Cathedral Cove

Cathedral Cove — Te Whanganui-A-Hei — is on the Coromandel Peninsula, north-east of Hahei. Two small beaches are joined by a natural arch cut through a headland of soft white ignimbrite, and the arch is what everybody comes to walk through.

Access has been the story recently. Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023 caused major landslips along the walking track, and the site was closed to land access for around two years while the route was rebuilt; parts of the arch and cliff also lost material. The reopening was staged, and conditions on this soft rock coast continue to change — rockfall is an ongoing hazard and sections of beach are periodically fenced.

The rock is volcanic ash welded into stone, which is why it erodes into shapes like this and why it keeps eroding. The cove sits inside a marine reserve established in 1992, and the snorkelling around the headlands is good, with snapper and blue maomao that are unafraid because they have not been fished for thirty years. The marine reserve was New Zealand's second, established after a long campaign by local divers who had watched the fish disappear over two decades.

There is no road to the cove. It is a walk of around forty-five minutes each way from Hahei, or a short trip by water taxi or kayak, which is how many people arrive. Nothing is built at the beach. Hahei itself has the sheltered swimming, and New Chums Beach further north is a half-hour walk over a headland to sand with nothing built behind it at all.

Closed for two years after Cyclone Gabrielle took the path in 2023 and reopened in stages; check before you set out. Forty-five minutes on foot from Hahei or a water taxi. Do not stand under the arch — it is soft welded ash and the last few years have shown what that means.