Motueka Sandspit
Motueka · Nelson-Tasman
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. Tasman District Council’s own wording: “Leash Control Area, Schedule 5: "Tasman’s Great Taste Trail, Northern section from Māpua to Tapawera through Riuwaka, excluding Old Mill Walkway Reserve." (Tasman District Council Dog Control Bylaw 2024, in force 31 March 2025, as published on the council’s own bylaw dog control layer, read 28 August 2026. The southern end of the sandspit is a separate Schedule 4 Dogs Prohibited Area, "At all times for wildlife protection reasons. Designation starts from south of latitude marker 41.1200". The drawn route lies entirely north of that marker. Away from the trail itself, clause 17.1 leaves the sandspit under control.)”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Motueka Sandspit
This short walk follows 1.5 km, near Motueka in Nelson-Tasman.
The long finger of sand and gravel that shelters Motueka from Tasman Bay, walked on the formed trail that runs north up the spine of it from the Harbour Road end. Our line is 1.46 km one way, so about 3 km there and back, flat the whole way on fine gravel. On one side you have the open bay, on the other the shallow inlet with the Kahurangi ranges behind it, and at low tide the mudflats fill up with oystercatchers, godwits and stilts. It is one of the best short bird walks in the district, which is also the reason the rules here are worth reading before you park. Inge sent this one in and got both halves of it right, including the bit the council makes hard. The south end is closed to dogs and it is properly signed on the ground. What the council map does not tell you is where the line actually falls, and it falls at latitude 41.1200, level with the seaward end of Glenaven Drive and roughly 800 m south of Motueka Quay. Tasman writes the boundary as that latitude rather than as a landmark, and DOC’s own boundary pin sits on exactly the same spot. Everything south of it is prohibited at all times for wildlife, on a lead or not. The route drawn here starts about 780 m north of the marker, so if you follow this line you are never near it, but if you walk in from the southern side you can be over it without noticing. The lead stays on for the walk itself, and the reason is the trail rather than the spit. This path is part of Tasman’s Great Taste Trail, and the council lists the whole northern section of that trail in Schedule 5 as a leash control area. Step off the trail onto the open sand north of the prohibition line and you are back under the general rule, which is dogs under control, and DOC asks that you keep them on the wet sand there. Given how much of this spit is roosting ground it is a fair ask, and it is the difference between a flock lifting off and a flock staying put. One thing to know about the council’s map, because Inge is not the only person it has caught. The colours are green for off leash, yellow for on lead and red for no dogs, but the page that explains them calls the leash areas blue while the map draws them yellow. Her reading of the map was better than the council’s own description of it. There is parking at the Harbour Road end, no shade anywhere on the spit, and the wind comes straight off the bay, so it is a morning walk in summer and a warm-jacket walk the rest of the year.
Expect easy, near-level going, and takes about 17 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Inge & Pip suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
