Awaroa Beach

Awaroa is on the eastern side of Abel Tasman National Park, at the top of New Zealand's South Island. It is a long stretch of golden sand at the mouth of a tidal inlet, reached on foot along the Abel Tasman Coast Track or by water taxi.

In 2016 a seven-hectare block of the beach — private freehold surrounded by national park — went on the market. Two New Zealanders started a crowdfunding campaign to buy it for the public; around forty thousand people contributed, the government added a contribution, and the land was purchased for over two million dollars and gifted to the nation. It is the clearest case anywhere of a beach being bought by the public for the public, and it happened in six weeks.

The beach itself is broad golden sand backed by bush, with an inlet behind that empties almost completely at low tide. Crossing the inlet is part of the Coast Track and is only possible around low water — walkers time their day around it, and people who get it wrong wait several hours or wade dangerously. The inlet behind the beach is a working estuary with a bird population that uses the flats at low tide, and the track crossing is timed to avoid disturbing them as well as for safety.

There is a lodge, a campsite and an airstrip, and otherwise nothing. The park has no road access along its length; everything arrives on foot, by kayak or by boat. Anchorage and Bark Bay further south are the more visited stops on the same track, both with campsites and both reachable by water taxi in under an hour from Marahau.

Forty thousand New Zealanders bought this beach in six weeks and gave it to the country. Walk in along the coast track, time the inlet crossing against the tide table rather than against your plans, and remember on the way that the sand under you is public because a lot of people each put in twenty dollars.