WHANGAREI
The Whangarei District is located in Northland, New Zealand. Whangarei is the principal town and the district seat. Other towns include Hukerenui, Hikurangi, Titoki, Ruakaka and Waipu. The district contains a large amount of rural land, including beaches such as Ngunguru, game fishing mecca Tutukaka, and a variety of beaches along Whangarei Harbour. The main airport for the district is Whangarei Airport.

The district extends as far south as Bream Bay, north towards the Cape Brett peninsula, and west almost to Waipoua Forest. It also includes the Hen and Chicken Islands and the Poor Knights Islands. The district population is 78,200 from the June 2008 estimate.

The city of Whangarei is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the regional capital of Northland Region. Although it is commonly classified as a city, officially it is under the jurisdiction of the Whangarei District Council, a local body created in 1989 to administer both the city proper and its hinterland.

The city population was estimated to be 51,100 at the June 2008 estimate, up from 47,400 in 2001. Whangarei has a subtropical climate and very few frosts. Summers rarely exceed 30°C, and there is plentiful rainfall, spread relatively evenly over the year.

The Whangarei urban area includes the suburbs of Kamo, Tikipunga, Otangarei, Mairtown, Riverside, Sherwood Rise, Onerahi, Morningside, Raumanga, Maunu, Horahora, Woodville, Kensington and Whau Valley.

The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northland region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located 60 km north-west of Whangarei, it is close to the northern tip of the country.

It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for its big-game fishing since American author Zane Grey publicised it in the 1930s.

Northland Region
The Northland Region (Ma-ori: Te Tai-tokerau, also Te Hiku-o-te-Ika, 'the Tail of the Fish (of Maui)'), one of the 16 regions of New Zealand, is, as the name suggests, the northernmost of New Zealand's administrative regions. The main centre is the city of Whangarei.

The region has a sub-tropical climate with warm humid summers and mild wet winters. Typical summer maxima range from 21 °C to 28 °C (70 °F to 79 °F). In winter, maxima are between 14 °C and 19 °C (57 °F and 66 °F). Ground frosts are rare due to proximity with the moderating Pacific and Tasman waters around the region; however frosts do occur around Dargaville in the lowlands. The hottest months are January and February. Typical annual rainfall for the region is 1500–2000 mm. Winds are predominantly from the southwest. Occasionally, the region experiences stormy conditions from former cyclones which generally become much weaker once they leave tropical latitudes.

Northland is New Zealand's least urbanised region, with only some 50% of the population of 154,700 living in urban areas. Of these areas, Whangarei is the largest, with a population of 51,100 (June 2008 estimates).[1] Eight other centres have populations of over 1000: Russell, Kaitaia, Dargaville, Kaikohe, Paihia, Kerikeri, Taipa-Mangonui, and Kawakawa. The population is largely concentrated along the region's east coast. During the five year period up to 2006, Northland recorded a population growth of 6.0 percent, slightly below the national average. Northland includes one of the fastest growing towns in New Zealand, Mangawhai which is expanding rapidly due to residential and subsequent commercial development.

Over the last 10 years Northland's population has defied national (and worldwide) trends by becoming increasingly rural. Approximately one third of the region's population are Maori, the majority of the remainder being of European lineage. Compared to the rest of the country Pacific Islanders are under-represented in Northland. Although most of the region's European population are of British stock (as is true with the rest of the country), certain other ethnicities have left their mark on the Northland racial mix. Of these the most influential have probably been the Dalmatian community from the Dargaville area north, with a particularly strong heritage around Kaitaia.

Extensive forests are a feature of the Northland landscape. For this reason wood and paper manufacturing industries also make a large contribution to the region's economy.

Northland is a favourite tourist destination, especially to the Bay of Islands and the historic town of Kerikeri. Diving and fishing are also popular visitor activities, especially around the Bay of Islands and the Poor Knights island chain.

Northland is home to New Zealand's only oil refinery, at Marsden Point, close to Whangarei. New Zealand's natural fuel resources in Taranaki account for a little under half of the refinery's intake, with the rest coming predominantly from the Middle East. The nearby Marsden A thermal power station originally utilised heavy oil from the refinery for electricity production, but no longer does so.

Kaeo
The township of Kaeo lies some 22 km northwest of Kerikeri in Northland, New Zealand. The town takes its name from the unique shellfish found in the nearby Whangaroa Harbour. The 2006 New Zealand census reported a population of 495, unchanged from 2001. Kaeo has a Primary School with around 90 students and a College (High School).

Kawakawa
Kawakawa is a small town in the Northland Region of northern New Zealand. It had a population of 1350 at the 2006 census, down from 1401 in 2001. Kawakawa developed as a service town when coal was found in the area in 1861, but there is no longer coal mining here. The economy is based around farming. The town is known as "Train town", because the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway runs down the middle of its main street on the way to Opua (service is currently suspended). The town is also famous for its public toilets, designed by Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who was a resident of the town from 1975 until his death in 2000. Another attraction is the nearby Kawiti glowworm Caves at Waiomio.

