Ward Beach

Ward Beach is located on Marlborough's south east coastline, 4.7 kilometres (2.9 mi) southeast of the town of Ward, and 75 kilometres (47 mi) northwest of Kaikōura. The Flaxbourne River flows into the Pacific Ocean at the southern end of Ward Beach.[1]

This section of the coast from The Needles in the south, to Chancet Rocks in the north, is known for its unusual limestone rock formations.[2] The New Zealand Geopreservation Inventory includes three significant sites in the vicinity of Ward Beach:[3]

• Flaxbourne River: folds and thrusts
• Ward Beach: concretions and wave-cut platforms
• Chancet Rocks: Cretaceous/Tertiary Boundary

There is road access to Ward Beach from the township of Ward. The Marlborough District Council has established a small reserve for day visitors, at the beach roadend.[4]

The access road passes a lime quarry, close to the beach.[5]

The Kaikoura earthquake of November 2016 created an uplift of around 2.5 to 3 m at Ward Beach and Chancet Rocks.[6]

Immediately following the earthquake, the uplifted rocks and reefs were covered with seaweed, crayfish, paua, sea snails and other marine life that was now exposed above the high tide mark.[7]

The uplift of the beach caused the Flaxbourne River to change course away from its former estuary, cutting through the former bed of the estuary and beach gravels, and exposing more of the limestone rock beneath.[8]

The uplift caused by the earthquake changed the depth of water above the seabed offshore, and created a surf break that previously did not exist.[9] The surf breaks to the left or right depending on swell angle, and is described as suitable for intermediate to expert surfers.[10]

41°50′31″S 174°11′18″E

The large uplift of the seabed caused by the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake revealed spherical concretions on the raised rock platforms at Ward Beach.[11] The concretions are similar to the Moeraki Boulders south of Oamaru.

The boulders are located about 800 m north of the car park at the Ward Beach road end. These concretions were formed in the ocean floor in marine sediments from the late Cretaceous period (>65 million years ago). They were formed over several million years in mudstone that was subsequently buried by overlying sediment. Concretions become harder and more dense than the mudstone that surrounds them, and this means they can remain even after the material surrounding them has been removed by erosion. The Ward Beach boulders are formed from dolomite – calcium magnesium carbonate.[12]

• Ward Beach Boulders
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41°50′07″S 174°11′47″E

The Marlborough Environment Plan identifies the Ward Beach coastline as an area of outstanding natural landscape, and it is mapped as a threatened environment. The animals and birds identified in this area of the coast include New Zealand fur seal, banded dotterel, ruddy turnstone, Caspian tern, black-fronted tern, white-fronted tern, South Island oystercatcher, variable oystercatcher and pied stilt.[17] Plants identified in the dunes in the area include:

• Morning glory, Calystegia soldanella
• Marlborough rock daisy, Pachystegia insignis
• New Zealand daphne, Pimelea prostrata
• Coastal tree daisy, Olearia solandri
• Tauhinu or cottonwood, Ozothamnus leptophyllus

A local fishing company, Burkhart Fisheries, had launched fishing boats from Ward Beach for 42 years before the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.[19] However, one of the consequences of the large uplift of the seabed at Ward Beach in the earthquake is that it became difficult to launch their boat from the usual place on the beach. The fishing company applied to Marlborough District Council for a resource consent to launch their boat from a point further north on the beach, close to a scientific reserve at Chancet Rocks. The proposal included forming an existing paper road north from Ward Beach to Chancet Rocks, creating a parking area, and to undertake boat launching operations adjacent to Chancet Rocks. Opponents claimed that the proposal would risk disturbing animal and plant life, including a colony of New Zealand fur seals. Another issue of concern was that other parties would use the new road and this would lead to increased risk of damage to the scientific reserve.[20] Following consent hearings in July 2017, the application was refused.[21]

The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society subsequently complained to the Marlborough District Council that the company had used bulldozers to drag its boats further up the beach to a new launch site. The Environment Court issued urgent cease and desist orders in December 2017. The orders include an exclusion zone south of Chancet Rocks, to protect threatened bird species such as banded dotterels and variable oystercatchers that nest on the beach. The interim enforcement orders were made permanent in June 2019.[22]

In May 2018, the fishing company received a non-notified consent to construct a gravel causeway as a temporary launch site, outside of the exclusion zone.[23]

On 24 January 2020, Burkhart Fisheries applied for a consent to shift gravel and restore a temporary causeway at a site on the beach 50 m south of the exclusion zone.[19] There was opposition from conservationists and iwi, and the application eventually proceeded to a hearing. In early 2021, Burkhart Fisheries was granted a consent to move gravel and form the temporary launch site, for a 5-year term. However, Burkhart Fisheries found that sea conditions were pushing gravel into the launch site too quickly, and the terms of the newly approved resource consent limited the ways they could respond.[24]

• Drone footage of Ward Beach
• Media related to Ward Beach Boulders at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to Chancet Rocks at Wikimedia Commons