Stretching 13 km from Gulf Harbour Marina in the east to New World Shopping Centre in the west, the Whangaparāoa Treasure Hunt walk is an invitation to slow down, look up, and discover the remarkable layers of history, culture, art, and nature that make this coastal peninsula such a special place to visit.
Whether you begin at the ferry landing at Gulf Harbour or step out from the New World carpark, whether you walk the whole trail in a day or explore it in stages over many visits, this trail has been designed for everyone - families, history buffs, art lovers, nature walkers, and curious explorers of all ages.
Along the way you will encounter eight checkpoints - each one a place worth pausing. Four are artworks commissioned or purchased especially for this trail, created by talented Auckland-based artists. The other four are landmarks and existing works that have long been part of the Peninsula’s character. Together, they thread the Peninsula’s story into a single, walkable narrative.
Before any trail was marked, before any road was built, the Whangaparāoa Peninsula was a place of deep significance for the tangata whenua, the people of the land. The Peninsula sits within the rohe of Ngāti Manuhiri, whose connection to these waters and shorelines stretches back many generations. Their ancestors were among the great Polynesian voyagers who navigated by the stars and the ocean swells to reach Aotearoa New Zealand, and their descendants have fished, farmed, and lived along these shores ever since.
The very name Whangaparāoa speaks to this heritage. Translated as ‘Bay of Sperm Whales’, it is said that the name travelled south from the East Cape, carried by the great waka Tainui on its epic coastal journey around Aotearoa. Whales have long been seen in the waters here, and strandings in the past were not uncommon, a reminder that the sea is always present and always powerful.
The Peninsula was a place of strategic importance, lying directly on the waka route between Northland and Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). Ngāti Kahu, the sub-tribe of Te Kawerau who occupied the Whangaparāoa district for centuries, established five pā (hillforts) along the Peninsula for protection, and their seasonal rhythm of fishing, gathering, cultivating and harvesting shaped the landscape. The Marutuahu Confederation from Hauraki sought control of the famous shark fishing grounds, the tauranga mango, that lay off the Peninsula’s northern coast, and the history of this place is one of movement, conflict, and ultimately, resilience.
At Matakatia Bay, Ngāti Kahu operated a waka portage across the narrowest point of the Peninsula. At Big Manly Beach, the West Pā Manly headland fortification commanded sweeping views of the coast. At Shakespear Regional Park, kumara pits and cultivation terraces can still be seen today. These are not simply historical footnotes, they are living connections to the people who shaped this land and whose whakapapa (genealogy) is woven into every bay and headland.
Our Treasure Hunt follows the Peninsula from west to east (or east to west — the choice is yours). You can walk it all in one go, covering the full 13 km, or treat it as a series of shorter adventures, returning each season to discover what has changed, what new specials local businesses are offering, and what new competitions and stories have appeared along the way.
The trail passes through neighbourhoods and village centres, along beachfronts and past reserves, over headlands with views across the Hauraki Gulf to Rangitoto Island and our Gulf Islands. It passes places where Ngāti Kahu once camped and fished, where early European settlers built their first homesteads, close to the bays where holidaymakers once arrived by steamer, and where a thriving modern community now lives. Every step carries a story.
At each of the eight checkpoints, you will find signage linking you to artwork information, local history, and QR codes that unlock a world of additional content including artist biographies, environmental stories about the Hauraki Gulf, business specials from nearby shops, hospitality outlets and businesses, competitions, and a comprehensive trail map.
Each checkpoint is a treasure in itself. A place with a story, a piece of art or a landmark, and a link to the community around it.
The western end of the trail begins at New World Shopping Centre, a bustling modern hub that stands at the point where the future Penlink will bring travellers onto the Peninsula from the O Mahurangi crossing. But the land beneath this carpark has a long history: from original Māori land to European farmland, through a small industrial development, before New World opened here in December 2015.
Here you will find Kate Hursthouse’s joyful sculpture ‘Paraoa: A Splash of Colour’. A vibrant whale tail rising from its plinth in an abstract swirl of colour and movement. The bubbles and bright hues are an interpretation of the playful energy of whales as they breach, spin, and flick their flukes through the waters of the Hauraki Gulf. Paraoa means whale in te reo Māori, and this work celebrates the living creatures that gave Whangaparāoa its name.
Scan the QR code for our Treasures and to read about the critically endangered Bryde’s Whale in the Hauraki Gulf and what is being done to protect it.
