BAY OF ISLANDS: We've got plenty of choices back home for great beaches yet we're always on the look out for perfection.

What is it about the humble meeting of sand and sea that seems to enchant us? It's more than just the sum of its parts, a beach. It's more than sand to lie on, more than water in which to swim. It's romance, it's adventure and it's the time of your life.

Beaches mean so much. They're building sandcastles when you were a kid. They're family holidays away from school. They're the feeling of catching your first wave as a teenager. They're wild nights in foreign lands in your 20s, the relaxing getaways of middle age and the long walks of later years.Beaches are freedom. Beaches are an escape.

We're spoilt with beaches here in New Zealand. Yet still we travel in search of perfection, to discover and enjoy beaches the world over, to soak up culture and difference while getting a hit of vitamin D.

There's variety in beaches, easily enough to keep you amused for a lifetime. There are the hidden beaches, those secluded wonderlands that you feel like keeping to yourself forever. There are the bustling city beaches, European hotspots of carefully primped sunbathers and oblivious foreign gawkers.

There are the stunning, windswept northern beaches of Scotland, in whose cold waters you would never dream of dipping a toe. There are the spring-break beaches of the Caribbean, the surf beaches of Tahiti, the family-friendly patches of Fiji, the stunning backdrops of South Africa.

Whatever your preference, there's romance, joy, relaxation and adventure in every beach. It's impossible to deny the attraction of that humble meeting of sand and sea.

Here, then, are some perfect beaches around the world.

PERFECT PACIFIC ISLAND BEACH

BEST PACIFIC ISLAND BEACH: The Rocks Bar, Vomo Island Resort, Fiji.

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The world's best beaches

Information on Hawkes Bay beaches is now on the environmental monitoring website Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA) - http://www.lawa.org.nz/.

The LAWA website was launched in March with information on river water quality at over 1110 sites around the country. This week new data has expanded it to include coastal water quality at New Zealands beaches.

"The LAWA site gives people another option for checking water quality, especially making it easy for people holidaying away from home to check the water quality at a nearby beach on LAWA than having to search out the right council website," says Iain Maxwell, Group Manager Resource Management.

"Hawkes Bay Regional Councils staff have worked hard over recent weeks to get the data links flowing to the LAWA site so that people can get reliable information on Hawkes Bay beaches."

The LAWA website aims to help New Zealanders know more about the quality of their environment around the country. It will eventually show information on air quality, land and biodiversity, as well as water quantity and more fresh and coastal water quality data. LAWA will also contribute to a new national environmental reporting regime being designed by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand.

Hawkes Bay Regional Council provides data to the LAWA site and continues to display this information on its website. The B4U swim webpage on http://www.hbrc.govt.nz covers both river and coastal swimming spots and was recently enhanced with improved map and data display. The B4USwim free phone line (on 0800 248 7946) is also still available with information on Hawkes Bay recreational water quality.

The best advice is still to avoid swimming in any rivers or at the coast for at least 3 days after heavy rain. Beaches near towns and cities are most prone to contamination as rainfall washes material off roads and land into coastal waters.

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Another way to check HB beach water quality over summer

Regional News of Sunday, 21 December 2014

Source: GNA

The Police Administration has been called upon to step up its efforts to arrest and prosecute illegal sand winners at the various beaches, to ensure safe environments.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the destruction of the beaches was alarming, and everything possible should be made to protect them.

Mr Peter Nana Ackon, Senior Officer of the Central Regional Office of the Environmental Protection Agency, made this known at a forum at Senya Bereku.

It was organized by the Save Our Beaches Ghana, a Winneba-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).

Mr Ackon said the Ghana Police Service owns it a duty to assist the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to bring those destroying the beaches to book.

He also called on the Environmental and Sanitation Departments of the various Assemblies in the coastal areas, to intensify their activities to halt people who defecate at the beaches with impunity.

Mr Ackon regretted that Europe and other foreign countries were maximizing huge profits from beaches due to proper preservation, but not Ghana.

The Senior EPA Official, therefore, urged government to place ban on the importation of take away black and plain rubber bags into the country.

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Prosecute illegal sand winners at beaches Police urged

AXN Clouds Fly Floater with cam on white beaches
Small fly with AXN floater jet on the famous white beaches of Vada in Tuscany, at the factory of baking, the day is beautiful and no wind, the glider with rear engine is extremely stable even...

