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Tawharanui Regional Park
A partly unsealed road leads to this 588-hectare reserve at the end of a peninsula. This special place is an open sanctuary for native birds, protected by a pest-proof fence, while the northern coast is a marine park (bring a snorkel). There are plenty of walking tracks (1½ to four
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Cave Stream Scenic Reserve
Near Broken River Bridge, 2km northeast of Castle Hill, a car park signals access to this 594m-long cave. As indicated by the information panels, the walk through it is an achievable adventure, even for beginners, but only with a foolproof torch and warm clothing, and definitely on
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Nga
With its two domed towers (Arepa and Omeka, alpha and omega) and the Ratana emblem of the star and crescent moon, you could be forgiven for mistaking this temple for a mosque. Ratana is a Māori Christian sect with more than 50,000 adherents, formed in 1925 by Tahupotiki Wiremu Rata
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Ruakuri Cave
Ruakuri Cave has an impressive 15m-high spiral staircase, bypassing a Māori burial site at the cave entrance. Tours lead through 1.6km of the 7.5km system, taking in caverns with glowworms, subterranean streams and waterfalls, and intricate limestone structures. Visitors have descr
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Te Matua Ngahere
From the Kauri Walks car park, a 20-minute (each way) walk leads past the Four Sisters , a graceful stand of four tall trees fused together at the base, to Te Matua Ngahere (the Father of the Forest). At 30m, he has a significant presence. Reinforced by a substantial girth – he’s t
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Hokitika Gorge
A picturesque 35km drive leads to Hokitika Gorge, a ravishing ravine with unbelievably turquoise waters coloured by glacial flour. Photograph the scene from every angle via the short forest walkway and swingbridge. The gorge is well signposted from Stafford St (past the dairy facto
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Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre
This multimedia museum opened just three weeks before the January 2008 death of the man widely regarded as the greatest New Zealander of all time. Sir Eds commentary tracks were recorded only a few months before he died. As well as memorabilia and displays about mountaineering, the
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Buried Village
Fifteen kilometres from Rotorua on Tarawera Rd, beyond the Blue and Green Lakes, is the buried village of Te Wairoa, interred by the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera. Te Wairoa was the staging post for travellers coming to see the Pink and White Terraces.Today a museum houses objects d
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St Joseph’s Church
Around a corner in the Whanganui River Rd in Jerusalem, the picture-perfect, red-and-mustard spire of St Joseph’s Church stands tall on a spur of land above a deep river bend. A French Catholic mission led by Suzanne Aubert established the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion here i
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St Mary’s Church
About halfway along the 40km drive from Kohukohu via Panguru, its worth a short detour to visit St Mary’s Church, where NZ’s first Catholic bishop was buried beneath the altar. Jean Baptiste Pompallier arrived in the Hokianga in 1838, celebrating NZ’s first Mass at Totara Point. He
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Arts Centre
Dating from 1877, this enclave of Gothic Revival buildings was originally Canterbury College, the forerunner of Canterbury University. The colleges most famous alumnus was the father of nuclear physics Lord Ernest Rutherford, the NZ physicist who first split the atom in 1917 (thats
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Caroline Bay Park
Fronting the town, this expansive park ranges over an Edwardian-style garden under the Bay Hill cliff, then across broad lawns to low sand dunes and the beach itself. It has something for everyone between its playground, skate park, soundshell, ice cream kiosk, and myriad other att
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Cathedral Caves
Cutting back into cliffs right on the beach, the huge, arched Cathedral Caves are only accessible for two hours either side of low tide (tide timetables are posted on the website, at the highway turn-off and at visitor information centres) – and even then they can be closed at shor
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Rainbow Springs
The natural springs here are home to wild trout and eels, which you can peer at through an underwater viewer. There are interpretive walkways, a new Big Splash water ride, and plenty of animals, including tuatara (a native lizard) and native birds (kea, kaka and pukeko). A highligh
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Western Springs
Parents bring their children to this picturesque park for the popular playground. It’s a pleasant picnic spot and a good place to get acquainted with playful pukeko (swamp hens), easygoing ducks and pushy, bread-fattened geese. Formed by a confluence of lava flows, more than 4 mill
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Sky Tower
The impossible-to-miss Sky Tower looks like a giant hypodermic giving a fix to the heavens. Spectacular lighting renders it space age at night and the colours change for special events. At 328m it is the southern hemispheres tallest structure. A lift takes you up to the observation
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Skyline Gondola
Hop aboard for fantastic views. At the top theres the inevitable cafe, restaurant, souvenir shop and observation deck, as well as the Queenstown Bike Park , Skyline Luge , Ledge Bungy , Ledge Swing and Ziptrek Ecotours . At night there are Māori culture shows from Kiwi Haka and sta
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Yellow
Larger and much rarer than their little blue cousins, yellow-eyed penguins waddle ashore at Bushy Beach in the late afternoon to feed their young. In order to protect these endangered birds, the beach is closed to people at 3pm, but there are hides set up on the cliffs (youll need
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Mt Karioi
In legend, Mt Karioi (756m), the Sleeping Lady (check out that profile), is the sister to Mt Pirongia. At its base (8km south of Whale Bay), Te Toto Gorge is a steep cleft in the mountainside, with a vertigo-inducing lookout perched high over the chasm. Starting from the Te Toto Go
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Te Mata Peak
Rising melodramatically from the Heretaunga Plains 16km south of Havelock North, Te Mata Peak (399m) is part of the 99-hectare Te Mata Trust Park . The summit road passes sheep trails, rickety fences and vertigo-inducing stone escarpments, cowled in a bleak, lunar-meets-Scottish-Hi
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