great to finally visit this prominent part of the North Island. We enjoyed researching the questions for the earthcache and thinking about the geological processes involved. Answers supplied. Thanks for the cache.

Time for a mini Road trip with some very specific caches in mind as we, kyb3r and myself try to cover the miles and collect the targeted few caches we wanted.
Setting off after work (6.15pm) and fighting the Easter traffic chaos we headed from a quick trip around the East Cape with no planned caching prior to the Mighty Motou.

Trip Stats were: 30 hours (Door to Door), 2 Hours Sleep, 51 caches located, 3DNF's and 1200 kms Driven mostly along roads not traveled previously.
A big thank you to all the cache owners whom through their collective work made this trip possible and to the various fuel companies for whose profits I sometimes feel the Geocaching community are propping up. Some great sights were seen and a few short walks were enjoyed by he both of us.

This was out twenty eighth cache of the trip as we headed back down the coast.
Well, having now had two hours sleep (Sleep's for the weak). Heading souoth once again towards Napier but couldn't resist this area while passing.
With Eartthcaches being a perenial favorite, we could not pass up the opportunity to collect these ones. Interesting geological history and a beautiful beach.
Answers Submitted to the CO

Thanks for bringing us here today, Thanks for the cache

On the road for our first venture into the North Island with our little caravan to explore this part of the country. It is not a caching expedition as such, but we do manage to stop for one or two . We’ve been on the road now for 21 days since arriving in Wellington and have made it to Gisborne, via Mahia, Wairoa, Napier, Cape Kidnappers, the Wairarapa, Cape Turnagain and Cape Palliser . Had a variety of weathers, but mostly ‘good’, until the last few days , and have already seen and discovered lots of interesting things about our country that are new to us. Our travels lead us to your cache, as we travelled north, many thanks, SixHix, for bringing us here. We’ve had great fun so far and look forward to finding a couple more caches as we travel on our way. We always make an earthcache cache a favourite in recognition of the work that is put in and also for the site value. TFTC.

krásný poloostrov, udélali jsme si o víkendu výlet a i když jsme si vybrali trek, kde se x krát překračuje potok, stálo to za to

Having spent six hours driving to Gisborne yesterday for a meeting that lasts less than an hour, I'm facing a six hours return journey today. But I'm looking forward to breaking this up with a couple of caches on the way.

I haven't been out to Mahia before and so at Nuhaka this morning, I turned left instead of right. What a beautiful area, obviously one of New Zealand's best kept secrets. Made my way to the GZ where I figured out the answers and sent off to the CO. Fantastic views in every direction.

Now posting with permission. Thanks for the Earthcache. Before this one I had no ideas about tombolos and the differences between peninsulas and almost islands!

Answers just sent, we spent a night at the free camping, had breakfast at the café and spent a whole day at the beach before stopping here to see the interesting features. Thank you for bringing us here!!

Thanks for new EC geo-experience

Answers sent to cache owner. What a lovely spot. We camped a few hundred metres up the road at someone's property, with their permission of course! Love this part of the country. The rock formations are stunning here!

Yeah boy

Beautiful spot. Here with HennyGeo on holidays from Vancouver Island Canada TFTEC

Here in beautiful NZ with SwagHo on a visiting, geocaching vacation.TFTC.SwagHo has submitted the answers for both of us TFTEC

Such a beautiful spot. Love what the water does here- is fascinating to watch. So many people enjoying the amazing surroundings. Really enjoyed our time here, TFTC

The water looked very inviting today but I didn't have my togs with me. I will post the photo once I find it. Thanks fro bringing me here.

Escaping the pre-christmas craziness and exploring the East Cape with our teens. It's very much a family trip so the family rules about geocaching while on holiday apply: quality, not quantity This earth cache was definitely quality. Our 1st visit to Mahia and we can see why everyone raves about this location. The incredible changes to the south island landscape and its coast line after the recent South Island earthquakes made it easier for our young teens to comprehend the creation of this almost-island and to come up with answers to the cache Q; answers emailed to the CO. Pic uploaded too. Thanks so much for the incentive to visit this spot - we loved it!

Interesting formation here. Took some photos just as a family arrived to go swimming.

Raining but still beautiful beach for a walk. TFTC

Squirrel Nutcase and myself are on a road trip to the Gisborne area chasing caches with a higher D rating for our licence challenge. We visited area 3 months ago and hopefully we will have better success this time and collect anything else on the way. Day 1 was to get there first and day 2 back to Rotorua via Wairoa Napier way.

Logging with permission and Squirrel Nutcase. Interesting rock formation here plus kids swimming between the rocks and white sandy beach. SLTFTC

With Gap (of Fap and Gap)... After five months of grief, it's time for another serious attack on our current caching license. We're heading east to target seven high difficulty caches, and anything else that catches our attention...