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AXN Clouds Fly Floater with cam on white beaches - Video

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What is it about the humble meeting of sand and sea that seems to enchant us? It's more than just the sum of its parts, a beach. It's more than sand to lie on, more than water in which to swim. It's romance, it's adventure and it's the time of your life.

Beaches mean so much. They're building sandcastles when you were a kid. They're family holidays away from school. They're the feeling of catching your first wave as a teenager. They're wild nights in foreign lands in your 20s, the relaxing getaways of middle age and the long walks of later years.Beaches are freedom. Beaches are an escape.

We're spoilt, as Australians, with beaches. When your home boasts places like Whitehaven, Cable Beach, Cox Bight, Burleigh, Palm Beach and Turquoise Bay, you come to expect a lot from that humble meeting of sand and sea. Yet still we travel in search of perfection, to discover and enjoy beaches the world over, to soak up culture and difference while getting a hit of vitamin D.

There's variety in beaches, easily enough to keep you amused for a lifetime. There are the hidden beaches, those secluded wonderlands that you feel like keeping to yourself forever. There are the bustling city beaches, European hotspots of carefully primped sunbathers and oblivious foreign gawkers.

There are the stunning, windswept northern beaches of Scotland, in whose cold waters you would never dream of dipping a toe. There are the spring-break beaches of the Caribbean, the surf beaches of Tahiti, the family-friendly patches of Fiji, the stunning backdrops of South Africa. Whatever your preference, there's romance, joy, relaxation and adventure in every beach. It's impossible to deny the attraction of that humble meeting of sand and sea.

Ben Groundwater

WHY I LOVE IT Maybe it's the memory of skimming the waves on a little Hobie Cat or maybe it's the "Say it, it will happen" attitude of the private island resort, but the beach on Vomo Island holds a special place in my heart. Most of Fiji's best beaches are found in the Mamanuca Islands and further north, in the Yasawa Islands group, north-west of Nadi. After all, this is where The Blue Lagoon,the movie that started it all, was filmed in 1980. Roll out of your beachside bure and it's hello, tranquil turquoise water! And prepare for your heart to melt when you see Vomo's baby-turtle breeding program.

WHAT TO DO Be sun smart and pack a rash vest. The snorkelling is excellent, but no-one likes burnt backs and calves. And don't spend all day in the water or in your hammock. The sundowners at Vomo's Rocks Sunset Bar are a must. The dry season is from May to October, and the rainy season from November to April.

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Sand-sational: Traveller writers divulge their favourite beaches

Elisha Taylor and Matthew Ross, from Responsible Runners Gold Coast, collecting cigarette butts from Gold Coast beaches. Source: Supplied

STATE laws that ban smoking are a joke with volunteers removing thousands of cigarette butts from patrolled areas at the citys best beaches.

The Responsible Runners group earlier this year began organising a handful of members to spend 30 minutes each weekend collecting trash at Burleigh beach and the Spit. CLIVE PALMER AIDE IN ALLEGED KIDNAPPING PLOT MAGIC MILLIONS TO BECOME AUSTRALIAS RICHEST RACE DAY

At Burleigh on a Saturday and Sunday, runners collect between 200-300 butts in each session.

A data log for both beaches, which is being forwarded to a national marine protection foundation, reveals beachgoers have tossed out more than 16,000 cigarettes at Burleigh and the Spit since March this year.

Responsible Runners Gold coast spokesman Naomi Edwards, a Griffith University researcher, told the Bulletin: It is just constant. We dont want to be picking up these cigarettes. Smoking is bad for you, and this is horrific for the environment.

Cigarette butts dont break down.

You have this toxin and poison leeching into the waterways.

The council last month gave the foreshores a clean bill of health in terms of sand and safety but the beach litter log puts the spotlight of state health enforcement on the citys most important tourist asset.

A Queensland Health spokesman said smoking had been prohibited at Queensland beaches since 2005 with the ban in place between the flags during patrol times.

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Beaches are butt of joke

By Rob Jordan

Sign warning of contamination at Channel Islands Harbor, Ventura, Calif. New models could help public health officials better predict when water contaminants will harm beach goers.

A new Stanford study shows how to improve the public health at beaches where coastal contamination can be a problem.

The analysis by researchers from Stanford; the University of California, Los Angeles; and the nonprofit environmental group Heal the Bay shows that relatively easy-to-use predictive modeling systems offer an improvement over current monitoring methods.