Continuing east, the trail reaches Stanmore Bay, one of the Peninsula’s most beautiful beaches and the site of its earliest European settlement. In 1857, Henry and Mary Glanville arrived from New South Wales to farm the land here, planting corn and wheat, fishing for pilchards, and making a home on the edge of the Pacific. The original homestead still stands today on the beachside and is a private home, one of very few precious links to those first pioneering years.
The checkpoint here is the beautifully decorated changing block at Stanmore Bay beach. The mural was created by artist Anna Evans working alongside 28 local children aged 8 to 18. A project that won first place in the Resene Community Mural Masterpieces competition in 2013. Rich with pohutukawa trees and native birds, it captures the classic New Zealand seascape that defines this coastline.
Head east towards the playground to also find the tiny Stanmore Bay Anglican cemetery, a quiet and moving reminder of some early residents who have enjoyed Whangaparāoa as their home.
The town centre marks the commercial heart of the Peninsula - a role it has held since 1916 when William Polkinghorne the younger built the first store on the hill between Arkles and Manly. The Pacific Plaza complex (now Coast Plaza) that anchors the modern town centre opened in 1995, and the Library stands today as a community hub at its heart.
Outside the Library stands Susannah Law’s striking pillar artwork ‘Bay of Whales’. Sailing, shellfish gathering, the islands of Rangitoto and Tiritiri Matangi, the goddess Hinemoana breathing life into the sea. The artwork layers the local history and marine life of Whangaparāoa into a single, richly detailed composition. Hinemoana, whose name translates as ‘Ocean Woman’, is the Māori personification of the sea and a powerful symbol of the deep relationship between these people and these waters.
Manly Park sits beside Big Manly Beach, one of the Peninsula’s most loved swimming spots. High on the western headland above the beach, the West Pā Manly once stood - one of Ngāti Kahu’s five protective settlements, commanding a sweeping view across the coast in every direction from which hostile waka might approach.
Tim Workman’s sculpture ‘Kaimoana: Kina on the Coast’ honours the long tradition of gathering kina (sea urchin) from the Peninsula’s reefs. The intricate, spiky forms of these twin sculptures rise on slender stainless steel stems, celebrating the kina as both a treasured kai (food) and an icon of coastal life. The work is inspired by the sight of Māori whānau collecting kina on the reefs, a practice passed down through generations and a living expression of kaitiakitanga (environmental guardianship).
Scan the QR code to discover what is happening to kina populations in the Hauraki Gulf today, and what you can do to help. And don’t miss the special offer from Hibiscus JetSki Hire & Tours nearby, scan the QR code to discover the current deal and others in the vicinity.
Manly Village is the trail’s midpoint and a natural place to pause, enjoy a coffee, and celebrate how far you’ve come. The village grew up in the mid-twentieth century to serve the expanding population of both the northern and southern bays, drawn here by the nearby wharf at Little Manly from which steamers once arrived from Auckland.
On the wall of the dairy as you enter from Whangaparāoa Road, Adam Driver’s sweeping mural ‘Orca Varius Natoque’ fills the building with life. Though the name has no direct literal translation, the work offers a beautiful and joyful depiction of the cetaceans that call the Hauraki Gulf home with dolphins gliding through cool blue water lit by shafts of sunlight. Whangaparāoa and the surrounding waters are one of the richest areas for cetacean life in the Gulf, and this mural is a daily reminder of the extraordinary marine world just offshore.
The large trail map here at the Village’s noticeboard is a useful waypoint. Check your progress, pick up a brochure, and scan the QR code to discover what local businesses are offering trail participants.
As the trail approaches the eastern half of the Peninsula, it reaches Matakatia Bay, a place of layered names and layered histories. Ngāti Kahu operated a waka portage here, taking advantage of the Peninsula’s narrowest point to carry their vessels overland between the northern and southern shores, bypassing the long journey around the Peninsula’s tip. The Pā that overlooked this activity sat atop the high cliffs above the bay - a strategic vantage point with views in all directions.
Standing offshore is Kotanui Island — ‘kota nui’ in te reo Māori, meaning ‘big cockleshell’. The name speaks to the abundance of cockles, pipis and other shellfish that have been harvested from this bay for centuries. Pākehā settlers knew it as Frenchman’s Cap; today many know it simply as Shark Fin Island for its dramatic silhouette against the sky. Whatever you call it, this ancient rock stack is one of the most distinctive natural landmarks on the Peninsula’s coast.
