THORNTON BEACH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 261, 22 January 1941, Page 5

THORNTON BEACH

POPULAR WITH BATHERS

HOLIDAY RESORT OF

RANGITAIKI

Thornton Beach at the mouth of the Rangitaiki River has attracted many picnickers on reccnt holidays an<l week-ends.

Tliis beach is the natural seaside resort for the people of much of the closely-settled Rangitaiki Plains, and many bathers take a dip in the sea or river between milkings. Especially is this so on Sundays, when many ears are always parked in the reserve near the river mouth. Here there is a space of flat land fronting the river estuary and protected by sandhills on other skleSL Several clumps of pine trees planted some years ;igo by the Thornton Domain Board provide shade and shelter for picnickers and campers.

Throughout much of the summer •season there are caravans and tents among the pines at Thornton, indicating that some campers find this secluded camping site to their liking. Those who prefer sea air and solitude to the town atmosphere of

more populous beaches may . well consider that Thornton Beach is

ideal for a restful holiday.. Certainly there is wood and fresh water handy, and a general store a mile away, yet there are no dwellings of any sort within three-quarters of a mile of the beach.

A fault which the general public find with the larger beach resorts is that land near the beaches is privately owned, and the trippers who come for the day or week findi themselves "built out" of the beach.

At Thornton the privately owned land slips half a mile or so front the ocean, and the sandhill country and mudbanks are public property. Mlotorists are thus not com fronted as they seek for a parking place with notices about camp-site charges or sections for sale.

To many people who prefer a restful holiday it is a real pleasure to find a beach where there are no habitations near the water's where ice cream is not sold, and where the landscape is much the same as when Captain Cook viewed it. Such is the case with Thornton Beach, a piece of Nature as yet unspoiled by the hand of man. Anyone who wants further seclusion can walk along the beach for half a dozen miles to the Tarawera River mouth. Only nearbv residents of the Rangitaiki Plains seem to know that Thornton Beach exists. It is reached by a road from the Whakatane-' Matata main highway on the Matata side of the bridge over the Rangitaiki River. This road follows the western bank of the river half a mile till the oasi's with its pine trees is reached near 1 the sea. There is as yet no A.A. sign directing motorists to Thornton Beach, only a sign indicating thatt the paddock at the junction of the roads is a county stock paddock with fixed, charges for accommodating mobs of sheep. Perhaps a direction sign will be erected later, or perhaps it is just as well to leave Thornton Beach unknown to fame, otherwise it may be""commercialised to the dctrime.it of the nearby set-< tiers. The broad and deep Rangitaiki River offers possibilities for boating in the vicinity of the Thornton Beach reserve. One party of young people from f nearby farms have a boat with outboard motor and are there most week-ends (weather and benzine permitting). They cruise up and down the estuary and sometimes go across the bar for the fish* ing. Bathers at Thornton Beach liavdi the choice of surfing on the ocean beach or of swimming in the fresh water of the estuary. A sandspit a few chains wide separates the river and sea for about a mile. Efforts to make the river go straight out to sea have so far been unavailing, antl there is an estuary a mile long and a hundred yards or more wide —an ideal place for swimming and boating.