Pegasus Bay is located on the South Island's Pacific Ocean coast, between Banks Peninsula and Motunau Beach. It is 75 km wide, making it one of the widest on the NZ coast. The bay can be accessed at many points, and the southernmost sections include beach suburbs that are part of Christchurch. Many recreational options exist, and shared tracks or walkways run along much of the southern half of the beach.
The northern part of the coast consists primarily of cliffs, with stony or sandy beaches at low tide. Heading south, the bay has a 50 km sandy surf beach from the Waipara River mouth, north of Amberley Beach, to the Christchurch suburbs of New Brighton and the sandpit of Southshore. The sandpit encloses the Estuary of the Heathcote and Avon Rivers / Ihutai. The beach suburb of Sumner and the rugged Port Hills are on the south side of the estuary mouth. Between Sumner and Banks Penisula, you will find the more remote beach of Taylors Mistake, Awaroa / Godley Head and Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō.
Several rivers flow into Pegasus Bay, including the Motunau River, Waipara River, Ashley River/Rakahuri, Waimakariri River, and Avon River / Ōtākaro and Ōpāwaho/Heathcote River via the Avon Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai. Some river mouths provide demarcations for beach names along the 50 km sandy coast. Easy beach access, sometimes with surf life-saving club facilities and camping, heading north from New Brighton, can be found at Waimairi Beach, Spencerville, Kaiapoi, Woodend, Pegasus, Waiuku, Leithfield, and Amberley. There is plenty of room to find a spot to hang out, some of which are sheltered by exotic pine plantations! You may be fortunate to encounter Hector dolphins in the surf or spot migrating whales or seals around rocky areas.
For a while, during early European exploration, the bay was known as Cook's Mistake. Captain James Cook recorded Banks Peninsula as an island in the original charting of the South Island in the Endeavour. Captain Samuel Chase, who led the second expedition of the Pegasus to NZ in 1809, around 40 years later, is credited with correcting Cook's charts by determining that "Banks Island" was a peninsula. The Pegaaus approached from the north, and the bay was initially charted as “Cooks Mistake”. Subsequently, it was named Pegasus Bay after the ship. Pegasus also had a story. It was initially the Pegaso, captured by the British frigate HMS Cornwallis and renamed Pegasus in 1807.
There is no Māori name for the bay. However, the sandy beach between the Ashley River and Avon Heathcote Estuary is known as Kairaki (an ancient name of unknown meaning for the Pacific). A fishing ground east of Pegasus Bay is Komaka a Te KaiKai a Waro, meaning the food store belonging to KaiKai a Waro.
