Marfells Beach/Cape Campbell Route
Eastern Marlborough
Your Nature Guide
Marios Gavalas
Author And Researcher
Nau mai, haere mai
Nau mai, haere mai
I'm Marios, delivering the best of Aotearoa's nature walks to your device.
I've personally walked hundreds of New Zealand's tracks and spent months in libraries uncovering interesting information on New Zealand/Aotearoa. And you'll find a slice of that research on this page - enjoy!
Maps
Deep Nature NEW
Author Marios Gavalas, Rankers and hundreds of contributors bring you a free web map to help you get lost (and find yourself) in Aotearoa's nature.
Camping NZ NEW
Welcome to New Zealand's most comprehensive database of freely available camping information. This is the only travel map of its kind in NZ.
Photos
Information
Marfells Beach/Cape Campbell Route
400 m return | 5 minutes + return
Views here stretch all around past White Bluffs to Arapawa Island and the North Island.
A longer, full day walk heads all the way to the lighthouse at Cape Campbell.
Walking Track
Timing
Spring high tides can block access around the foot of bluffs.
Access
10 km south of Seddon and 35 km south of Blenheim on SH1, Marfells Beach is signposted along Marfells Beach Road. After 7.5 km the road hits the beach and continues another 1 km along the beachfront. This is a DoC campground with toilets and picnic benches liberally scattered over the foreshore. Basically everything is set up for a day at the beach.
THE ONLY ACCESS TO CAPE CAMPBELL LIGHTHOUSE IS EITHER BY PERMISSION FROM THE LAND OWNER OR VIA THE BEACH AT LOW TIDE ONLY FROM MARFELLS BEACH.
Track
The beach is the track. North continues up Clifford Bay, south heads for 30 minutes to Mussel Point. This is best attempted at mid-low tide.
An unmarked route follows the beach from the eastern end of the camping area to Cape Campbell, the southernmost extreme of Cook Strait. Allow a full day for this.
Geology
Driftwood is scarce but there are many interesting rock shapes and textures to fossick for in the strandline.
Flora
The narrow foreshore has an interesting herbfield including species such as horned poppy.
European History
The lighthouse was built in 1903 to replace the original built in 1870.
Details
| Feature | Value | Info |
|---|---|---|
|
Organisation |
DOC MarlboroughCentral government organisation |
|
|
Location |
South Island ▷ Marlborough ▷ Blenheim |
|
|
Categories |
|
|
|
Directions To Coordinates |
||
|
Coordinates |
Walking
Nearby
Reviews
-
5.0/5
This Site is a lovely spot, right on the beach, nice toilet block and the DOC host is awesome.
-
4.5/5
Completely along at the beach.
At the end you will see a lighthouse. Great place to be!
-
-
4.5/5
The site is windy but otherwise beautiful!
Take a short walk up the clayey road that continues past the campsite (you will need to climb over the first gate) and will be rewarded with gorgeous views from the quarry on top. Walk to the lighthouse is much longer and only passable on low tide.
-
-
4.5/5
Small camp ground, good facilities, great location - you can't get much closer to the beach in a motorhome than this.
-
4.5/5
Can't get better than this for coastal camping in NZ, fabulous campsite will new clean amenity block.
Could be exposed to wind if your site isn't tucked behind scrub. Well worth a walk to Mussel Point & further on to Cape Campbell Lighthouse. Allow plenty of time, must walk at low tide.
-
4.5/5
It was the first day the campsite was re-opened so we were the only ones there.
Good facilities and would go again.
-
5.0/5
Interesting full day walk from Marfells Beach, underneath rock bluffs to the isolated Cape Campbell.
Very handy to a DOC campground and there was nobody here!
