Estuarine and coastal water quality in Aotearoa New Zealand is increasingly recognized as a significant concern, yet current monitoring efforts face challenges in achieving regular sampling across expansive areas. Understanding natural dynamics, and long-term trends is crucial for managing the impacts of climate change on oceanic water masses and land catchment inputs. Effective monitoring of anthropogenic influences, including fishing, pollution, coastal development, and aquaculture, is also essential. While satellite products are underutilized globally by management agencies, they hold promise as integral components of comprehensive environmental monitoring strategies. The NIWA-SCENZ (Seas, Coasts, and Estuaries New Zealand) initiative provides unprecedented access to MODIS-Aqua products at moderate spatial resolution (500 m), covering a range of coastal water types from relatively clear to turbid waters. Product accuracy is comparable to other websites for clear water areas, but validation is needed for turbid zones. Cloud cover significantly affects data availability, with near-coastal regions experiencing <5% coverage within 1 km from coastlines, compared to 10%-30% further offshore. Ongoing research aims to improve data quality, gap-filling techniques, and develop new analytical methods. Advanced tools like Shiny-SCENZ facilitate statistical summaries and trend assessments. NIWA-SCENZ serves as a model for leveraging satellite datasets in coastal and estuarine environmental monitoring.