The bay itself was known as Tindalls Bay until the 1940s, when the Māori name Matakatia came back into use, a restoration of a name that carries the memory of the people who were here first.
Gulf Harbour Village was designed in the 1990s as New Zealand’s answer to the Italian village of Portofino. A waterfront community built around a marina, with the clock tower and rotunda as its beating heart. The land here was originally cultivated by the local tribe, the Ngati Kahu, growing kumara, gourd, yams and taro. Later it was farmed by Europeans, first by Ranulph Dacre who cleared it in the 1860s, then by the Shakespear family, and later by Jack Hobbs - whose name gave the original name of Hobbs Bay to this stretch of coastline.
The Hobbs family sold the land in the early 1970s, and the vision of a marina and village development began to take shape. Gulf Harbour Village opened in the mid-1990s and has become a recognisable destination with its distinctive architecture and the marina’s forest of masts. The white rotunda and its adjacent clock tower are today iconic landmarks in the heart of the village.
The trail ends - or begins, depending on your direction - at Gulf Harbour Marina, one of the largest marinas in the Southern Hemisphere with over 1,000 berths. The ferry from Auckland arrives here, and it is fitting that the trail’s eastern anchor is a work that celebrates the art of navigation itself.
Dean Morris’s ‘Te Kāpehu Whētu — The Māori Star Compass’ is a work of extraordinary craftsmanship and meaning. Te Kāpehu Whētu was used by Polynesian navigators to memorise the rising and setting points of more than 200 stars, dividing the 360-degree horizon into 32 whare (houses) to guide waka across thousands of kilometres of open ocean. It is the technology that brought the ancestors of Ngāti Manuhiri to Aotearoa, and it is the symbol with which this trail’s story ends.
The old and the new. The trail stretches between a modern shopping centre and a modern marina, but threaded between them is a story that stretches back hundreds of years - of people who found their way here by the stars, who built pā on headlands and grew kumara in fertile valleys, who arrived by steamer and built baches from salvaged timber, and who today make this Peninsula a special and beautiful New Zealand community.
Part of the joy of the Whangaparāoa Treasure Hunt is that not all its treasures are found through its signposts. Keep your eyes open as you walk. Along the trail you will find hidden gems - a sculpture, an unexpected view, a tucked-away mural, the gnarled roots of a tree being a sacred know binding earth to sky that you might otherwise pass by without a second glance. These hidden treasures are part of what makes each walk different, and each season a new reason to return.
When you find one, post a photo with the hashtag #whangaparaoatreasurehunt on Instagram. You might just win a prize.
The Treasure Hunt is more than a walk. It is a way of connecting the people who use the trail with the businesses that make the Whangaparāoa community thrive. At each checkpoint, you can scan the second QR code to discover what local businesses are offering trail participants - exclusive deals, discounts and experiences some of which change regularly, giving you a reason to explore the trail again and again.
To redeem a special, simply scan the QR code, find the matching image inside the participating business, and enjoy. It’s simple, fun, and a way to make sure that the treasure you find on this trail supports the people and places that make it possible.
The Hauraki Gulf is one of the most biodiverse marine environments in the Southern Hemisphere. Orca, Bryde’s whales, dolphins, penguins, gannets, sharks and rays all call these waters home. The reefs are rich with kina, pāua, crayfish and snapper. But this extraordinary environment is under pressure from overfishing, pollution, sedimentation, and the impacts of a rapidly growing coastal population.
At each checkpoint, the QR codes also link you to information about one specific environmental issue of concern around the Gulf, from the plight of the Bryde’s whale to the kina barren problem on our reefs, from the work of Forest & Bird on the Hibiscus Coast to the challenge of ocean sprawl. The trail is an invitation not just to discover, but to understand and to care.
The Whangaparāoa Treasure Hunt is a story told in eight stops and thirteen kilometres but its real treasure is not something you find at the end of the trail. It is the accumulation of small discoveries: a kina shell detail you had never noticed, the name of a bay you walk past every day, the face of Hinemoana in a pillar of art, a star compass that guided a people across half the world to arrive here, on this shore, at this moment.
Sail away from your safe harbour. Catch the wind in your sails.
EXPLORE. DREAM. DISCOVER.