This was our first visit to Mahia, and we were very impressed with the landscape features... Although this one references the tombolo in its title, we found it focused more on the marine terraces and the effects of plate movements in the area. This too was interesting though... We sat and watched a family swimming, while a freedom camper lay in the grass playing his guitar. What an inspirational setting. Answers submitted to CO and permission given to log. TFTEC.

After a couple of enjoyable, though warm days in Gisborne, we are heading south to Napier and have a list of caches to find en route.
We had never been to the Mahia Peninsula before (actually I had never been on the Gisborne to Napier road either) so we decided we'd make the detour here with 3 caches and a possible coffee being an added incentive. Lovely beach and interesting geology here. Email with answers sent. TFTC.

#12027. It was a short distance from the cafe to this earth cache. The rock platforms were very interesting. Troodles submitted answers on behalf of both of us. TFTC.

Thanks for the cache. I found it on 27/02/16 at 11:57 AM. Lovely beach, thanks for bringing us here!

We visited this place during our journey across New Zealand.
The area is amazing, the views are just great, but unfortunately the temperature was too low for a swim.
Thanks for showing us this location.
Greetings from Portugal.

#9932, Found it with DroidCachebox!

We visited this cache during our trip through out New Zealand!
With our rental car, we explored the north island for 12 days.
NZ is a beautiful country and we really enjoyed our time here.
We hope to return one day and explore a little bit more!

Day 4 - Napier to Gisborne

The day started in Napier, where we explored a little bit of the city and looked for some caches. After that we visited many places along the route to Gisborne, like the Te Ana falls or the Mahia peninsula, and many more.

Interesting location, thanks for the lesson.

Thanks for the cache.
Greetings from Portugal.

Having had the go ahead from CO nearly missed logging this one. An amazing spot and a beautiful beach. Wished we could have spent longer here on a gorgeous day. TFTC

we visited the earthcache and drove all the way to the end
Sent the answers to CO
TFTC

Another find on the great north summer roadtrip with the Banians- a week of travel from Wellington to Auckland via Napier, Wairoa, that secluded road between Wairoa and Rotorua, and almost the Coromandel peninsula.

Continued over to this side of the peninsula to get this Earth cache as it was the only one near- beautiful white beaches and intriguing rock formation. TFTEC, found with Banian

Found on our road trip from Wellington to Auckland for a wedding. Day four, Napier to Wairoa via Mahia Peninsula.
We got a great day to visit and spent a while at GZ. Interesting description of the peninsula (or Island). The things you learn while caching... Answer sent, TFTEC.

Really nice beach to see the sunrise! TFTC!!

In the area with the Riley Rally. Today's drive brought us to Mahia for lunch.
Now to email CO, visiting trackables to keep them in order.
When given the OK, I will change this to a found.

Visited this area today after lunch, travelling with the Riley car rally, visiting from Australia, will email the CO. TFTC

A couple of firsts for me here. I had never visited the Mahia area previously and I had never heard of the word "tombolo". Thanks for the interesting information.

My GPSr starting doing strange things and I wasn't even sure we turned up in the right location. Thankfully, previous finders' photos confirmed we had.

The 16th day of "20 days exploring trip through North Island".
3636 km and 104 geocache

Thanks for this cache!:)

Wow... Just wow. cheers from casa del hince TFTC

Sorry for delayed log of your cache. I was long time on the way and without good conection to the internet. Thanks for nice cache on good spot.

Thanks for the excuse for an enjoyable drive along the Peninsula. Spent the night in the Reserve and had a game of golf in the morning.

A lovely drive and pretty beach. Thanks for taking us here and the interesting cache.

We arrived here early evening. Just managed to find answers to the questions and take a photo before too dark. Thanks SixHix for setting up this earth cache and for the interesting geological information you have provided. We enjoyed our visit to Mahia peninsula and this peaceful beach. Logged with permission.

working on photo!

photos!!

This great place we would have failed, without SixHix's cache. Thank you for bringing us here.

It was a bit on the end of New Years day and we were looking for a nice spot to stay over the night. We first visited a little bar at the top, but they sounded so unfriendly for the dogs (they would happy to hurt them if they came in the tearoom.....hmmmm and saying that they were dog friendly).
So off we go a bit further up the road. This seems a great spot, but we couldn't manage with our campervan as it was too big.
So we first went to this earth cache spot and notice some kids playing on the rocks. Went back to Mahia and just before that there was a great Park with more campervans. This was a beautiful spot to spend the night

What a fabulous place to visit. Even though it is fairly remote there were lots of holiday makers around. We ended up staying the night on the reserve with a few other campers. Thanks for an interesting earthcache.