Mangamuka
Mangamuka is a district in Northland, New Zealand, at the junction of the Mangamuka and Opurehu Rivers. State Highway 1 runs through the area, and the settlement of Mangamuka Bridge lies at the point where the highway crosses the Mangamuku River. The river runs into the upper Hokianga Harbour. Just to the north west, the highway runs through Mangamuka Gorge in the Maungataniwha Range. Umawera lies to the south east. Nga- Puhi chief Hongi Hika was shot in the lungs during a minor engagement on the shores of the Mangamuka River in January 1829. The wound eventually killed him. The first European surveyor on the Mangamuka River was von Sturmer. The first settlement was at Tutekehua in 1874, downstream from what later became Mangamuka Bridge. The settlers cleared the land, planted orchards, and grew grain. A fruit canning and jam making factory was established, although it no longer exists.The Mangamuka Forest survived the logging era with many giant kauri trees intact. In 1952 the Omahuta Kauri Sanctuary was set up to provide public access to the trees, with boardwalks built to both protect the tree roots and keep visitor's feet dry. The walk takes 30-45 minutes.

Bay of Islands
The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northland region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located 60 km north-west of Whangarei, it is close to the northern tip of the country. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for its big-game fishing since American author Zane Grey publicised it in the 1930s.The bay itself is an irregular 16 km-wide inlet in the north-eastern coast of the island. A natural harbour, it has several arms which extend into the land, notably Waikare Inlet in the south and Kerikeri and Te Puna (Mangonui) inlets in the north-west. The small town of Russell is located at the end of a short peninsula that extends into the bay from the southeast. Several islands lie to the north of this peninsula, notably Urupukapuka Island to the east and Moturoa Island to the north. The Purerua Peninsula extends to the west of the bay, north of Te Puna Inlet, and Cape Brett Peninsula extends 10 km into the Pacific Ocean at the eastern end of the bay.

Horeke
Horeke is a settlement in the upper reaches of the Hokianga harbour in Northland, New Zealand. Kohukohu is just across the harbour. The town was initially called Deptford after the Royal Navy shipyard in England. It was one of the first places settled by Europeans in New Zealand, with ship-building established in the late 1820s. David Ramsay and Gordon Davies Browne came from Sydney to set up a trading post and shipbuilding settlement about 1826] Three ships were built - a 40-ton schooner called Enterprise, a 140-ton brigantine called New Zealander, and the 394 (or 392)-ton barque Sir George Murray - but the firm went bankrupt in 1830. The Wesleyan missionary John Hobbs opened a mission at Mangungu, about a mile from the shipyard, in 1828.

Whangarei
Captain James Cook and the crew of the Endeavour were the first Europeans to contemplate the Whangarei Harbour entrance. On 15 November 1769 they caught about one hundred fish there which they classified as 'bream' (probably snapper) prompting Cook to name the area Bream Bay.

Nga- Puhi was the Maori iwi which occupied Whangarei from the early 19th century, and Te Parawhau was the hapu- living at the head of the harbour. In the 1820s the area was repeatedly attacked by Waikato and Nga-ti Paoa raiders during the Musket Wars.

The first European settler was William Carruth, a Scotsman and trader who arrived in 1839 and was joined, six years later, by Gilbert Mair and his family. For the most part, relations between the settlers and local Maori were friendly, but in February 1842, all settler farms were plundered in revenge for transgressions of tapu by one. In April 1845, during the Flagstaff War, all settlers fled from Whangarei. Most of the original settlers never returned, but by the mid 1850s there were a number of farmers and orchardists in the area. From 1855, a small town developed, driven by the kauri gum trade. Today's 'Town Basin' on the Hatea River was the original port and early exports included kauri gum and native timber followed later by coal from Whau Valley, Kamo and Hikurangi. Coal from the Kiripaka field was exported via the Ngunguru River. By 1864, the nucleus of the present city was established.

Fire bricks made from fire clay deposits near the Kamo mines supported a brick works over several decades. Good quality limestone was quarried at Hikurangi, Portland, and Limestone Island, and initially sold as agricultural lime and later combined with local coal to produce Portland cement at the settlement of Portland on the south side of the harbour. Local limestone is still used in cement manufacture but the coal is now imported from the West Coast of the South Island.

Whangarei was the most urbanised area in Northland towards the end of the 19th century, but grew slowly in the 20th century. The district slowly exhausted most of its natural resources but was sustained by agriculture, especially dairying. Shipping was the main transport link until the North Auckland railway line reached the town in 1925, and the road from Auckland was not suitable for travel in poor weather until 1934. These terrestrial travel routes forced a rapid decline in coastal shipping but stimulated Whangarei to become the service centre for Northland. The population was 14,000 in 1945, but grew rapidly in the 1960s, incorporating Kamo and other outlying areas. In 1965, Whangarei was declared a city. Its population the following year was 31,000.

The second half of the twentieth century brought the establishment and expansion of the oil refinery at Marsden Point on Bream Bay and the adjacent development of timber processing. A container port could follow, linked by rail to Auckland.

Bay of Islands
The first European to visit the area was Captain Cook, who named the region in 1769. The Bay of Islands was the first area in New Zealand to be settled by Europeans. Whalers arrived towards the end of the 18th century, while the first missionaries settled in 1814. The first full-blooded European child recorded as being born in the country, Thomas King, was born in 1815 at Oihi Bay in the Bay of Islands. (There have been unsubstantiated claims that a European girl was born earlier at the Dusky Sound settlement in the South Island.

The bay has many interesting historic towns including Paihia, Russell, Waitangi and Kerikeri. Russell, formerly known as Kororareka, was the first permanent European settlement in New Zealand, and dates from the early 1800s. Kerikeri contains many historic sites from the earliest European colonial settlement in the country. These include the Mission House, also called Kemp House, which is the oldest wooden structure still standing in New Zealand. The Stone Store, a former storehouse, is the oldest stone building in New Zealand, construction having begun on 19 April 1832.

In a 2006 study, the Bay of Islands was found to have the second bluest sky in the world, after Rio de Janeiro.