Waiake Bay

Really nice beach for a walk! Dog friendly, majestic and mostly quiet in comparison to nearby Browns Bay. It’s a smaller bay, but has some beautiful qualities, such as the giant rock you can climb or just marvel at, a beautiful stream made by seawater and a nearby café, Tides, to grab a coffee at and watch the waves.

A great beach that’s a little different from the other East Coast bays because of the cool rock structure to the left hand side where a small part of the cliff has come away from the main part with flat rocks connecting them. A very neat feature. Same as all of them though– you can see Rangitoto. Noticed some people taking some rods there for a fish in this area. Be careful though– saw a warning sign for falling rocks.
Public bathrooms available and an outdoor shower that is helpful. A cool climbing pyramid rope structure on the grassy area to the side as well as a underpass wooden walkway to the opposite side of the road to the boat club. Rocks on both sides of the beach at low tide that you can walk around. Can get slippery so be careful but good fun and you can get to the secluded little Winstones Cove this way.
They have a pontoon in the middle of the ocean which is cool as well as a little secluded part of the beach for boats and a boat ramp. Noticed several SUP’ers too– water is definitely calm enough for it. Makes for excellent swimming as well.
What a neat little bay– definitely recommend

Waiake could possibly the love of my life. Big call I know. But this beach has it all. It’s so close to my house and I am always amazed at how something so beautiful can be just two minutes from my place. We are truly blessed to live in a city like this.
There’s always kids out in yachts, people jumping of the pontoon and millions of mothers slapping sun block over their family. I love it. A lot of schools also use this beach for excursions as it’s close to a lot of them and is a relatively safe beach.
I love going down and getting a coffee at Tides and just taking in all the sea air. It has an amazing view and some epic sunsets. I also like taking my coffee with me on my walks around the rocks. You get such an awesome view from out there, and you feel a little like you’re in the middle of the ocean.

This is always a happening place. If you’ve got a soft spot for young sailors then this is where you want to be on a Sunday morning. But the sailing club is really only one pulling point for Waiake Bay. The beach itself is pretty awesome. White sand, generally clear water, nice grassy areas. The small floating platoon, however, is the be all and end all of this little bay. This square floating platform is anchored at the beach and sits in the water close enough to swim out to but deep enough to enjoy some big bombing competitions. It can get very crowded and a tad scary when lots of kids start clambering onto it at once though!
Another awesome thing about Torbay Beach is the Tor. This small island sits right off the coast at Torbay. I have some epic childhood memories of walking out to the Tor at low tide and scaling to the top to check out the incredible views.