Where is Scandrett Bay?

Morning view of Scandrett Bay

Scandrett Bay is just one of the tranquil beaches located on the Maharangi Peninsula, approximately 1 ½ hours north-east of central Auckland. It’s a perfect spot to relax and unwind if you want to do a day trip from Auckland, or there are three traditional kiwi baches that can be rented if you want a longer break.

There used to be baches (or cribs as they call them in the South Island) all along the Scandrett’s Bay shoreline. The Scandrett family whom the bay is named after, gave permission for a number of sites to be leased and at least 11 baches were built between 1950 and 1970.

Now just three remain and are owned by the Auckland Regional Council (ARC). New Zealanders love to have holidays by the beach so the baches are usually booked solid over the Christmas period but they are usually readily available outside of this period.

Graham Bach

Graham Bach, the middle one, where my family and I stayed for two nights recently, can sleep up to eight people. It’s literally right on the water’s edge, so the beach is your front yard. While we there we saw an Orca whale and its baby swimming not too far from shore and also a stingray which swum right past us in the clear shallows. Apart from some kayaking, and swimming, we also did a walk up over the headland. There are quite a few decent treks you can do that start from Scandrett Bay.

Kayaking

If you like historic places and cultural heritage, at the end of the headland is a Maori Pa site and the Scandrett Family homestead is open to the public. There is also a virtually intact collection of farm buildings dating from the late 19th century.

Scandrett Bay is a public beach but at night a gate closes off the entrance so you have the beach to yourselves. This, and the fact that it is a little off the beaten track, means that Scandrett Bay is not as overrun by people as perhaps some of the other beaches in the area and much of it’s natural beauty is still intact.

A guest post by New Zealand travel writer, Angela Pearse.

Lonely Planet New Zealand

Map

TravelTipsPlus Google Map of Scandrett Bay

One Great Reason to Visit

One great reason to visit this travel destination is to experience staying in authentic NZ bach right on the beach, a perfect way to relax and unwind with family and friends.

For More Information

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 at 1:30 am and is filed under Australasia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.