Loading ...Whitianga Coromandel Region New Zealand
If you come to Whitianga you’d better want to get wet. The big attractions are the sandy beaches of Mercury Bay and the diving, boating and kayaking opportunities afforded by the craggy limestone coast and nearby Te Whanganui A Hei Marine Reserve. If you’ve a lust for the luxe, a number of upmarket eateries and accommodation options have sprung up, catering to the boatie set who constantly breeze into the pretty harbour. Most of the restaurants are overpriced and not particularly interesting.
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To truly experience this area you have to be prepared to get wet. Beach after clear- watered beach offers munificent opportunities for swimming, surfing or just splashing about. Consequently the hot spots heave with Kiwi holidaymakers at peak times, but even then it’s possible to find isolated stretches of sand where your footprints are the only ones.
On the pretty-to-ugly continuum Whangarei sits somewhere in the middle. But beauty is never far away and there are plenty of attractive natural and artistic things to keep you distracted in Northland’s gateway. You may be pleasantly surprised by the interesting choice of eateries and the general ‘going off’-ness of the bars on a Saturday night. The city centre has an inordinate number of hairdressers and parking lots – although the standard of coiffure or car isn’t noticeably different from the Kiwi average.
The park has a sprinkling of huts, a lodge and numerous camping grounds. Along the Taumarunui-Pipiriki section are three Category II huts classified as Great Walks Huts during summer and Serviced Huts in the off-season: the Whakahoro Hut at Whakahoro, and the John Coull Hut and Tieke Kainga, which has been revived as a marae. You can stay at Tieke Kainga, but full marae protocol must be observed. On the lower part of the river, Downes Hut is on the west bank, opposite Atene.
While Auckland’s socially ambitious flock to Pauanui, the city’s young and horny head to Whangamata to surf, get stoned and hook up. It can be a raucous spot over New Year, when the population swells to over 40, 000. A true summer holiday town, in the off-season there may as well be tumbleweeds rolling down the main street.
A true Pohutukawa paradise, the town of Whakatane (fa-ka-ta-ne) sits in a natural harbour at the mouth of the river of the same name. It’s the hub of the Rangitaiki agricultural district, but there’s much more to Whakatane than farming, with blissful beaches and volcanic Whakaari (White Island) for starters.
SH6 along the surf-pounded coastline proffers fine Tasman Sea views; so fine that Lonely Planet’s Blue List dubbed the West Coast highway one of the planet’s 10 best road trips. Fill up in Westport if you’re low on petrol and cash – there’s no fuel until Runanga, 92km away, and the next ATM is in Greymouth. The main attractions along this stretch are the geologically fascinating Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. To break the journey, consider the following.
The port of Westport made its fortune in coal mining, though the main mine is at Stockton, 38km north. The town itself is of little interest, but is a good base for active adventures in the Buller Gorge and Charleston ranges. Otherwise head north to relaxed Karamea (for the Heaphy Track), or continue south to the Punakaiki Rocks. Fans of Animal Planet should check out the seal colony west of town.
Literally the biggest highlights of the Westland Tai Poutini National Park are the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. Nowhere else at this latitude do glaciers come so close to the ocean.
The Western Bay of Plenty stretches along the coast from Waihi Beach to Maketu and inland as far as the Kaimai Range. This is where New Zealanders have come on holiday for generations, lapping up salt-licked activities and lashings of sunshine.