AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Tucked along State Highway 2 on the Eastern Bay of Plenty coast, between Matatā and Whakatāne, Pikowai Beach is the kind of place many travellers pass on the way to more famous names—and a good few choose to stop. A wide run of golden sand meets the Pacific under a wall of white, pohutukawa-topped cliffs, and the water that rolls in here stays uncrowded, unhurried and almost always yours alone. Visitors rate it highly, and it is easy to see why: this is a beach built for swimming, fishing and simply watching the light move across the bay.↗↗
The name tells you what makes Pikowai special. Piko means 'bend' and wai means 'stream', and it describes the small freshwater creek that wanders down through the sand, its course ever-changing, often pooling into a shallow pond where children paddle while the swell breaks just beyond. Part Māori legend—this is said to be a place where the great Mataatua waka made landfall on its coastal journey from Tauranga—and part quiet family beach, Pikowai rewards a stop that lingers.↗
Cliffs, streams and stories
Pikowai sits on the shoreline of the Eastern Bay of Plenty, a rural pocket of coast roughly ten kilometres northwest of Matatā. The beachfront camping ground right here is sheltered from southerly winds by striking white cliffs crowned with coastal pohutukawa, and that same cliff line frames the sand for anyone who just pulls over off the highway. Looking out across the water, this stretch of coast offers the region's characteristic sweep of sandy bays, with the far East Coast coastline visible down the shore.
