For as long as I can remember, I've seen the signposts to Kawhia when heading down the West Coast of the North Island through Waikato and every time I've driven past, I've always thought "I've gotta go down there and check it out", but I would just as quickly push that thought out of my head until the next time I was heading down the road and saw the signposts - but every time I did, I remembered the last time I did it. When anecdotally relaying this story to my family, they all pretty much replied with "Kawhia? Where's that?" - and just like that, the urgency to resolve this issue hit critical pressure.
With as little planning as possible, we prepared a weekend group ride down the road to Kawhia for a spot of camping and fishing and it was well worth it - and not just to tick it off the 'been there' bucket-list.
The road from SH39 into Kawhia is about 40 minutes of paved road and there's bits of it that are a lot of fun. The traffic is minimal and the scenery is typical of North Island rural roads. The bends bring moments of joy and there's no real 'dangerous' or unpaved pieces, so it's a great ride.
Kawhia itself is a small coastal town with a huge natural harbour. The primary industries seem to be commercial fishing and the disdained iron-sand mining at the harbour entrance. There's a very slow and relaxing vibe in the township, with locals sitting around enjoying the large park or trying their hand at a bit of fishing. Like most NZ small communities, there's very little commercial services available and in fact, they are often closed - so if you plan a trip there, take what you need. Don't expect to be able to drop down the road at any time for food or to stock up a bit at the bottlestore. There are pubs, dairys and other services, and it's good to support the local businesses - but don't expect them to be open when you want them to be.
There are 2 camping grounds locally and several Hotels, so accommodations are easy to find.
On the road into Kawhia is the Kawhia Beachside Scape Holiday Park, right on the waterfront and then there is the Forest View Motor Camp closer to the township and beach. For this trip, we chose the Forest View Motorcamp which was a nice quiet place to stay with no restrictions on dogs or kids. We had a couple of learner-riders with us, so a more secluded spot off the main roads was a great option for them.
We were there to fish, ride and relax but there's other options for entertainment if you're not keen on fishing. Kawhia is one of the few places you can find a hot water beach to enjoy a sandy bath. It's a short drive from town, but you'll need to be prepared for a bit of a hike over the sand-dunes before you can enjoy the west coast natural spa. There's plenty of bush walks, a museum and a few boat hires to get out on the harbour. There's also destinations like Raglan just 1 hour down the road. With a well established cafe and restaurant scene, Raglan is a good afternoon trip to enjoy a meal and a latte.
If fishing is your thing however, you would do well to get a little local knowledge to improve your chances. We did not do that, so the end result of our trip was that no fish were harmed in the making of our adventure.
Having looked at Kawhia harbour and the local township, we hit the town with huge expectations. The local wharf is right on the main street and already in deep water. Kawhia Harbour is huge, so we assumed it would be a great easy fishing location...
What we didn't consider is that with such a huge harbour and a small inlet at the mouth, the sheer volume of water relocating with every tide meant that the current in the harbour is incredibly strong.
No amount of extra weight or wired sand sinkers was enough to stop the rush of water dragging our sinkers from one end of the wharf to the other in just a few minutes, which was not ideal for the 'patient' science of fishing. There were plenty of fish around, but mostly smaller fish that could shelter from the current under the wharf. When casting into the channel, the bait was swimming just as fast at the prey, greatly reducing the chance of grabbing a good "dinner-fish". On one occasion, when we tried dropping our lines closer to the wharf to avoid the stronger current, something very large did come along and attacked every rod we had in the water in succession - taking our hooks as well as the bait we had put on offer. So there were sea monsters down there, but none that wanted to be battered and served with chips and a wedge of lemon on that day.
As dusk arrived, we did notice a lot of quad bikes coming down the beach further past the township. Presumably these were the local enthusiasts that knew to go to the mouth of the harbour for the better fishing and had conquered the distance hurdle with some modern big-wheeled solutions. If we had planned better, we would have perhaps tried to find a local who could hire a quad-bike too.
Not to be completely defeated however, we did find a solution in the local Chippie over the road. One way or another, dinner was going to be fish, and if we couldn't catch it ourselves, we would turn to the experts - and we were not disappointed by Kawhia Fish Shop.
We thought the server in the shop seemed a bit unfriendly/humourless after placing our order, but to be fair after taking our order, she went out the back with dry clothes. When she returned with our order, she was wet all the way to her hips, driving speculation on whether she waded out into the harbour to catch our dinner where we had failed, which went a long way toward explaining her sour demeanour.
Surveying the group after dinner had been devoured, it was universally agreed that the Kawhia Chippie provides the best fish and chips (and burgers) in New Zealand.
Getting a beer in town is surprisingly difficult, especially for a small local township, leading to some speculation that there may have been some difficulties in the community with alcohol at some point. There's numerous signs on the main street about alcohol restrictions and the local restaurants and bottle-stores have numerous signs about restricting outside drinking, which is quite unusual for a coastal Kiwi township. Monday, everything is closed.
Whether looking for a quite friendly town to take a few days out, or pinning Kawhia as a destination in a larger ride through to Raglan and back to Hamilton or Auckland, this is a great road, a scenic destination and a nice place to take off the bucket-list rides.
I'll return again for sure - and I'm certain the fish in the harbour don't feel threatened by that at all.
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