Wharariki Beach
(In New Zealand,  the "Wh" is an expression of a soft "f" sound that exists in Maori but not in English.  "phar-uh-riki"
Like many of the best parts of New Zealand, this beach is:
  1. not highlighted in Lonely Planet or Rough guide, and
  2. not terribly convenient, as it's at the end of 20km of unsealed road, followed by about 30 minutes' walk through paddocks (beef cattle).
  3. spectacular.
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The visit to the beach begins with about half an hour's walk through a paddock.
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It can get a bit windy at times.  This is a tree. No, I'm not holding the camera at an angle.

As you walk through the paddock, you gain glimpses of the beach over the bluff.
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I guess you could call this a hill, for lack of a better word. But in reality, it's more of an extrusion of rock.  It creates the southern border of the beach. 
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Another big rock extrusion midway through the beach.  For a sense of scale of the leftmost  and centre images above, look at the dark area at the bottom.  It's the part that is underwater when the tide is high.  In the images below, the dark area is also the part that is underwater at high tide.  The rock in the image below is about 20 metres high.
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When the tide is high, these rocks are partially submerged. You can identify the parts that are underwater by the change in coloring. In the image to the right, you can see the effects of the wind in the upper parts of the rock.  The lower parts, being submerged, are not exposed to the constant erosion from the wind.  The upper parts have been eroded away.
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At low tide, much of these very impressive rock formations were revealed above the water line. All of these pictures were taken in the hour shouldering low tide.
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Another big extrusion, seen from the south.  The next set of photos are of the same, but from the north.

In the first of these images, you can see the effects of the rock having been pushed up out of the earth by seismic forces.  You can also see the water line of high tide, as evidenced by the darkened area at the base of the rock.
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The range of colours on this rock formation caught my eye,  greys, tans, golds, the greens of the vegetation, all against the blue of the sky.
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These portions are completely submerged when the tide is high.  At low tide, you can walk in and out of these gaps.
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In this area, the sea water has eroded through the rock, creating a natural bridge. The image on the left is looking from the north, the one on the right is looking from the south.
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A little more inland were some tidal pools.
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Found this family of seals hanging out on one of the rocks.

One thing that very much impressed me about this beach was the range of microclimates compressed into a very small area. 

On the wet part of the beach, where the water is coming in with the tide, there are small tidal pools with plants and birds and seals and other evidence of life. But then, less than 30 m away, is a range of sand dunes that look like something out of Lawrence of Arabia.
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And then, another 10 or 15 meters further inland, was this magnificent green little glen.

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