French Bay – Otitori Bay

Oh so pretty. This is the posh version of Titirangi Beach, mostly because of the yacht club. I think it’s really the old person’s beach of Titirangi. Grandparents with the kiddies everywhere, old people couples walking hand in hand along the shore, how sweet. The reason why this beach isn’t my favourite is a few things. One, the sand. She sells sea shells by the seashore. I hate shelly beaches, it’s just wrong. Two. If the tides out, it’s gross. Muddy blaughness. Three. Kids. There are always kids, everywhere, all the time. It’s not the biggest beach so people tend to congregate around each other all together, and because there’s trees for shade (this is a plus! YAY), everyone seems to be clumped in together, meaning loud kids sound louder and crying kids cry more. Not my fave, but people with families or older people seem to love it. Plus, like I said, it’s actually really pretty.

Just tucked away off the main Titirangi thoroughfare, French Bay is the epitome of pleasant. On a summer afternoon you can find people of all ages enjoying all manner of water-​based recreation (mostly variations on swimming and boating). The beach is fairly sheltered and certainly not a surf beach, so it’s good for little kids.
This is one of those beaches where you swim at high tide and walk for miles through ankle-​deep water at low tide, so you need to time your visit. Unless you actually enjoy trudging around at low tide, in which case go for your life you weirdo. At high tide it gets deep pretty quickly so you don’t need to go far before you’re bobbing around pretending to be a narwhal or whatever. French Bay loses points on its sand, which is coarse and pebbly. But give it two or three thousand years and I’m sure that’ll sort itself out.