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There's plenty to see and do at the estuary.
The estuary walkway provides beautiful views, and there are signs along the way providing information about some of the birds you might see.
There is a lot of interesting wildlife at the estuary. As well as birds, the estuary is also home to some interesting plants and is an important habitat for native fish.
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The Manawatū Estuary Trust enjoys giving people the opportunity to learn more about this amazing environ
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The Dune Garden is an ephemeral dune wetland surrounded by a ring of tall, dry dunes, on the western edge of the Manawatu Estuary Ramsar site. It is the most studied and actively managed coastal site on this coast, and probably much wider. As such it is a good wilderness habitat to explore, learn about, and better yet, become involved in it's protection.
Community work parties undertake monitoring and weeding tasks on a fortnightly basis, on Sunday mornings. This helps to protect the natural biodiversity, and provides a path to learn about the ecosystem, the flora and the fauna that make the Dune Garden home. If you would like to know more, please use the Support MET page on this site to reach out.
To find the Dune Garden, follow the signs to Foxton Beach township, driving along main road Seabury Avenue through the township to the Foxton Beach Holiday Park where the map below becomes useful to direct you to the Dune Garden, and various points around it.
Car parking is available on the hard sand at the end of Pinewood Road, i.e. where the blue arrows in the above map start. Access to the big bowl in the centre of the Dune Garden is over the big dune or else wending one's way through smaller dunes. The former is more straightforward and provides a sweeping first view.
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From atop the dune you might already be able to see the fluoro orange sunhat and jacket of regular attendees hundreds of meters to the west. We recommend you inform the team of your arrival time, If your timing is inopportune, they may be working behind a small dune or equivalent. It is easier for us to be appropriately visible if you're close to your indicated arrival time.
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As an ephemeral dune wetland, the Dune Garden tends to be quite dry through the summer and autumn, and over winter can fill up with water, which in wet years may remain until summer. The wetland area can be hard packed sand when dry, and the surrounding dunes are soft dry sand where they're not covered in vegetation. Dune Garden team members are happy to explain this as part of your introduction to the area.
These dunes can get warm even with a stiff breeze, common enough on this coast. Often little wind is felt in the Dune Garden, so it can warm up quickly. If you're on a north facing dune, the sand gets quite hot, well before midday, so sessions may target finishing by midday for that reason. Layered clothing is recommended, with a light windproof top layer. There is no official start time but earlier is better to avoid the heat. Come when it suits and for as long as you like.
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Useful items to bring include sunhat, sun cream, water bottle, munchies, and a camera. Sometimes a digging tool is useful along with a bag in your pocket for collecting rubbish - bread bags are appropriately small and relatively robust, but others bring larger ones. Plastic remains are highly undesirable in our environment and can then be picked up and deposited in a Council rubbish bin, e.g. in the area of the playground.