The beach at Opera Point is really beautiful and I’m glad to see the bird life is being respected.
The walk to the beach is interesting. Following an old tramway, we walked through the site of a old sawmill, Craig’s Sawmill built in 1862. All that’s left is long grass and an old concrete drain.
There was a headland pa but not much remains. According to Doc it was originally the domain of Ngati Huarere, the pa and surrounding area appear to have been abandoned following seaborne raids in 1818 by Ngapuhi, from Northland.
The beach looks out over the Mercury Islands where Captain Cook observed the transit of Mercury on his voyage around New Zealand. The unspoilt beach is protected from development, backed by sand dunes which is now a nature reserve. Our endangered North Island Dotterill birds have a haven here, unlike so many other beaches around the coast.
The Haigh Access Road entrance to the walk at was closed because of Kauri Dieback, so we began the walk at Stillwater. The tide was still going when we reached the beach and we had to remove our shoes and wade through the water – but the day was hot and our feet dried quickly.
We climbed through regenerating bush to a headland before dropping quite steeply to Karepiro Bay, to a restored historic cottage. Dacre Cottage was built in the 1850s by Henry Dacre, son of the retired sea captain Ranulf Dacre, who bought the Weiti block in 1848.
Unfortunately you can’t see inside the cottage because of vandals but there’s a photo of the interior in the link below.
The beach outside the cottage is a nesting site for endangered dotterills. Unfortunately the land next to Karepiro Bay is under development. We could hear the diggers from the cottage. I really fear for these birds, I know from experience from where I live at Snells Beach that the Auckland City council won’t stop development because of our shorebirds. I hope these new home owners don’t have cats. I love cats but not in fragile areas where endangered birds are nesting.
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