Bay of Plenty
The steep slopes of 232m-high Mauao swarm with walkers in the morning, when the Mount’s early risers perform their ritual climb to the summit. The ascent…
Must-see attractions in Bay of Plenty
Bay of Plenty
Mataatua is a large, fantastically carved 1875 wharenui (meeting house) that is the centrepiece of Te Mānuka Tūtahi marae (traditional meeting place). A…
Tauranga
The city's pre-eminent gallery stages challenging exhibitions of thought-provoking contemporary work. The building itself is a former bank, though you’d…
Tauranga
Surrounded by mature trees and lovely gardens, Tauranga's original mission station incorporates the Bay of Plenty's earliest buildings, along with one of…
Bay of Plenty
This fascinating aviation museum, beside the airport, is filled with predominantly military aircraft. You can scramble through the living quarters of the…
Bay of Plenty
Around 8km south of town, this verdant 4.5-hectare patch of forest is home to around 1500 varieties of native plants, which can be seen on a 20-minute…
Bay of Plenty
Attached to the library, this impressive museum and gallery has artfully presented displays on early Māori and European settlement in the area. A gourd on…
Tauranga
Hairy Maclary author Lynley Dodd lived in Tauranga for years, and NZ’s favourite literary animals were immortalised in bronze on Tauranga’s wharf in 2015…
Bay of Plenty
Tumbling down the cliffs immediately behind town, tall, skinny Te Wairere occupies a deliciously damp nook. It once powered flax and flour mills, and it…
Bay of Plenty
About 7km south of town, this gorgeous 4-hectare private garden is all aflap with native and exotic bird life. There's 1.5km of paths, looping out to a…
Tauranga
Country-club-like Mills Reef, 7km southwest of the city centre at Bethlehem, has tastings of its award-winning wines. This isn't grape-growing country, so…
Bay of Plenty
Built as a millennium project, this unusual attraction consists of boulders inscribed with haiku verses wending through a pretty park flanking the Uretara…
Bay of Plenty
St Stephen's (1862) is a white wooden Anglican church with a timber-lined interior and tukutuku (woven flax) panels in the sanctuary. Reverend Carl…
Bay of Plenty
Ōpōtiki's museum has heritage displays including Māori artefacts, militaria, recreated shopfronts (barber, carpenter, printer…), and agricultural items…
Bay of Plenty
This shallow, partially collapsed cave once extended 122m into the hillside and was the home of Muriwai, a famous seer and sister of Toroa, captain of the…
Bay of Plenty
On the clifftops behind the town are a pair of ancient Ngāti Awa pā (fortified village) sites – Te Pāpaka (The Crab) and Puketapu (Sacred Hill) – both of…
Bay of Plenty
Beside a roundabout on The Strand is Pōhaturoa, a large tapu (sacred) rock outcrop capped with pohutukawa trees, where birth, death, war and moko (tattoo)…
Bay of Plenty
Housed in a former fire station, this little regional museum displays a selection of Māori artefacts from the local tribe, Ngāi Te Rangi, along with…
Tauranga
This shady little cemetery, overlooking the bridge, has some interesting memorials relating to battles fought between local Māori and government forces in…
Tauranga
Shaded by huge pohutukawa trees, spooky Monmouth Redoubt was originally a Māori pā (fortified village), then taken over and adapted by British soldiers…
Tauranga
On clear days this lofty wooden viewing platform, located about 13km west of the city centre, provides a panorama of nearly the entire Bay of Plenty – see…
Bay of Plenty
Transplanting Cape Dutch architecture from South Africa's wine country to SH2, 8km south of Katikati, this excellent winery is open for tastings and stock…
Tauranga
At its best in late spring and summer, this verdant pocket of roses sits behind an ivy-covered colonnade on a cliff overlooking the harbour, and is like a…
Bay of Plenty
A whimsical 1965 statue of local heroine Wairaka stands proudly atop a rock on the mouth of the Whakatāne River.
Bay of Plenty
About 16km from Whakatane on the road to Rotorua (SH30), this old-fashioned holiday park has a large thermal mineral pool, two smaller children's pools…
Bay of Plenty
On a hilltop behind town, this observatory offers abundant Bay of Plenty star-spotting when the sky is clear.
Tauranga
Located on a nondescript suburban street, this marae (traditional meeting place) has a sensationally carved wharenui (meeting house). This is the private…
Tauranga
A fairly ordinary-looking Victorian villa stranded on a hill as the roads around it grew, Brain Watkins House (no, not Brian) was built in 1881 from kauri…
