Taramea Bay Beach

Taramea Bay Beach covers 0.7 km, near Riverton in Southland.

The boundary here is the edge of the sand, and it is worth knowing before you unclip. Inge, who sent this one in, put it exactly right: the lead comes off on the beach itself. Everything above the sand is a different rule. The grassed reserve strip, the formed foreshore walkway that runs the length of it and the car parking all sit inside the Dog Control Urban Area on Southland District Council’s Riverton map, shaded as a dog on lead area, and Schedule 1 of the Dog Control Bylaw 2025 puts every dog in an urban zone, a council car park or a council boating area on a leash. So walk down from the car park on the lead, and let it off once you are on the beach. The bylaw’s own test comes with the off lead grant: effective control means knowing where your dog is and what it is doing, being close enough to stop it becoming a nuisance or a danger to people, animals, wildlife or property, and being able to bring it quickly to heel. The off lead area is not the whole bay either. Schedule 2 draws it as a band of sand and tidal flat of about 15 hectares, and the line mapped here runs up the middle of it: roughly 670 metres north from a point about a hundred metres out from the Taramea Bay Road car park, toilets and playground, past the reserve to the rock outcrop and Coast Guard building at the top end. South of that band, toward Riverton Rocks and Howells Point, there is no exercise area shading at all, and the Howells Point Recreation Reserve about 1.5 km on is mapped dogs on lead. North Beach, the sand across the river mouth, is its own exercise area on the map and about 200 metres of open water away, so it is a separate walk reached from the other side rather than a continuation of this one. The estuary side of town is stricter than most people expect. The whole Riverton township, including the entire Aparima and Jacobs River estuary frontage along Palmerston Street, Jetty Street, Bay Road, Napier Street and Ngarimu Street, falls inside the Dog Control Urban Area, so the lead stays on throughout. On top of that the map draws two dogs prohibited blocks on that side, the Recreation Reserve at Ngarimu Street and a second block near Pomare and Carrol Streets, where a dog may not be taken at all unless it is confined in a vehicle or cage. Playgrounds and sports grounds are prohibited at all times, and there are playgrounds right beside the beach access at Trotter Street and Alamein Street South. Go by the ground rather than by a landmark on that side: wherever you are on the estuary frontage, the lead is on. Sea lions are the reason to be honest about your recall here. New Zealand sea lions are returning to the mainland, DOC says they prefer sandy beaches, and it records non-breeding animals along the south and east coasts of the South Island, which is this coast. We have no record of a haul out at Taramea Bay itself and we are not claiming one, but a sandy beach where dogs run off the lead is exactly the situation DOC writes its rule for: stay at least 10 m from them, 20 m if you are with your dog, always on lead. A resting animal is easy to miss, and DOC notes that a female’s fur colour is similar to sand and that they might be hidden between the dunes, so scan well ahead. It is an offence under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 to disturb, harass, harm, injure or kill a New Zealand sea lion, and DOC says a dog owner whose dog attacks a seal could face prosecution. Report any sea lion being harassed by people or dogs to 0800 DOC HOT. Little penguins are the same shape of caution. No colony is recorded at this beach, so treat this as what to do rather than what to expect: DOC calls dogs likely the greatest threat to little penguin, so if you meet one, get the lead on and keep your dog well clear, particularly from May to June when they come ashore to nest and through the moult, any time from November to March, when they cannot swim. Riverton is known for dolphins working up into the estuary and Hector’s are the ones people come to see, but they are a reason to look up rather than a reason to clip the lead on: DOC does not list dogs among the threats to Hector’s dolphins. One thing beats everything above. Clause 10 of the bylaw lets the council change these areas temporarily by public notice, which means legible signs put up on or beside the area, and it names protected wildlife vulnerable to dogs and pest control as reasons for doing it. If there is a sign at the beach, the sign wins over the map, so read the access points before you unclip. Pick up after your dog and carry it out: the bylaw requires faeces to be removed immediately. And treat the line mapped here as the shape of the off lead sand rather than a route. No track is mapped along this beach, so the line simply follows the shore through the council’s exercise area, and the walkable ground moves with the tide. It is flat and about 670 metres each way, so a little over 1.3 km out and back, and the foreshore walkway through the reserve is there if you want a formed surface underfoot, on the lead.

Graded easy, it stays flat overall, and takes about 8 min to walk.

Dogs are welcome here. This walk is on the map because Inge & Pip suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.