Mt Maunganui Main Beach at Near surf club

The oceanfront beach at the foot of Mount Maunganui (also known as Mauao) provides excellent surf. New Zealand's first artificial reef was installed at the Mount, however due budget restrictions and escalating costs it was never completed. Ironically, the reef has been blamed for creating dangerous rips and may have to be removed.

Mauao is an extinct volcano that is featured extensively in Maori culture. The name translates to "caught by dawn" which is said to have been given to the volcano by patupaiarehe (night fairies).

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COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is essential right now. Follow the advice of the health experts. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Heading to the beach should only be considered an option if social distancing practices can be followed. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter the efforts to curb the virus’ spread.

For more information, please visit the World Health Organization public resource on COVID-19.

Water Quality

Meets water quality standards
Current Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on February 22nd, 2021. Swim Guide NZ updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on February 22nd, 2021 at 12:45 AM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

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Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Bay of Plenty monitors water quality at popular swimming beaches throughout the Bay of Plenty region.

Water quality data on Swim Guide is sourced from the LAWA Can I Swim Here? website. www.lawa.org.nz/swim

At this site, water is regularly tested for levels of Enterococci during the summer months. This faecal indicator bacteria is used to indicate the level of harmful pathogens in the water.

See information on recreational water quality monitoring in New Zealand in this LAWA factsheet: https://www.lawa.org.nz/learn/factsheets/coastal-and-freshwater-recreation-monitoring/

Beach sites are shown as a GREEN swim icon if the latest Enterococci test result was in the range of 0 - 280 Enterococci / 100 mL.

Beach sites are shown as a RED swim icon if the latest test result exceeded 280 Enterococci / 100 mL or frequently exceeds the standard or there is a temporary water quality issue outside the routine testing programme (e.g. sewage overflow).

See information on the standards for recreational water quality monitoring in New Zealand in the 'What do the swim icons mean?' LAWA factsheet.

LAWA recommends for all sites, to avoid swimming for 2 - 3 days after significant rain, even for sites that normally have good water quality.

A good rule of thumb is to check that you can see your toes in knee deep water.

See www.lawa.org.nz/swim for up to date information on current warnings and alerts, weather conditions, tides, real-time water temperatures, what facilities are available, the monitoring history at this site and helpful factsheets.

Water Quality Graph