The honours were shared between the international teams and the New Zealanders in the finals at the first Karapiro Open beach volleyball tournament held this week.

Australian women Eliza Dean and Katie Bartoli, seeded second, were too strong for top seeds Hamilton's Hannah Croad and her partner Micah Lindsay-Brown in the women's final yesterday, as they had been when they met at the Hamilton Open last weekend.

In the men's final, fourth seeded Kiwis Greg Lindsay-Brown and Johann Timmer were too good for their American opponents, fifth seeds Mike Maghy and Ryan Ratelle. Dean and Bartoli won their final in two sets, 21-14 and 21-19.

The men's final was a nailbiter with the two teams going point for point before, Lindsay-Brown and Timmer pulled away just enough to win 27-25 and 28-26.

Organiser and player Alison Storey said the first running of the event had been a big success.

"It was great volleyball and it was cool to have all those good players out here at Karapiro," she said.

Storey said the organisers at Karapiro were hopeful of hosting the tournament again.

"We haven't signed on the dotted line or anything, but the general manager of New Zealand Volleyball was here and seemed pretty happy."

The Karapiro Open was the third round of the four-round Pro Beach Volleyball Series, with the competitors heading to Mt Maunganui where the New Zealand Open qualifying round begins today.

Also competing at the New Zealand Open will be the German women who won in Hamilton, Laura Ludwig and Sara Goller and the English pair of Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin, the beaten finalists.

Storey said plenty of people had watched the action on the sand at the Karapiro courts throughout the day, particularly people attending the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals.

"People would come up while they were travelling somewhere, have a gawk and then wander back down," she said. "It showed what a good venue there is here, able to host two national championship level events at the same time."