Bulldozers created what's been dubbed a "sacrificial dune" in Waihī Beach ahead of Cyclone Vaianu.
And it seemed to be helping as the weather rolled in, according to Mark and Sue Szigetvary, who holiday at Waihī Beach.
The pair, who are in their 60s, were down watching the surf three hours ahead of high tide on Sunday.
The water was making a "loud, constant rumble" and had been for most of the night, they said.
"You can't walk on the beach, so at half tide that's that's pretty high," Mark said.
But the swells hadn't taken away as much sand as they'd been expecting, Sue said.
"It seems to almost be the little swell that's pushing the sand back up, which is not a bad thing."
Bulldozers had been there earlier in the week, pushing up sand to reinforce the dunes, they said.
"They were talking about it being a sacrificial dune that they were creating so that it stopped the waves and swell coming through and wiping out what dune there was," Mark said.
While there were houses along the beachfront, he didn't think the rising tide would get into anyone's home as the water was still well below the top of the rock wall.
As for the rest of the Waihī Beach area, the big question was how much water came down from the hills, he said.
The Szigetvarys had come down to check on their holiday home, "to put a few sandbags around and keep an eye on things" - as well as checking friends' properties.
They had some surface flooding at their property, but nothing they were too concerned about.
A cabin at the back of their section had flooded previously, including in the January storm.
"That was when the rain just sat here and just literally tipped down," Sue said. "This rain is a lot lighter. Consistent, but not as heavy as what that January rain was"
The speed that the storm was moving at was also different, Mark said.
"It hasn't hovered and stopped above us".
The wind might cause some damage around town, especially with wet ground, but Mark said it was "otherwise just another weekend at Waihī Beach".
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