Castlepoint & Riversdale

With its giant limestone reef, lighthouse and landmark Castle Rock, Castlepoint is Wairarapa’s most spectacular beach. According to Maori legend, Kupe, the great Polynesian navigator, chased an octopus into hiding here.

For years this was Wairarapa’s main port, and fishing boats still shelter in the lagoon. The town has a holiday home atmosphere, with the local store acting as service station, restaurant, dairy and bar.

Riversdale, with its long sandy beach, has been a family resort for more than 50 years. There’s good swimming, surfing, fishing and a friendly golf course. Both beaches are about an hour’s drive from Masterton along sealed country roads.

Other coastal settlements include the rugged fishing village of Ngawi and the new beachside development at Flat Point, an hour’s drive from Gladstone (sealed road for part of the route).

• On the road to Castlepoint call in at Tinui Craft Shop and Museum for locally-made crafts. Tinui is the site of the first ever Anzac service (for the seven local young men who fell at Gallipoli) and you can see the commemorative cross first erected in 1916 on Mount Maunsell, known locally as the ‘Tinui Taipo’, which overlooks the village.
• At Castlepoint take the boardwalk across to the lighthouse and the reef or follow the Deliverance Cove track up to the heady 160-metre high Castle Rock. It was Captain James Cook who likened this limestone outcrop to a castle when he sailed past in 1770.
• Swimming’s made extra safe – both Riversdale and Castlepoint are patrolled in the summer months.
• If the sand and tides are right, the annual Castlepoint horse races take place on the beach in late summer.
• You’ll want to stay the weekend so drop into the Castlepoint Holiday Park and Motels for family-friendly accommodation, or for a quiet rural weekend try Prospect Homestay and Spa.