Access to Hakepa Beach requires either a boat or a challenging hike across Pitt Island's interior—there are no roads, no marked trails, just rough paths that local farmers navigate by memory. When you finally descend into the cove, the contrast with the exposed coast startles. The roar of open ocean softens to gentle lapping. The water inside the cove shifts between emerald and sapphire, so clear you can count pebbles three meters down.
“Hakepa Beach offers Pitt Island's most sheltered swimming and tide pool exploration, a rare pocket of calm in an otherwise uncompromising coastline.”
Credit: UnsplashPerson walking on a sand spit
The beach itself is compact, perhaps fifty meters of coarse sand mixed with rounded stones. At low tide, the cove's true character reveals itself: tide pools scattered across the rocky platforms, each one a miniature ecosystem. You'll find anemones pulsing softly, crabs skittering under overhangs, small fish trapped temporarily until the sea returns. Barnacles encrust every surface above the waterline, their shells forming rough mosaics in white and gray.
The cove faces east, catching morning light that illuminates the water from beneath, making it glow. By afternoon, the cliffs cast shadows across half the beach, creating pockets of coolness. Flax bushes cling to the slopes above, their silhouettes stark against the sky. Sometimes you'll spot a yellow-crowned parakeet—endemic to the Chathams—darting between the vegetation, adding flashes of bright color to the muted coastal palette.
