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 supplied Whakatāne’s drinking water until 1924. It's a gorgeous spot, and goes almost completely unheralded – in any other country there'd be a ticket booth, interpretive audiovisual displays and an ice-cream van!
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.17 MILES
Mataatua is a large, fantastically carved 1875 wharenui (meeting house) that is the centrepiece of Te Mānuka Tūtahi marae (traditional meeting place). A…
15.91 MILES
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…
15.88 MILES
Ōpōtiki's museum has heritage displays including Māori artefacts, militaria, recreated shopfronts (barber, carpenter, printer…), and agricultural items…
0.49 MILES
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…
16.48 MILES
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…
0.11 MILES
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…
0.25 MILES
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)…
0.37 MILES
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…
Nearby attractions
0.11 MILES
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…
0.17 MILES
Mataatua is a large, fantastically carved 1875 wharenui (meeting house) that is the centrepiece of Te Mānuka Tūtahi marae (traditional meeting place). A…
0.25 MILES
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)…
0.35 MILES
On a hilltop behind town, this observatory offers abundant Bay of Plenty star-spotting when the sky is clear.
5. Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi
0.37 MILES
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…
0.49 MILES
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…
0.7 MILES
A whimsical 1965 statue of local heroine Wairaka stands proudly atop a rock on the mouth of the Whakatāne River.
8.48 MILES
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…