Graveyards, Hāpuku
Kaikōura · Canterbury
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. The rule-setter’s own wording: “Kaikōura District Council Animals Bylaw 2025 (issued 1 October 2025, replacing the Dog Control Bylaw 2015), clause 3.4 Dog Exercise Areas: “Dogs may be exercised at large in the following areas so long as doing so does not contradict section 3.3(2) of this document … d) Beach Foreshores (except Jimmy Armers Beach and South Bay Commercial Boat Park)”. This beach is neither exception, so it is off lead. The condition in that sentence matters and it is live right now: clause 3.3(2) says “To support the protection of birds, dogs are also not allowed off the leash on the beaches outlined in Schedule A of this document between 1 September and 1 December each year”, and clause 5.1(1) repeats it. Schedule A is three maps rather than a list of names, so we checked the council's own Dog Control Areas map layer instead of guessing: a query box over Kaikōura town returns all 24 of its areas, and the same query over a 3 km box around this beach returns none. Hāpuku sits well north of every bird protection beach, so the spring restriction does not reach it. We also checked who owns the ground: DOC's Public Conservation Land layer returns no feature at the road end, the pin, the midpoint or the north end, so there is no reserve or marginal strip sitting on top of the council bylaw”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Graveyards, Hāpuku
Near Kaikōura in Canterbury, Graveyards, Hāpuku runs 1.2 km.
Graveyards is what the coast off the end of Kiwa Road gets called, about twelve kilometres north of Kaikōura at Hāpuku. There is no track and no sign, just the road running out at the shingle and the whole open Pacific in front of you, with the Seaward Kaikōuras standing up behind. Daniel and Zola walk it north, so that is the line we have drawn: on to the beach and a kilometre up, about 2.3 km if you turn around and come back, and you can keep going a good deal further if the mood takes you. It is a shingle and boulder beach rather than sand, so it is loud, and the swell here comes in without anything in the way. Big surf and a steep shelf mean this is a walking beach, not a swimming one. On a clear day it is one of the better places in the district to just stand and look at the mountains meeting the sea, and you will often have the length of it to yourself. Dogs are off lead. That is the Kaikōura bylaw's own wording for beach foreshores, not our reading of a silence, and this beach is not one of the two the bylaw carves out. The one thing to have in your head is the spring bird rule: from 1 September to 1 December the council bans off-lead dogs on its bird protection beaches to keep nesting birds alive. Those beaches are all south of here, so this walk is not one of them, but if you are heading down towards town in those months it is worth checking which beach you are standing on. No toilets, no water and no shelter at the road end, and no shade at all once you are on the shingle. Take water for the dog on a hot day.
Expect easy going, with around 14 m of climb, and takes about 15 min to walk.
Dogs are welcome here. This walk is on the map because Daniel & Zola suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
