The biggest beach crime this summer

Tuesday, 27 December 2022

Beachgoers at Hot Water Beach on Tuesday afternoon settled on one big no-no: litter.

Beaches across the country are set to be chocka-block this summer, and while it’s rather easy to know what to do on the sand, it can sometimes be a guessing game as to what one shouldn’t.

Whether it’s errantly parked vehicles hitched with trailers, incessant drones or a vape with clouds sweet enough to give a confectioner diabetes, it’s never a good time at the beach when those around you aren’t singing from the same song sheet.

At Hot Water Beach in the Coromandel, sun, surf and thermal springs mix to give beachgoers a unique beachside experience.

Soaking it all in was Ruth Dennett of Derby, in the UK. Here with daughter Steph to visit her son who is on a working holiday, she said that Kiwi beachgoers are a lot tidier that their English counterparts.

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Lifeguards, from left, Jack Sewell and Jesse Morgan.

From Left, Nicola, Alexis and Alex Sangster.

“It’s the litter that gets me. People in the UK just leave rubbish behind, they don’t think about it. So it’s certainly better here.”

The English South Coast is a long way from the placid sands of the Coromandel’s east coast.

At Hot Water Beach Coromandel, Ruth and Alex and Steph Dennett.

Also, some way from home is lifeguard Jesse Morgan, up from Wellington to spend his summer keeping beachgoers safe and happy. He’s seen the gamut of poor beach etiquette.

It seems litter is the great global equaliser and Morgan can attest to this.

Jacques and Jocelyn Young at Hot Water Beach. Jocelyn reckons shaking a sandy towel in the direction of others is a big no-no.

“It’s got to be the litter. It’s particularly bad at Cathedral Cove with the large number of visitors. I’ve done some beach clean-ups, and it isn’t nice to have tourists taking these beautiful pictures but then in the corner of their shots to have litter lying there.”

Morgan says he’s been on a few beach clean-ups that have turned up some less than savoury items: bags of sick, used condoms and rotting food to name a few.

Alex and Nicole Sangster are at Hot Water Beach with their three-year-old son Alexis. Nicole says having children has coloured her take on what others do around her at the beach.

“I don’t like people smoking at the beach, particularly with kids around. You come for fresh air and get hit with that.”

Extend that sentiment to those giving their fruity flavoured vapes a blast on the sand, too, says Sangster.

People who lug enormous amounts of food down to the sand with them peeves her as well.

“It just leads to stuff scattered everywhere. If you came with it, you’d better leave with it,” she warns.

After all, the beach is a place where people come to relax, and to hit the shore thinking the worst of people is a sure fire way to have a bad time oneself, say Jacques and Jocelyn Young.

They prefer a cruisy approach to a day at the coast, although Jocelyn says, “I do hate it when people pick up their towels, they catch in the wind, and you get a face full of sand.”

It seems that staying liked on the beach is an exercise in restraint.

Keep the cigarettes at home, take any rubbish with you and make sure you shake off any sand downwind from your neighbours, and you’ll be well on your way to a cordial day on the sand.

Oh, and swim between the flags.