If implemented, these predictions could give beachgoers a better chance to avoid waterborne ailments such as gastroenteritis, respiratory illness, skin rashes and ear, nose and throat infections.

Getting gastroenteritis the "stomach flu," which often comes with diarrhea, vomiting and fever is one of several ailments that can affect people infected by water polluted with fecal bacteria from sewage.

Alexandria Boehm, the Clare Booth Luce Associate Professor of Structural Engineering at Stanford, was a co-author of the research report. "The current approach warns the public of the potential health risks of swimming at polluted beaches based on yesterday's news," she said.

Co-author Amanda Griesbach, a beach water quality scientist with Heal the Bay, noted, "We wanted to find a way to better protect the public health of the more than 150 million people who visit California beaches every year."

Currently, for financial and logistical reasons, most beach managers analyze swimming waters only once a week. These tests, which involve analyzing water samples for fecal indicator bacteria, generally take 18 to 24 hours. The fastest sampling method available can take up to six hours. In the meantime, swimmers continue swimming and water conditions can change within a few hours, making lab results inaccurate.

"We know for sure that the method used now is not accurate," said Boehm, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

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Stanford study shows ways to improve public health at beaches

POOLES golden beaches are back to where they were before last winters storms decimated them.

Weeks of work to restore the seafront has come to an end, aimed at protecting residential properties and infrastructure from coastal erosion.

The final load of recycled sand, dredged from the main shipping channel into Poole Harbour has been returned to the beach.

Over the last four weeks a total of 139,000 cubic metres of sand has built the beaches up to previous levels.

Shore Road in particular suffered during the storms, with 10-years worth of erosion occurring in just a couple of months.

DEFRA awarded Poole 750,000 funding to pump 40,000 cubic metres of sand onto the beach. Then an additional 1.2 million of government funding was secured to extend the sand replenishment scheme towards Branksome beach.

Cllr Xena Dion, cabinet portfolio holder for flood and coastal management, Borough of Poole, thanked all involved.

They have worked really hard to finish the project on schedule, despite losing several days to bad weather, she said.

By working closely with DEFRA and Poole Harbour Commissioners we estimate to have saved around 300,000 by extending the scheme as we already had the dredger, pipeline and heavy plant in place; a fine example of partnership working.

She also thanked residents for their patience while sections of the beach were closed.

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Welcome back! Pooles beaches restored thanks to 139,000 cubic metres of sand and nearly 2million

RAVE To thetwo gentlemen who saw my car keys fly two floors down the outdoor staircase at REI at night, in the dark. The keys had landed in the mud, and the gentlemen pointed the spot out to me and offered to climb over the railing to retrieve them. It was my goof, so I climbed over and got the keys while they watched to make sure I did it safely. Thanks for your thoughtfulness!

RANT To all the dog owners who walk right past the numerous No Dogs Allowed on all Seattle Public Parks Beaches signs at Golden Gardens and elsewhere. This city ordinance applies to all dogs on all Seattle Parks beaches it doesnt matter if theyre leashed or not. You and your dog are not a special exception! I love dogs, but there are excellent reasons for the pups not to be on our lovely beaches.

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Daily Rant&Rave: Dogs aren't allowed on Seattle beaches

Tours-TV.com: Seychelles beaches
Seychelles. See on map http://tours-tv.com/en/Seychelles-beaches .

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D-DAY: June 6, 1944: Battle for the Normandy Beaches (720p)

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D-DAY: June 6, 1944: Battle for the Normandy Beaches (720p) - Video

London: The worlds beaches are being washed away as coastal developments increase in size and engineers build ever higher sea walls to defend against fierce winter storms and rising sea levels, according to two of the worlds leading marine geologists.

The warning comes as violent Atlantic and Pacific storms recently sent massive 50ft waves crashing over sea defences, washed away beaches and destroyed concrete walls in Europe, North America and the Philippines.

Most natural sand beaches are disappearing, due partly to rising sea levels and increased storm action, but also to massive erosion caused by the human development of the shore, said Andrew Cooper, professor of coastal studies at the University of Ulster.

The widespread damage on western Europes storm-battered shores, the devastation caused by hurricane Sandy along the northeastern US seaboard, the deaths brought on by typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines all exemplify the total inadequacy of [coastal] infrastructure and the vulnerability of cities built on the edge of coastlines, said Orrin Pilkey, professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Pilkey and Cooper say in a new book, The Last Beach, that sea walls, which are widely believed by many local authorities to protect developments from erosion and sea level rise, in fact lead to the destruction of beaches and sea defences and require constant rebuilding at increasing cost.

