Blog

Sandy Bay at Oanui is one of those rare spots on our coastline where a coastal reserve has been established and with the help of many hardworking volunteers, the rare coastal dune environment is being preserved and some of our threatened coastal birds given a chance to nest.  It also has great views back inland to the mountain though on many of my previous visits the mountain has been covered in cloud. On Friday morning, I woke early and saw that it was going to be a cold clear morning …

Sandy Bay is a small coastal reserve on the west Taranaki coast. It is an area of coastal dunes which has been protected and slowly restored by the Ngati Tara o Oanui Sandy Bay Conservation Society.  It is one of the few places on the Taranaki coastline where New Zealand Dotterel succesfully nest. There is a good variety of shore birds here and one of my favourite places to go for a bit of bird watching and photography.I headed off at dawn on Saturday morning and spent an absorbing couple o …