Waipatiki Beach

Waipatiki Beach is a small coastal village in Napier District, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. It is situated in a little valley at the end of a road that branches off the main road from Napier to Gisborne (SH 2) and that finally, after 11 km, leads to a small sandy beach; first Tangoio Rd, then Waipatiki Rd. Waipatiki Beach lies nearly exactly north of Napier, some 20 km, as the crow flies, and is a small beach side community with alternative lifestyle residents (43 households in 2005). There are also many holidaymakers over the summer period.Outside the village lies the commercially exploited Waipatiki forest, but close to the village are some important remnants of protected native bush. There is also a small campsite, the Waipatiki Beach Farm Park.“Waipātiki” means “water of the flounder” in Māori. It was once an estuarine valley, well populated in pre-European times because the estuary was a rich source of flounder Rhombosolea plebeia. The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake lifted the flats and a stream system formed.