Today — sit it out — wave, wind and surge pounding. 🌫 Murky all week after the storm — the water isn't settling
Sources & confidence
Compiled by the spearo sea-state engine · How it works →
The verdict comes from seven water factors and hard safety gates — not ten tabs. Go or stay.
Our own model
Our own forecast engine — not a third-party widget. It weighs these water factors into one go-or-stay verdict for this coast; the 0–10 dial is that verdict, read out as a number.
Safety gates
It all folds into a single 0–10 score and one verdict: go or stay.
A forecast, not a guarantee — the sea has the last word.
Where to get in, where to hunt
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Greymouth, we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
The day is picked above, in the hero. Here are that day's windows, the hour-by-hour map and the trends. Tap a window to break down the conditions.
Visibility and what drives it — post-storm clearing, river plume, temperature and the thermocline.
spearo.app folds wind, wave, swell period, visibility, tides, water temperature and risk into a single verdict — go to the spot or not. It computes 7 days ahead from open marine models (Open-Meteo, IPMA), with no sign-up and no accounts. Built for solo spearfishing off the rocks, where any mistake costs dearly.
Now live: 3016 spots across 406 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
See all spotsRelief and bottom type, tides, and the depths of each spot.
The models set the window. Whether you go in is read only at the water: count the sets, watch the surge on the entry. If in doubt, you don't get in.
Scouted entries, coloured by today. The colour is the sea state at the spot, not a guarantee: the wash and a slippery entry you judge on site.
Open the seafloor mapSea stacks and rock platforms at Motukiekie, 20 minutes north of Greymouth, reachable only near low tide before the tide cuts them off. A 2007 report says such stacks can be ringed by reef. Divers describe few good days a year and some moki.
Google MapsCameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
Rules as of now — 25.10.2026 17:38 (Pacific/Auckland)
transparency ~13 m · satellite, 2 days agosatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore
The Cobden breakwater/tiphead at the Grey River mouth; butterfish and cod, big Tasman swell and river plume — dive rare calm.
Rocky Point Elizabeth walkway coast at Rapahoe; butterfish and cray, exposed west swell, cool upwelled water.
Google MapsSOLO is the biggest risk: underwater you can black out from lack of oxygen silently and fatally, with no one around. Solo is never truly «safe». Below are the best weather windows; carry a buoy, tell someone your plan and exit time, and any doubt — don't go.
Rules change and are regional. Before heading out, check with MPI (regional fishing rules / the NZ Fishing Rules app), DOC (marine reserves) and local notices (rāhui/mātaitai).
Spearfishing at Greymouth is condition-limited rather than spot-limited. The coast faces west into Tasman swell, the Grey River plume gives it a turbid baseline, and southerly flow drives upwelling that pulls the water temperature down, so the usable days are the settled ones. Two marks are recorded locally: the Cobden tiphead at the river mouth and the rocky Point Elizabeth coast at Rapahoe. New Zealand has no recreational sea-fishing licence, but MPI Challenger rules still decide the take, with a combined daily limit of 20 finfish (10 inside Paringa, Popotai Taumaka/Open Bay Islands, Okahu/Jacksons Bay, Tauneke/Barn Bay mātaitai) and minimum sizes such as butterfish at 35 cm and blue cod at 33 cm.
Both recorded marks are exposed west-coast rock, and both are framed the same way: dive the rare calm. The river bar and the swell are the serious part of the plan, so the exit matters more than the fish.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobden Tiphead | Breakwater and rock at the Grey River mouth | Around 5 m | Experienced, settled conditions only | Shore, at the Cobden breakwater | Butterfish and cod are the named fish here, but this is the river mouth: big Tasman swell and the plume are the two reasons to walk away. Treat the bar as the deciding factor rather than the forecast alone. |
| Point Elizabeth (Rapahoe) | Rocky open-coast point | Around 6 m | Experienced, settled conditions only | Shore, off the Point Elizabeth walkway coast at Rapahoe | Butterfish and crayfish habitat on exposed west-facing rock with cool upwelled water. It is further from the plume than the tiphead, but it takes the swell directly, so it also needs a genuinely calm day. |
On the settled days, and there are not many of them. The coast opens west, and the bad wind sector runs roughly south-west through north-west, which is most of the Tasman weather. Southerly flow drives upwelling on this coast, so a clean-looking day can still bring cold water in — the local cold thresholds sit around 10–12 °C. On top of that the Grey River plume gives the shore a turbid baseline after rain. No local webcam is supplied for this town, so wind sector, swell and recent rainfall are the read.