This is truly one of the most beautiful beaches. Thank you for guiding us to this point!
It is really impressive how the island turned into a peninsula.

Greetings from Germany

What a great place to visit. Wouldn't have gone there without this cache. TFTC

This entry was edited by mariachi27 on Wednesday, 20 November 2013 at 07:23:10 UTC.

Logged with permission.

Beautiful spot, only spent a weekend here, and must come back!!
Tftc

An absolutly charming little beach. lots of interesting 'beachcomber' items to ponder their origin and beautiful soft sand. The little stream cuts its way in to the clay pavement at it separates and meets the see.

delightful stop beautiful beach had a quick dip and play tftc stopped also 200m up the road at a cafe for lunch was yum yum yum had fish and chips with a salad, hot chocolate and Rubarb cake yumo great day out had by all 5 in our party

#4867. Enjoyed visiting this earthcache and learning the geology. Impressive waterfall up above the house across the road. Answers emailed to CO. TFTC.

Found while out on a fantastic day back in Mahia after a long absence, now with the bonus of geocaching.

A beautiful beach and the lower tide enabled for a good view of the geographic activity, just a shame there aren't more completing this earthcache. TFTEC, #5426

Logged with permission thank you.

A perfect day for a school holiday geocaching road trip to Mahia. Very interesting earth cache. TFTC cheers SiLiRy

Logging with permission.

Great to find out about the physical geography of the area.

Was a lovely afternoon to visit.

We recommend Oraka Beach (look for Oraka Rd before you head up hill about 3 min from the settlement of Mahia Beach) - a safe tidal lagoon 'river' for kids to play in as well as some surf too.

Earthcache #14
Logging with permission. We enjoyed a short stopover on the Mahia Peninsula as we travelled from Gisborne down to Wairoa, then back to Gisborne via Tiniroto Road. Of course this turned into an epic 12 hour journey caching along the way (as it does). First time visit to Mahia and we thought the beaches surpassed expectations. GZ was a great location to see some interesting geology at work. Thanks for bringing us here. TFTEC

Very interesting place even in wet conditions like today. Many thanks for bringing us here.
C&M

Will log photo and send email when i get home. C geo doesnt seem to do this Carla6

Carla6

Emailed answers, nice good earthcache.

Thanks

Will upload photo

TFTC

Very nice beach! Really enjoyed doing this earthcache. We got fish and chips from a shop nearby and ate it on the beach on this nice and sunny day. It was very welcome after getting our campervan stuck in the mud in the morning. Enjoyed doing this earthcache. Walked on the beach and explored the area afterwards. Interesting to see all the rockformations at low tide.

TFTC!

After spending the night at the holiday park at Mahia Beach, the lady at the campground told us we could drive up to the scenic reserve and that the road would be fine. After a kilometer we got stuck really badly in the mud. Someone had to come and pull us out. After this accident we drove to the other side of the peninsula, grabbed some fish and chips and ate it on this beautiful beach. Saw the really nice features at low tide. Thanks for showing us this beautiful place.

TFTC!!

Lady Pinguin

Came here straight after the other tombolo earthcache of the same subject and same name (a little confusing...). Yes, it is a nice beach - some muggles were fishing nearby and enjoying the nice weather. Answers emailed. TFTC!!!

Thanks for letting us log the cache find. Did this on a 30deg plus day and got to swim at the beaches around Mahia. Beautiful. Loved it.

An interesting large scale geological phenomenon in an area we haven't previously visited. TFTC

This is an interesting gelogical phenomenon. I wonder if it will ever disappear and make the peninsula an island again.

Logged with permission.

Cheers for the cache.

5046 Logging with permission.
First time visit to this side of the peninsula. Great spot, thanks for the earthcache.

Visited today, logged with permission. Enjoyed my visit to the area. Learnt a lot about the area. Thanks for putting this earthcache up.

This entry was edited by tmann421 on Wednesday, 04 August 2010 at 13:42:00.

We were racing the sunset at the end of a loooonng day's caching by the time we reached Mahia. Managed to complete the earthcache tasks, and were drinking a welcome cup of coffee as the sun set. An interesting location, and an enjoyable and educational earthcache, thanks. Logging with permission.

# 1795

Glad I looked to see if there were any caches locally before we came up to Mahia for the long weekend. This one is one of the most interesting we have done to date, very informative.TFTC

Logged with permission. Our EC find # 39. Thank you for another interesting EarthCache, we love learning about these places, what a great spot, has to be up there with our favourite EC's. Thanks for brininging us here, we would not have known about tombolos otherwise.