Dunes and wide beaches protect buildings from storms far better than sea walls, say the authors.

The beach is a wonderful, free natural defence against the forces of the ocean ... Storms do not destroy beaches. They change their shape and location, moving sand around to maximise the absorption of wave energy and then recover in the days, months and years to follow, said Pilkey.

Beaches in nature are almost indestructible, but seawall construction disrupts the natural movement of sand and waves, hindering the process of sand deposition along the shorelines, said Cooper.

The wall itself is the problem. If you build a sea wall to protect the shore, the inevitable consequence is that the beach will disappear. The wall cannot absorb the energy of the sea. All beaches with defences ... are in danger. When you build the sea wall, that is the end of the beach, he said.

Many of the worlds most famous beaches are now ecologically dead and dependent for their survival on being replenished with sand or gravel, they say.

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Worlds beaches are being washed away due to coastal development

The beach closest to Cork City and a well-known one in East Cork could be closed next summer due to an EU directive on water quality.

Sharon Corcoran, the county councils director of environmental services, has signalled that under new EU rules water quality checks on beaches had to be averaged out over the past four years and as a result this might mean Fountainstown and Claycastle, Youghal could closed to swimmers.

The council has been correlating its own tests on both beaches and although the official figures wont be released by An Taisce until next April, Ms Corcoran said water quality on them was vulnerable.

If the closures occur it will represent a second blow for Youghal tourism.

Last month the county council said the towns Front Strand would be closed to swimmers next summer because of poor water pollution levels.

The European Commission has introduced new directives which mean if the water quality is poor then we will have close the beach. A number of member nations are objecting to this, but as far as we are aware at minimum we may have to put up notices advising people not to swim on these beaches, said Ms Corcoran.

She said it was possible the EU may demand the beach be closed completely, but she was awaiting Department of the Environment guidance on this. She said Fountainstowns problems were due to intensive agriculture and heavy rain washing slurry into the bay. Holiday home septic tanks compounded the issue, she said.

Raised e-coli bacteria levels have also caused problems in Youghal as a result of animal waste washing down the Blackwater Valley. There is no adequate waste water treatment plant serving the towns human population. This is a contributory factor.

That should be addressed because a new sewerage treatment plant should be commissioned in the town by the end of 2016, Ms Corcoran said.

Cllr Tim Lombard (FG) who lives near Fountainstown, said that he was very concerned that tourist-related businesses will seriously suffer from beach closures.

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Bathing ban risk at beaches next summer

By Kevin Liptak, CNN White House Producer

December 18, 2014 -- Updated 0025 GMT (0825 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- The end of the 50-year freeze in diplomatic relations with Cuba will mean many more U.S. travelers could be on their way to the neighbor island, only 90 miles from Key West, Florida.

But the days of Havana as a glamorous destination for U.S. tourists as it was before the Cuban revolution ended legal U.S. travel there aren't returning quite yet. And while American visitors who do make it to Cuba will be able to return with rum and cigars, exporting them for sale in the United States still isn't in the works.

Historic thaw in U.S.-Cuba standoff

Americans already travel to Cuba in large numbers nearly 100,000 per year, according to Cuban government statistics. The numbers rose after Obama's 2009 easing on some of the restrictions on travel to Cuba, including making it easier for Americans to visit family members there, and a subsequent 2011 announcement allowing for certain types of other trips.

Now Obama is easing up restrictions for other kinds of visitors. Administration officials listed a host traveler types the federal government will now allow to visit: government officials, journalists, professional researchers, educators, religious officials, performers planning public presentations, humanitarians, emissaries of private foundations, and importers or exporters.

Officials say all legitimate applications received by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control the body that dispenses licenses to for Cuban travel will be approved.

When they visit, Americans will be able to use their credit or debit cards on the island, a convenience previously banned. Agencies inside the United States will be permitted to organize trips. And American telecom equipment will now be allowed into Cuba, making communication with Americans easier.

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Waiting for beaches, cigars

Reneet Birthday Beaches Playas
FREE - Find your name at http://www.1happybirthday.com/findyourname.php?n=m BIRTHDAY Beaches Playas DE CUMPLEAOS.

