Blueskin Bay
Tidal lagoon in New Zealand
title: "Blueskin Bay" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["estuaries-of-new-zealand", "landforms-of-otago", "bays-of-otago", "wetlands-of-otago"] description: "Tidal lagoon in New Zealand" topic_path: "geography/new-zealand" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueskin_Bay" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Tidal lagoon in New Zealand ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox body of water"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Blueskin Bay |
| other_name | Waiputai (Māori) |
| image | Cockle gatherers.jpg |
| alt | A person pushing a tool through shallow water at sunrise |
| caption | A person gathers cockles in Blueskin Bay at sunrise |
| location | Otago, New Zealand |
| coordinates | |
| type | Tidal lagoon / estuary |
| inflow | Waitati River, Careys Creek |
| outflow | Pacific Ocean (via channel near Rabbit Island) |
| basin_countries | New Zealand |
| pushpin_map | New Zealand |
| pushpin_map_caption | Location in New Zealand |
| pushpin_map_alt | Map of New Zealand |
| islands | Rabbit Island |
| :: |
| name = Blueskin Bay | other_name = Waiputai (Māori) | image = Cockle gatherers.jpg | alt = A person pushing a tool through shallow water at sunrise | caption = A person gathers cockles in Blueskin Bay at sunrise | location = Otago, New Zealand | coordinates = | type = Tidal lagoon / estuary | inflow = Waitati River, Careys Creek | outflow = Pacific Ocean (via channel near Rabbit Island) | basin_countries = New Zealand | pushpin_map = New Zealand | pushpin_map_caption = Location in New Zealand | pushpin_map_alt = Map of New Zealand | islands = Rabbit Island Blueskin Bay is an estuary in coastal Otago, about 25 km north of Dunedin, New Zealand.
The name also unofficially describes the rural district which includes the northern slopes of Mount Cargill, the southern slopes of the Kilmog, and the townships of Doctors Point, Waitati, Evansdale, Warrington, and Seacliff.
Place names
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/BlueskinbayMountCargill.JPG" caption="A view of Blueskin Bay from Buttar's Peak, near [[Mount Cargill"] ::
The tidal lagoon is known in Māori as Waiputai. "Blueskin Bay" historically referred to a wider stretch of coast from Heyward Point to Seacliff, including Pūrākaunui. The name Blueskin is after Kahuti, a resident Māori personality of the area, whom Pākehā settlers nicknamed "Blueskin" for the large amount of Tā moko (traditional Māori tattooing) on his body. The name had been used as the nickname of a notorious 18th-century London criminal, Joseph "Blueskin" Blake.
The estuary
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Orokonui_valley.jpg" caption="Orokonui Valley"] ::
The Waitati River and Careys Creek enter Blueskin Bay at its southwest and northwest corners. A long sand spit from the northern headland closes the bay to a small channel to the Pacific Ocean at the southeast corner. Rabbit Island lies just inside this entrance.
Critically endangered, endemic Hector's dolphins live around the bay.
Shellfish
Blueskin Bay is a popular site for gathering clams, locally known as "cockles". Along with families collecting the shellfish for personal consumption, Southern Clams Ltd collects clams commercially for export.
References
References
- ''[http://www.puketeraki.co.nz/sites/default/files/Place%20names_0.pdf Place names] {{webarchive. link. (2012-04-26'' on Kāti Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki website, viewed 2012-01-04)
- Ian Church ''Blueskin days'', Waitati 2007
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::