Gillespies Beach

Gillespies Beach is a black sand beach and settlement on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island, 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Fox Glacier township by road. It is bounded by Westland Tai Poutini National Park to the east, and the Tasman Sea to the west. The beach itself stretches about five kilometres (3.1 mi) from Gillespies Point / Kōhaihai in the north to Otorokua Point in the south.

The access road to Gillespies Beach begins from the Cook River / Weheka flats, before passing over moraines of the Fox Glacier dating from 14,000 years ago. The road is unsealed, winding and narrow, with rimu forest on each side.

Gillespies Beach is a gravel beach with stable dunes. It is one of the largest beach/dune systems in Westland.

Approximately 112 ha (280 acres) at Gillespies Beach is protected as a stewardship area under section 25 of the Conservation Act 1987. The protected area includes the mouth of several small streams, wetlands, a lagoon and areas covered in shrub and coastal forest, as well as the historic mining sites. The area known as Waikōhai to the north of Gillespies Point is an important site for Ngāi Tahu, because it includes historic occupation sites, urupā (burial sites) and mahinga kai (food gathering) sites. The direct view of Aoraki / Mount Cook from the beach is also significant because it provides a visual link to the whakapapa (origin story) of Ngāi Tahu.

A new type of mineral was identified in the sand at Gillespies Beach in the 1950s by the mineralogist Colin Osborne Hutton (1910–1971). The mineral was given the name Huttonite and Gillespies Beach is the type locality.

When James Cook sighted the South Westland coast in mid-March 1770, he commented on the "ridge of Mountains which are of a prodigious height and appear to consist of nothing but barren rocks, cover'd in many places with large patches of snow which perhaps have laid there since the creation", and mentioned the "wooded hills" in front of the mountains, and the "prodigious surf".

During the West Coast gold rush, prospector James Edwin Gillespie was returning with other miners from a gold-rush hoax at Bruce Bay, and discovered gold in the black sands above the high tide mark here in April 1866. Other prospectors soon took up claims in the area, and within a month miners were making profits of £5 to £6 a week. Gillespies Beach grew rapidly, and by May 1866 had a population of 600, and had two butcheries, two bakeries and 11 stores (mostly public houses). Supplies were carried along the beach by pack horse from Ōkārito.

At its height, Gillespies Beach was the third-largest settlement on the West Coast: only Ōkārito and Five Mile were larger—the Okarito Gold Warden reported 500 miners working the sands. By September, the population in the area was decreasing as best surface gold was taken, and in November 1866, there were around 150 people living in the area, with six stores. By 1867 a gold rush at Haast reduced the community to 50 miners, supplied by a butcher, a bakery and three stores. By 1869 the Gold Warden's report stated the estimated population was just 30.