No licence is needed. MPI states that you do not need a licence to fish in the sea around New Zealand, and spearfishing is a lawful recreational method subject to the same sizes and limits as any other. Greymouth falls in the MPI Challenger area, which runs from the West Coast of the South Island north of Awarua Point around to Clarence Point, and the combined daily bag limit there is 20 finfish per fisher (10 inside Paringa, Popotai Taumaka/Open Bay Islands, Okahu/Jacksons Bay, Tauneke/Barn Bay mātaitai). Crayfish, salmon and trout cannot be speared anywhere in the country.
Butterfish is the reliable kelp fish, with a 35 cm minimum inside the combined 20 (10 inside Paringa, Popotai Taumaka/Open Bay Islands, Okahu/Jacksons Bay, Tauneke/Barn Bay mātaitai). Blue moki and red moki both carry a 40 cm minimum, and tarakihi 25 cm, though tarakihi usually sits off the reef edge and deeper than a comfortable breath-hold. Blue cod is 33 cm landed whole or gutted, or 24 cm landed headed and gutted with the pectoral fins left on, measured from the rear of the base of the pectoral fin to the end of the middle ray of the tail fin; MPI splits the blue cod daily number five ways across this region, and Greymouth sits inside the Westland area between Haast and Heaphy, which the Challenger table lists at 15 per day. Crayfish is 6 per day spiny and packhorse combined, with a maximum of 3 packhorse, at minimum tail widths of 54 mm male and 60 mm female for spiny (red) rock lobster and 84 mm male and 90 mm female for packhorse (if unsure of the sex, use the female size), taken by hand when diving — spearing one, or possessing a speared one, is an offence.
Punakaiki Marine Reserve lies up the coast from Greymouth and is no-take: New Zealand marine reserves are closed to all fishing, spearfishing included. MPI's Challenger page also lists Tauparikākā Marine Reserve and the Waiau Glacier Coast among the region's closed areas. Separately, Makaawhio mātaitai bylaws covering nine West Coast reserves came into force on 1 October 2025 and set no-take or reduced limits species by species and reserve by reserve, so they must be read as tables rather than as one rule. Pāua is free-diving only nationwide — underwater breathing apparatus is prohibited for taking or possessing it — and MPI's Challenger table gives 5 blackfoot and 5 yellowfoot in Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough against 10 and 10 elsewhere in the area, at 125 mm and 80 mm.
No. New Zealand has no recreational sea-fishing licence, but MPI Challenger rules, mātaitai bylaws and reserve boundaries still apply.
MPI lists a combined daily bag limit of 20 finfish per fisher in the Challenger area (10 inside Paringa, Popotai Taumaka/Open Bay Islands, Okahu/Jacksons Bay, Tauneke/Barn Bay mātaitai).
No. Marine reserves are no-take under the Marine Reserves Act 1971, and all fishing including spearfishing is prohibited.
West-facing exposure to Tasman swell, the Grey River plume and cool upwelled water around 10–12 °C. The settled days are the workable ones.
35 cm, inside the combined 20-finfish daily limit in the Challenger area (10 inside Paringa, Popotai Taumaka/Open Bay Islands, Okahu/Jacksons Bay, Tauneke/Barn Bay mātaitai).
No. Spearing rock lobster is an offence nationwide, so divers take them by hand; the limit here is 6 per day spiny and packhorse combined, with a maximum of 3 packhorse, and Makaawhio mātaitai reserves may set stricter rules.
