This is the place

A wild rugged coastline faces the sea, broken by the sweep of two long stretches of sandy bays. In between these two sandy beaches of Taupo Bay and Tauranga Bay, is the entrance to the Whangaroa Harbour. Only a few hundred yards wide, it is almost invisible to the casual observer who may be sailing up the coast. Indeed, this is precisely why Captain Cook missed seeing it on his visits to New Zealand.

As we enter the Harbour, away to our right is the mysterious West Arm, with it’s massive outcrop of rocks. The Duke’s Nose (named after the Duke of Wellington so our parents told us) towers over Pekapeka Bay, now named Lane Cove, with the Wairakau Falls just up a little further. A large stretch of dark coloured smooth rock face, with unusual splashes of white colour suggest a menacing bull, and a dog with two tails to the imaginative observer. A small trickle of water for most of the year tumbles over the edge to plunge to the rocks beneath. At the head of the West Arm rises the Bride’s Cake rock, a cascade of tiers of rock rising up into the sky, with the Wairere waterfall cascading over the rocks nearby. The old horse trail to Taupo Bay used to go over the hills here, but it has long since become overgrown.

Making our way back towards the Heads, we pass the Headland with Pear Tree and Poplar Bays on the left. Various other small bays dot the edge of the harbour to the entrance. This whole coastline of the harbour is lumped under the name of the Ranfurly Scenic Reserve on the official maps and charts. Turning our back on the entrance, we now head up towards an unusual looking rock sitting on top of a high hill. This is St. Paul’s Rock above the settlement of Whangaroa. We have rounded the Haystack Rock at the corner of the two arms, gone past Peach Island (where the ship "Boyd" met her fate in 1809) and Waihi Inlet with the last of the huge piles of rocky formations. With St. Paul’s on our far left we round St. Peter’s lofty domed rock on the right, to come into the bay where the Totara North settlement nestles. So we drop our anchor and our voyage around the harbour has come to an end.

We can see quite a large expanse of water of the upper harbour from there, with the rock of Taratara standing sentinel beyond the water. There are many legends woven around this rock, as well as much early history associated with the whole area. Today, there is quite a large oyster farm spreading over the shallow waters, yielding this delicacy for the markets. For a place that had a bustling busy industry in timber and boat building that was the life blood of the whole district in the early days, the oysters and the fishing boats that come in periodically are the only sign of life left.

Totara North has no large flat area. Bush clad hills surround the settlement still, with the steep ridges falling down to sea level, divided by small rushing streams which supply crystal clear water for those who like to tap the source for themselves. Most of the houses are built on hill tops, or cling to the hillsides, while the road winds it’s way around through the mudflats and foreshore.

The surrounding areas of the surrounding district comprises Kaeo to the south east, Pupuke to the south west, Taratara Rock and Otangaroa district to the west, and the outskirts of the Mangonui and Oruaiti areas to the north west. The closer sub-districts of Kahoe and the Unuhia "plains" are on the main road of Highway Ten.

Getting there by road, the traveller will cross the Iwitaua River on a sweeping curved bridge, and follow the signpost which points to the right. The road takes one down the edge of the mangrove mudflats with tantalising views of St. Paul’s dome across the harbour, past the old Gumdigger’s Store, where one can now slake one’s thirst, and past the remains of the timber mill. We will end up at the wharf if we go to the end of the road, and there the harbour opens out to our view once more with boats swinging on their moorings.