Sailors Grave, also Te Karo Bay, is the only road-accessible beach on the east coast of the Coromandel between Tairua and Hot Water Beach. It is easy to overlook as the road sign for Sailors Grave Road on State Highway 25 is barely noticeable. If you miss it, you may even have to find somewhere to turn around and return. Drive down Sailors Grave Road and park by the pōhutukawa and harakeke shrouded reserve above the beach.
The stunning surf beach has no surrounding community, so it feels more remote than most Coromandel beaches. It has incredible golden-orange coloured sand and rocks and some interesting history, including reputedly the first sailor’s grave in NZ. It is also a reasonably safe place to swim.
The gravesite is a short walk to the north, across the colourful Te Karo Stream, to the forest edge. It is surrounded by a white picket fence and maintained by the N.Z. Navy. In 1842, when 22-year-old William Simpson of HMS Tortoise was killed in the surf after a kauri logging boat overturned, burying crew at sea’ was common. The land-based gravesite commemorates William and the many early seagoing Europeans who established the first industries such as logging, sealing and whaling, and died in the process.
The short Otara Track to Otara Bay starts just north of the gravesite.
