The somewhat daunting drive north from the Whakataki Hotel to Mataikona is worth it if for no other reason than to chance an encounter with Black-fronted Dotterel and Banded Dotterel at the mouth of the local river. Wonderful sand-dunes here keep the children busy while you can fossick for egg shell fragments of Moas, long extinct here.

Once a remote location with just a handful of pioneer cottages, Mataikona is now threatening to become just another beach community as "city-folk" build new houses, but as yet there are no public facilities here.