Sandbank & Motu Beaches

Sandbanks, motu and spits: small low islands of pure sand, usually reached only by boat, often changing shape between seasons and sometimes disappearing at high tide. There is rarely anything on them. These are the least stable landforms in the register: unconsolidated sand with no rock core, changing shape between seasons and in several cases disappearing entirely at high tide. Coordinates for them are approximate by nature rather than by omission, and the register flags that on each record. Visits are correspondingly short, set by an operator and by the tide rather than by the visitor, and facilities amount to whatever arrived on the boat. Their appeal is precisely their impermanence: standing on a strip of sand with open sea on every side is an experience no fixed beach offers, and it lasts a few hours.