Bethells Beach

Te Henga (Bethells Beach) is a coastal community located in the north of the North Island, New Zealand. The Maori name Te Henga, meaning sand, originally applied to a wide area of the lower Waitakere River valley, but in 1976 the New Zealand Geographic Board changed the name of the beach from Bethells Beach to Te Henga (Bethells Beach). The beach is approximately 30 kilometres north-west of Auckland City, at the mouth of the Waitakere River where it flows into the Tasman Sea. One of several popular resorts in the area (others include Muriwai, Piha and Karekare), it experiences a population explosion in summer when Aucklanders head to the sea. The Te Henga Valley shows evidence of human settlement dating back over 1000 years. The cultural history of the area is of archaeologically significant sites, including food gathering areas, pā, walkways, canoe landings and sacred places.