Mangamaunu: the mountains beside the surf

Where the mountains come into the view

The Seaward Kaikōura Range is part of the wider coastal setting. Destination Kaikōura describes Mangamaunu's surf break beside the mountain ranges.

In our illustration, the stones occupy the foreground and the slopes overlap across the water. The view is about that change in scale, from individual cobbles to the larger mountain forms behind them.

More than a name in a surf guide

Mangamaunu is named in Schedule 1 of the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010, which lists surf breaks of national significance. Meatworks is the other entry under Kaikōura.

The list gives each its own name. Keeping them separate matters when looking through older photographs or accounts of surfing in the district: a Kaikōura caption alone doesn't identify a particular break.

A wider coastal photograph

The photograph here is Bernard Spragg's 2014 view of the Kaikōura coast. It shows the wider mountain-and-sea setting, rather than a verified view from Mangamaunu itself. We've kept that distinction in its caption.

We'd like to add a photograph taken at Mangamaunu with a confirmed date and permission from its photographer. That would help document the place more closely.

What can you add?

Have you got such a photo, an old board picture or a dated recollection from the beach? Email us with a contribution or correction. We'll agree permission and credit before publishing anything you send.

Our Mangamaunu print

Our Mangamaunu print shows grey cobbles, low ripples and green-blue mountain slopes. It's an illustrated composition, separate from the regional photograph above. The water in the print describes that image, not a promise of conditions at the beach.