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New Zealand > Waikato
> Coromandel > Whitianga and Mercury
Bay Area
By Jessica Lloyd
 Fishing anyone?
With about 3,000 residents, Whitianga is easily one of the largest towns on the
Coromandel Peninsula. It attracts visitors year round for its great fishing, but
this is hardly the only good thing about Whitianga. There is a great deal of
adventure tourism here, with tramping, sea kayaking, diving, and horse riding
available (to name a few). Hire a bike and cruise around, charter a boat and
fish yourself stupid, or indulge in delicious fresh seafood and steak at one of
the many high quality café or restaurants. Whatever you choose to fill your time
with, Whitianga is a very pleasant place to do it.
…And all right next door…
The great thing about Whitianga is its proximity to other attractions on the
Peninsula. Cooks Beach, Hahei, Cathedral Cove, Buffalo Beach and Hot Water Beach
are all a short drive or ferry ride away. Whitianga is in the enviable position
of being central to all kinds of special landmarks, meaning they get the tourist
dollars for accommodation, food and supplies. This makes Whitianga a profitable
place to set up business, hence the higher population.
Nightlife, Food, and Drink
Whitianga is a popular place to go for a night out on the town, simply because
there is nowhere else to go. The high summer population means there is a few
night spots, with enough people to fill them out and make them fun to visit.
A meal at a restaurant like Eggsentric is an experience in itself, with
beautiful paintings adorning the walls, sculptures and a wacky design theme. The
live music every night is a grand attraction, plus they have poetry, films, and
art exhibitions – rather exuberant for the Peninsula, but excellent nonetheless.
The food is gourmet, and charges accordingly. If you are after a home cooked
meal, try café Nina in the 100-year-old miner’s cottage. Colenso has won awards,
and Captain Cook’s has the best range of gourmet seafood dishes in a
sophisticated dining setting. They also have a bistro bar.
The Whitianga Hotel with the Salt Bar Café Deck is a classy but cool place to
hang out with your friends and have a night (or day) out, with the sea so close
you can touch it. Almost. Smitty’s Sports Bar and Grill is a lively sports bar,
with a good range of food, beer, satellite sports and sporting memorabilia.
The People
Whitianga has a good cross-section of people, but they all have one thing in
common – they love where they live. Because it is a lot larger than most
Peninsula towns, there are more jobs and opportunities for development, which
means a greater range of personalities in the community. With upmarket
restaurants, cafes and bars, art and craft corners and tourist operators, there
is all the variety of a small town minus the pretentiousness of city life.
Not Just Any Old History
Forget goldmines and timber logging: nearby Cooks Beach is where Captain Cook
landed in the Endeavour all those moons ago – the year 1769 to be exact. He
wanted to watch the passage of the planet Mercury across the sun, and New
Zealand as it is known today was ‘discovered’. The flag was stabbed into the
sand and New Zealand was suddenly King George II’s personal property. We were
now on the map because he could accurately place our longitude. Rather exciting,
don’t you think?
Much of the re-naming of the land and landmarks was thanks to Captain Cook, with
places like Mercury Bay, originally Te Whanganui-o-hei which is Maori for ‘the
great bay of Hei’. Hei was a Maori chief whose whanau (family) still live in the
area. Hahei was also part of Hei’s stomping ground, and literally means ‘the
breath of Hei’ – he thought the land and islands made a shape that looked like
the silhouette of his nose, so he decided that bit was his.
There are a few ancient pa sites (Maori fortresses on a hilltop with cunning
views of all visitors) around this area, which can be visited by tourists.
The forests were eventually heavily logged for kauri, with the mill processing
about 500 million feet over 60 years. The off-cuts were constantly burned as a
beacon for the ships in Buffalo Beach. The gold rush lasted for about ten years
from 1889 and was worth around $32 million.
Whitianga is a beautiful place, with a lot to offer anyone who visits or lives
here. The sun shines, the birds sing, and everything is just fine!
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