I came to New Zealand simply for a 90 day holiday in 2006, mainly to buy a local guidebook written by a Kiwi, not a Lonely Planet-type, full of backpacker hostels and commercialised tours.

I wanted a book that would clue me in to the killer beaches and swimming holes and free hot pools…and never found the book I wanted.

I wanted to know which big kauri you could touch, where you could see a kiwi in the wild, which beaches were so lonely that ’togs’ weren’t required, which forests so primeval you’d be dodging dinosaurs. I never found the book, so instead I set out to write it.

But more about this mysterious and unheralded Whangarei. During my first week in New Zealand I met two Whangarei kite-surfers over at Kai Iwi lakes. They told me that “Whangarei sucks”. I believed them, as they were locals. They told me that I should go to Paihia because “that’s where people go”.

After a few weeks I excitedly made my way to this town that I had heard so much about – the Bay of Islands town in the centre of things! Disappointed, I hurriedly left,  frustrated at the crass tourism and complete dearth of actual natural attractions accessible without paying someone to haul you and your 30 new friends over to see. Boatloads and busfuls and parasilers were not the New Zealand I came to see. Where’s the pretty bay full of free natural attractions?

It’s taken me a whole bunch of summers venturing hither, thither and yon to finally realize that Whangarei District is actually the most varied, most unique, and the most charmed of any North Island locale!

The beaches are gorgeous and uncrowded, the caves are ‘off-the-chart cool’ the walking tracks to the multiple viewpoints are too many to name… and oh, yeah, add some waterfalls, some big kauris, headlands chokka with hidden coves…ahhh!

Go surf, cycle, spelunk, tramp, dive, kayak, fish, or swim! Whangarei, methinks you’ve been purposely hiding your charms from both Kiwis and tourists alike. Shame on you! Such delights – Whale Bays, Abbey Caves, Tutukakas and Whangaruru’s. Smugglers Coves, Poor Knights, Taheke Falls, Kauri Mountains. Breams and Peaches and Mimiwhangatas and Manaias. Mermaid Pools, Waipu Caves, and anked Uretitis!

Rock Walls and sandspits and limestone boulder gardens. Ah yes, Whangarei, you HAVE been hiding your charms, or maybe you simply have too many to name and don’t know where to start!

Napier gets more press but offers less fun.  Taupo shines in the media’s eye but, nope, not as shiny as Whangarei. New Plymouth? Yup, lots of stuff that I love, but not as much as Whangarei. Raglan? Nope. The Mount? Forget it. Hamilton? Haw! Palmerston North? Sorry.

Oh Whangarei, how I’ve learned to appreciate and love you….a mistress of many moods and mysteries.