Trip report: Breaker Bay in Wellington, NZ

[kiwitim]

So we went down to Wellington for my birthday this year (well late last year now). We were down there for a week and a half. It was great, though Wellington truly lived up to its name of "The Windy City" for most of the trip. Thankfully whoever controls the weather heard about my birthday and decided to give me one of the best spring days Wellington's had in years. So what better way to celebrate my birthday than heading to urban Wellington's only naturist beach to get into my birthday suit?

The beach is called Breaker Bay, and as you can see from my first attempt at taking a panorama pic, it's very nice on a good day:

You might also be able to see people wearing clothes in that pic too. It's not exclusively a naturist beach, but it's well known, so all the textiles who use the beach are fine with the naturists - most were friendly and comfortable enough to say hi as they walked past. Next is a shot walking to the bay. To get to the main nude area, go through the large whole in the rock jutting out that divides the bay in two (on the left of the pic below - though you can't see the big hole). To the right of that you can see another path coming down to the beach - we spent the day at the bottom of this path.

If you want to avoid the textiles, I suggest you go further down the beach than this path as quite a few came down and walked out along towards where the above pic was taken. But as I said, they don't seem to mind at all.

The beach itself isn't made up of sand, but many tiny smooth pebbles. In some ways, this is heaps better. They're smooth and small enough to always feel comfortable, and once you're too old to make sandcastles, sand just makes you dirty and gets into places you don't want it to. Unfortunately I can't tell you much about swimming there - for someone who spends so much time at the beach, I'm not a big fan of swimming in the sea. And Wellington's water's known to be pretty cold. I did put my feet in though, and the water seemed like a pretty good temperature. Mind you, this was a very hot day for Wellington.

After spending several hours there just relaxing, we walked up the path to the top of the point. It's well worth the walk up for the views and the old WWII fortifications there. We stayed up there until the sunset... which was amazing. The next lot of photos are all taken on top of that point.

You can walk back to Seatoun by following that path down the other side of the point. Which leads me to how to get there...

You can see the beach on Google Maps here.

The only bus that's going at any reasonable times to Breaker Bay is the Seatoun bus. It goes from the town to the Hector St and Monro St stops in Seatoun (North of the beach). From either of these stops, there's a few ways you can go, but the track that starts at the corner of Mantell St and Breaker Bay Rd that goes around the point is worth it.

My girlfriend IttyBittyTittyComittee is just getting some pics of her camera too, so she'll post a few up as well. And we'll be both adding some pics of us there at the gallery soon.

[Five9]

Thank you Tim for this great report, I'm glad you had a good time here as this place looks very lovely. All of your pictures are great too, thank you.

[Toddo]

That's a brilliant report with impressive photos, thank you Tim! You and your camera take great pics. Sounds like you had a good time there. Well done.

[Stuart]

Excellent report! How far were you able to be naked? Were you able to explore the fortifications naked?

[Danee]

Oh, how we miss Tim and Dom and hope they drop back more often this year!

Thanks, Tim!  Kiwiland!  Yes!

[kiwitim]

Thanks a lot everybody! For anyone going to Wellington, there's more naturist spots around the city and more naturist beaches outside it. The Free Beaches NZ website has details.

Excellent report! How far were you able to be naked? Were you able to explore the fortifications naked?

There were a lot of people walking around that area earlier in the day and we weren't sure how acceptable it would be there, so we did put on clothes for that walk. And even on fine day like that one, there's still quite a bit of wind once you get up higher. But we probably could have been nude. By the time we were up there, there was no one around.

[Stuart]

And even on fine day like that one, there's still quite a bit of wind once you get up higher.

There are few things more stimulating that a cool breeze on a naked body when you're climbing!

[kiwitim]

And even on fine day like that one, there's still quite a bit of wind once you get up higher.

There are few things more stimulating that a cool breeze on a naked body when you're climbing!

That is true... but it's hardly a climb by your definition of the word -the highest point is only about 50m above sea level. Though since you mentioned going up there nude, I wish I did.

[Stuart]

And even on fine day like that one, there's still quite a bit of wind once you get up higher.

There are few things more stimulating that a cool breeze on a naked body when you're climbing!

That is true... but it's hardly a climb by your definition of the word -the highest point is only about 50m above sea level. Though since you mentioned going up there nude, I wish I did.

If its uphill, its climbing! I'm sure the Sherpas of Tibet would just laugh at what I do after all 

[ittybittytittycommittee]

Hi everyone! Here's some photo's I had on my camera of the same area. The first photo is of the hole in the rock that you walk through to get to naturist area (though, I highly recommend finding the path that leads directly to the naturist beach - over the ridge where most of these photos are taken from). Stunning views. It was a beautiful day and we only came across a few people on the beach and ridge walk. 

[Toddo]

Brilliant pics once again. Looks like a great place to go. Thanks for posting them.

[Darek]

great pics good raport like it :) but to far from me :P

[cc71]

Excellent photos, I've never been to that part of Wellington before.

[NaturalInNY]

Great pics, beautiful looking place.

[mikeinchch]

Fantastic pics!

I was hoping to be in Wellington over the summer just gone (for work), but the trip didn't come off.  Got told about Breaker Bay, and was hoping I'd get there.  Next summer hopefully.