Foxton Beach Coast Care
Welcome to the Foxton Beach Coast Care web site.
Feel free to meander around our web site, and see just what Foxton Beach Coast Care is about and what we have to offer. You never know, we may even tempt you to get involved and help us protect and preserve one of New Zealand's premier dune formations.
The parabolic dunes to the north are of particular scientific importance, being some of the largest such dunes still to be found anywhere on the planet. Research still continues into the formation of these dunes, which can sprint inland at speeds of up to several kilometres per year.
Nestled on the northern banks of the Manawatu Estuary, the mud-flats just to the south and west of the township have assumed their own internationally acclaimed role as stop-overs for all manner of migratory birds.
One of Coast Care's first success stories was to secure the recognition of these mudflats as a Bird Sanctuary, with Horowhenua District Council now in the process of formally handing over care and control of the Sanctuary to the Department of Conservation.
If you're visiting the area whether for the first time, or as a seasoned campaigner, please respect the area for what it is, and leave the wildlife undisturbed.
At present, the river mouth appears to be moving slowly southward. The result is that a large spit is forming, as can be seen quite clearly in this aerial photograph.
Such formations may not last however, since the manawatu has doen such things before. One good flood may well see the river straighten again, and all that new spit could simply disappear overnight.
