BAY OF PLENTY: KATIKATI

The Esplanade Reserve is at the northern end of Waihi Beach, with beachfront parking. Unfortunately, self-contained motor caravanners can no longer park overnight.

This is a nice location to stop for a break, or to do the walk to Orokawa bay - directly overlooking the beach, with a dairy just around the corner, and clean public toilets.

Freedom camping was allowed when we visited, and we stayed overnight, and walked the Orokawa bay track the next morning.  It's a reasonably challenging walk, and we made it to the top of the bluff, with its fantastic view over the Waihi Beach coast, but decided against walking down to the beach (what goes down, must come back up :-)). 

We included a couple of pictures of the beach, kindly supplied by Jan and Hans Pendergrast, who walked there the previous day.

There's another walk to a waterfall, which continues further on past Orokawa bay. However, at the time we visited, the track had been washed out by flooding. Maybe for a future visit...

View of the Waihi Beach coast from the top of the Orokawa Bay track

Orokawa Bay - supplied by Jan Pendergrast

Orokawa Bay - supplied by Jan Pendergrast

Beachfront parking for motorhomes and caravans