Gooches Beach

Easily found on the esplanade of Kaikoruka Township, this small beach is fairly rocky but with a generous cover of shade on sunnier days. The coastline of Kaikoura is often sought out by tourists as a whale-watching destination, and communities of seals have been known to frolic close to shore. Parking, public toilets, changing sheds, and a children’s playground are available on the beach itself, and other amenities are readily available in the township proper.

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

Passed water quality tests at least 95% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on March 15th, 2020. Swim Guide NZ updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on March 15th, 2020 at 11:01 PM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

Report Pollution

Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Environment Canterbury Regional Council monitors water quality at popular swimming beaches throughout the Canterbury 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