Beaches of New Zealand

Black Sand Beaches: Piha

Location:

Piha beach is west of

Auckland, it is only an

hour and a half drive

from the city centre.

Black Sand Beaches: Piha

Characteristics:Piha beach is a blacksand beach. A dominantfeature is lion rockwhich the public areable to climb. Piha’slittoral zone is 300-500m and the beachextends 2km.

Black Sand Beaches: Piha

How it was formed:Through successiveeruptions of Mount Taranakiminerals such as greenaugite, hornblende andmagnetite have beendeposited and tides + windsetc have carried them ontonorthern beaches such asPiha. The sand is blackpartly due to its high ironcontent.

Fiordland- Milford Sound

Location: Fiordland is

located in the southern

west coast of the south

island. It is an

approximate 2 hour

drive from Queenstown.

Fiordland- Milford Sound

Characteristics:Fiordland is hardlytouched/ changed byhumans. There are only2000 permanentresidents and very fewroads. The area is full ofmountains, fiords, rivers,lakes and the abundantforest. The coastline is veryrugged.

Fiordland- Milford SoundHow it was formed:

It starts as a V shaped valleyWhen a glacier forms in a cirque it begins to progress down the valley…

…carving the valley walls as it travels

Finally a U shaped valley remains.

As the ice melts the water level rises (along with other water supplies draining into this new valley) a fiord remains. A valley submerged with only the mountainous peak protruding.