About | Muriwai Beach
From another entrance there are great walking areas beside the beach and creek and you’ll see many dog walkers out or families going for an explore. It’s great for little kids because the creek is a safe place to swim in and there are a few waterholes about for the kids to jump in.
The car park opposite the toilets are the starting point for dogs that like to roam and you’ll find another smaller car park just before the beach entrance that goes along the creek and leads towards the ocean that are great for kids. The black sand gets really hot on a hot summers day, it’s worth bringing shoes to get over it.
The first set of walking tracks is not well signposted, don’t get lost! There are plenty of small tracks going in all directions so it’s not hard to do. We really like walking along the creek, it can be especially beautiful on an early morning walk. We’ll sometimes do a loop walk around the creek but it can be confusing which way to go when the track ends, if you’re unsure just remember the way you came and go back that way.
If you continue to the very end of Coast Road there is an entrance to the beach where you can go off-roading. Go left when you’re on beach, over the stream, and you’ll be able to drive down the beach for ages. There are plenty of tracks you can follow up the sand dunes or find a spot, park up and let the kids run wild. Our kids love to bring the boogie boards and go sliding down the sand dunes.
If you reach near the end of the beach, you’ll end up at a place called ‘the bombing range’ (just so long as you don’t actually enter the bombing range you’ll be fine), where you can see sand to as far as the eye can see. It looks like a desert! There are lots of cool spots to explore up here with big sand dunes. Go a few hours before low tide and make sure you have plenty of time before high tide because the water comes right up to the sand dunes by the bombing range and you’ll need to race back before it comes all the way in.
If you go to the beach remember to take your rubbish with you to keep the beach clean.
There is also a bike pump track at the start of Coast Road that is well worth checking out if the kids want to go for a ride.
Dogs allowed.
Nearby
Muriwai Gannet Colony and Main Beach
Location
Drive down Old Coast Road, it’s right by the Muriwai Fire Station. Along the road, you’ll pass the tennis courts, pump track and golf course on your left.
Then you’ll come across the Muriwai Beach Horse Treks on you’re left, there’s some parking opposite it (on your right) and walking tracks take you through bush and along the creek.
Carry on and there’ll be another parking area, smaller than the last. There’s a walking track there that takes you along the creek and to the beach.
Or a short drive to the end of the road will take to the vehicle access to the beach.
Photos
Bring the closest west coast beach to us, we go here a ton! The west coast beaches are our go to in the colder months, whereas you’ll probably find us at the east coast beaches in summer as they’re great to swim at.
Just before the entrance to access the beach, there’s a car park to the side that takes you along a track to the creek. The creek is such a great and safe place for the kids to play in. This is also a popular spot for dog walkers.
You can follow the creek, go in for a splash (we’ll find that the kids love going in, even in winter!), play on the sand dunes beside it or go further and play on the driftwood and logs.
Or you can go back and find a few swimming holes.
We love this place and find something new to discover each time we’re there.
4w4 access
As you’re driving along the beach, you’ll see openings and tracks going into or over the sand dunes. Some are harder than others, take your pick. We’ve kind of found our favourites as we’ve explored the place many times but there are always new discoveries to make along the way and we like to mix it up a bit as well as head back to the old ones.
In winter, we’ve spotted a few seals along this beach. It’s always nice to see. We’ll run out, excited as can be, squealing with delight and seeing how close we dare to go.
There was one seal that especially captured our hearts. It looked a little younger than the others we’d seen and we were delighted with how playful it was.
Usually, when we walk up to one, they’ll head straight back into the ocean but this one wasn’t interested in the ocean and was much more interested in us. It had beautiful eyes and whenever we got close it would put it’s head up and scamper along to us – the boys would shriek and run away, wishing they could let it get closer (it was just too cute!) but seeing those teeth they knew better.
It was hard work getting these boogie boards back up, especially after they had been down a few times and tired themselves out.
This is one of our spots that we love to come back to. It’s a huge sand dune that the kids can spend hours sliding down but it’s also really tiring walking back up.
Dunes by the bombing range
Sometimes, we’ll travel nearly all the way to the very end, close to the ‘bombing range’. It takes somewhere between 30-45 minutes but we love being so far away from everything.
Up there, you’ll find large areas of sand and big sand dunes.
We’ve spent so many good times there, running up the sand dunes, seeing how far up we can be bothered to go and sliding all of the way back down.
We’ll play games with each other, have a good laugh and eventually tire ourselves out.
We’ve also lit a fire out here and roasted some marshmallows over it while watching the sun go down.
The time would quickly pass us by and too soon the tide would be coming up and we’d be racing back home. You really want to head home when the tide hasn’t come up too much – especially when you’re all the way out here. The water will come right up in some places and you don’t want to get caught out here when everyone else has headed back and with no reception. So just remember what time it is.
I remember heading back late one day, the waves were coming in and out. It’s quite flat so when the wave comes in it comes up far, then goes back down. There were a few others heading back at the same time and they were ahead of us. We’d wait for the water to come in, then quickly pass as it went down again. But the guy in front of us timed it wrong, got caught in it and the water splashed up against his car, but otherwise, he was ok. It was a good reminder to get back on time!
Once you’re back on the road, there’s a good place in Huapai to give your car a wash down.
