Waves are strong enough to make this wide beach of feather light pumice. Because the wind is lifted off this beach by the high hills around, and absence of tides, dunes cannot form. The famous surfing beach at Raglan consists of loosely strewn cobbles and boulders. Dunes cannot form here from this heavy material. Little Barrier Island boulder spit is located at the sheltered side of Little Barrier Island.
Larger stones make steeper slopes.
The boulders are perfectly smooth, indicating that they are moved quite frequently. Its sand is course, made up of rock and shell fragments. There are no dunes. Cathedral Cove near Hahei is a wet beach at the base of steep cliffs. Its clean sand consists of coarse quartz and other hard components, with few shell fragments.