Beach & bay
Bob's Bay
A bush-fringed bay you can only walk to — half an hour from Shelly Beach.
Photo: Diego Tirira / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
A small bay in Bob's Bay Reserve with a 24-hour public toilet, reached on foot by the Lower (cliff) track from Shelly Beach or the Upper track down from Victoria Domain Loop Road. Dogs on-leash.
At a glance
- Distance
- 30 minutes' walk from Shelly Beach
- Dogs
- On-leash
- Cost
- Free
- Getting there
- On foot only, from Shelly Beach or Victoria Domain Loop Road
- Facilities
- Public toilet, open 24 hours
- Swimming
- Not stated by the council
About Bob's Bay
Bob's Bay is the reward at the end of the cliff track: a quiet bay backed by bush, with nothing much there but a toilet block and the water, which is rather the point. Both ways in involve a walk of about half an hour, so allow at least an hour and a half for the round trip from town.
Know before you go
- The lower track has steep bluffs beside it — supervise children.
Sources for this page
Location: OpenStreetMap contributors via Nominatim (Bob's Bay; feature).
Facts on this page were checked against the sources listed on 5 Sep 2026.
Nearby
Straight-line distances from Bob's Bay.
Lower Bob's Bay Track
Half an hour along the cliffs from Shelly Beach to a bush-fringed bay.
Upper Bob's Bay Track
The high route into Bob's Bay from Victoria Domain Loop Road.
Kaipūpū Sanctuary
A fenced, predator-controlled peninsula ten minutes from the foreshore by water taxi, with a 2.7 km loop track.
Victoria Domain
200 hectares of bush between Picton and Waikawa, with over 20 km of walking and mountain-bike tracks.