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#39;Our opportunity is on the beaches #39;
Docu.

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'Our opportunity is on the beaches ' - Video

Puerto Viejo (Pacific Side) Virtual Tour - Costa Rica Beaches
Learn more about Puerto Viejo: http://www.tribeflip.com/puerto-viejo or visit http://www.tribeflip.com for more Costa Rica travel information.

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According to the Aussie Naturists website, there are 23 beaches in NSW where you can go skinny-dipping without fear of being arrested - including the most famous nudist beach in Australia, Lady Jane Beach, on the northern end of Camp Cove on the way to South Head.

However, several of them are described as "traditional free beach" rather than legally designated nudist beach.

Here's five of the best with legal status.

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Both within a few minutes walk of each other at Middle Head. A regular bus, 244, leaves Wynward and stops at the intersection of Middle Head Road and Chowder Bay Road. Snorkling, apparently, is particularly splendid.

2. Werrong Beach, Royal National Park.

About 40 kilometres south of Sydney, near Stanwell Park, this is the only beach in the Royal National Park designated as a free beach by the NSW government. Involves a steep, 1-kilometre bush walk. Not suitable for the elderly.

3. Armands Bay Beach, South Coast.

Rated by experts as "one of the prettiest and most accessible nude beaches in the world", this is 10 kilometres south of Bermagui on the Bega/Tathra road. The next "Family Fun In The Sun Day" will be held on Sunday, March 15.

4.Birdie Beach, Central Coast.

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The Hot Five: Nudist beaches

Craig Platt Apr 10 2014 at 4:00 PM

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Empty beaches, no tourists, laid-back locals ... just don't tell anyone about Huahine, writes Craig Platt.

The trouble with paradise is everyone wants a piece of it. Whether it's for a holiday, a landmark event in one's life (a wedding, a honeymoon) or an escape from the rat race to find a more simple life, the reality is the more beautiful a place is, the more people want to be there.

It's happened to Bali, Phuket (in fact large swathes of Thailand's beaches) and even in more difficult-to-reach places such as Tahiti and Bora Bora in French Polynesia.

This latter collection of islands in the South Pacific has been labelled paradise since the 1700s.

It was the French that created the myth. As Paul Theroux writes in his epic travelogue The Happy Isles of Oceania, the arrival of Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville and his crew in the islands was greeted by a naked young girl paddling out to meet them in a canoe and, without a hint of modesty, climbing on board a ship filled with 400 lonely French sailors.

"In that moment the myth of romantic Tahiti was born," Theroux writes.

So, I wonder as I wade out to snorkel crystal-clear waters just a few steps from my bungalow, the whole beach to myself, why aren't the tourists hordes to be found in French Polynesia's Huahine?

The small island is only a short 35-minute flight from Tahiti's largest town and French Polynesia's capital, Papeete, and features stunning scenery, beautiful lagoons, beaches and great diving and snorkelling.

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Home alone in paradise

Taxes are going up on hotel stays in Palm Beach County in a move to raise more money to promote local tourism.

The County Commission Tuesday increased the tax on hotel stays and other short-term rentals to 6 cents per dollar spent. That should raise an additional $7 million a year that the county plans to spend on fixing more eroded beaches and increased advertising of tourist attractions.

"We should put more money in it," Commissioner Priscilla Taylor said. "If people see [advertisements] they will want to come here."

Palm Beach County, like Broward County, has been charging 5 cents for every dollar spent per night for the "bed tax" on stays at hotels, bed and breakfasts and other short-term rentals.

Tax increase supporters are betting that tourists looking for hotels won't be scared away if Palm Beach County's bed tax rises to 6 cents per dollar.

Palm Beach County's additional advertising is expected to target potential visitors in Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.

"Everybody will benefit from [more] tourism," said Lois Croft, the Palm Beach County representative of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.

The county's bed tax produces $34 million a year, which can only be spent on tourism-related efforts. That can include advertising local attractions, fixing eroded beaches and maintaining local attractions such as the county's convention center in West Palm Beach and Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter.

The county plans to use about $2.1 million of the nearly $7 million in additional hotel stay taxes to pay for fixing more eroded beaches.

About $2.4 million of the additional tax money goes toward Discover the Palm Beaches, formerly the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which promotes local tourism and will lead the advertising effort.

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Palm Beach County raises hotel tax; money will promote tourism