Moturoa / Rabbit Island at Main Beach

Rabbit Island, Tasman

Rabbit Island Main Beach is about 10minutes drive north-west from Richmond. Turn off State Highway 60 onto Redwood Road. The main recreational activity is swimming, but surfing and kayaking are also popular. Picnic areas in the adjacent domain are popular with large groups. The beach is usable at any time of the tide. Overall Rabbit Island beach is Tasman's second most popular beach. During the peak Christmas-January period the beach has 500-1000 visitors a day. Mid-week usage during school term can be high with bus-loads of school students using the low-tide beach for games.

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Water Quality

Passed water quality tests at least 95% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on February 12th, 2023. The Swim Guide - New Zealand updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on February 12th, 2023 at 5:00 PM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

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Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Tasman Regional Council monitors water quality at popular swimming beaches throughout the Tasman 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