Cave Beach is a section of the larger Waipipi Beach, literally meaning stream-pipi (a small, edible clam you can find by digging your toes into the sand). We didn’t go pipi hunting, but is definitely on the list of Taranaki activities for the next time we are in the area!
To get there you travel to the small Taranaki town of Waverley, roughly a 40 minute drive from Whanganui. Take a left (heading north) onto Waverley Beach Road. Roughly 9 km down this road you’ll arrive at the beach! Just follow the signs to Waverley Beach, and the Cave Beach. Nearby, there is also ‘Long Beach’ which is a popular fishing spot.
There’s also an amazing looking campground, if your looking to stay longer! You can take a tent, or van, or campervan, whatever takes your fancy! (and theres een a kids playground to entertain the little-ones in the family)
Cave Beach is renowned for, you guessed it, caves and interesting rock stacks. Back in the day there was also an interesting ‘hole in the rock’ formation (who doesn’t love those!?) which was the reason we ventured out there. Sadly, we spent many an hour wandering around, to later find this news article from 2012 saying that it had collapsed, and taranaki tourism websites had simply failed to update their information! Luckily, the caves were interesting enough to make the day a successful afternoon outing anyway! (note, the collapsed Hole in the Rock structure is still impressive, pictured top-middle below)
I loved the long black sand beach and tall cliffs this place had to offer, especially having grown up on the west cast of the the north island, infamously famous for their iron-sand beaches. The sand gets its colour from titanomagnetite (an iron-bearing mineral containing titanium, magnesium, manganese and vanadium) and was formed 25 million years ago from rock deposited by Volcanic Activity in the Taranaki Region (you know, that amazingly symmetrical Mt Taranaki/Mt Egmont? Yeah, from there). Anyway. The sand is actually mined to make New Zealand steel, which is pretty cool!
There are also these amazing (strange) looking rocks that give off that extra-terrestrial alien feeling. In reality, I think they are ‘ventifacts’ which are hard rocks which get polished by the wind blowing grains of sand across them. If you look closely at the cliff faces, you can find holes made this way all down the beach. (I found the below rock in a nearby stream, however there were lots down in front of the cliffs being washed up on the beach!) Please note: that areas along the Taranaki coast line are Ventifact reserves, so please just look, take photos and then leave them where they are so that future generations can enjoy them. I’m not sure if this part of the coastline is a reserve, but I did find out that its illegal to sell the rock formations.
Since visiting the beach I also learnt that it is an area renowned for fossils! Every now and then I go into major geological-geek mode (ummm, have you noticed?) which just means that I’m really interested, but hold very little knowledge. Hopefully one day I will met someone who can show me how to look for and identify fossils and I an discover hidden wonders in these cliffs.
The other exciting thing that we found at this beach was this cute sealion pup!!!!!!! Day. Made.
(He was quite the model for me. and then when I walked down to the beach he followed me and I had minor freak out that he was going to attack. But never fear, all was fine and he just wandered towards the ocean. phew)
Happy Exploring.
Moochelle