Nuhaka River at Opoutama Road

Opotama Beach is also known as Blue Bay to locals. The beach is fairly sheltered and provides a safe swimming experience for all levels of swimmers. Beautiful white sand stretches along Ormond Drive connecting to Mahia Beach. The neighbouring campground closed a few years ago but freedom camping is available for any vehicle (no tents) for a maximum of 3 nights.

Get directions to this beach

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 21st, 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 21st, 2021 at 4:07 PM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

Report Pollution

Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Hawkes Bay Regional Council monitors water quality at popular swimming spots throughout the Hawkes Bay 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 E. coli 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 the 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 E. coli test result was in the range of 0 - 550 E. coli / 100 mL.

Beach sites are shown as a RED swim icon if the latest test result exceeded 550 E. coli / 100 mL or if this site 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, real-time water temperature and flow rates, and what facilities are available, the monitoring history at this site and helpful factsheets.

Water Quality Graph