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.
The Manawatū Estuary Trust enjoys giving people the opportunity to learn more about this amazing environ
Dune Garden
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 its protection.
Community work parties undertake monitoring, weeding, planting and maintenance,
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 feel free to
reach out via the Support MET page or use the following QR code to send an email
directly.
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.
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.
Photo C. Tuffley
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.
