Mahurangi Regional Park is in the Mahurangi region, part of the wider Matakana Coast, on the northeast coast of Auckland. It is owned by Auckland City and is one of the 28 regional parks. Like many other parks, it combines working farms with historic homesteads, attractive beaches, patches of regenerating forest, and camping.
The park is situated on both sides of the entrance to Mahurangi Harbour, with the larger area, Mahurangi Regional Park West, located in Mahurangi West at the end of Ngarewa Drive. It is accessible via Mahurangi West Road from the Pōhuehue Road section of the Twin Coast Highway, between Puhoi and Warkworth. Mahurangi Regional Park East is towards the southern end of the Mahurangi Peninsula and is only accessible by boat. In addition, a small section of the park, located at Scotts Landing on the Mahurangi Peninsula, is accessible via Ridge Road. There is a wharf at the end of the road and a short boardwalk to the historic Scott Homestead with a lovely beach, overlooked by some of the largest macrocarpa trees (Monterey Cypress) in New Zealand. You can also walk to nearby DOC-controlled Casnell Island at low tide.
Mahurangi Regional Park West has three gorgeous bays surrounded by pōhutukawa trees: Otarawao (Sullivan’s) Bay, Otuawao (Mita) Bay, and Te Muri Bay. The Puhoi River mouth and Wenderholm Regional Park are south of Te Muri Bay.
Only Otarawao Bay has road access and extensive car parking. There are campsites available in the bay for tents and campervans. There is also a tent-only campground at Otuawao (Mita) Bay to the north of Otarawao Bay and south at Te Muri Bay. You need to walk or boat into these bays. Walking access to Te Muri Bay is two hours on either side of low tide.
At Scotts Landing, a bach is available for rent: Bailey’s Cottage. You can also take a boat to Mahurangi Regional Park East and stay at Big Bay Bach or Vine House, as well as the campsite at the north end of Lagoon Bay.
Several walking trails around the park's western section connect the bays and viewpoints. The steep 2.1 km Mita Bay Loop Track starts near the ark entrance, takes you to Otuawaea (Mita) Bay and connects with the short 1,2 km Tungutu Loop Track to Tungutu Point. This track, in turn, links with the 3 km Cudlip Point Loop Track, leading to Otarawao Bay, Cudlip Point, and the 3 km Te Muri Track to Te Muri Bay.
Over the past two decades, 120,000 trees have been planted to help restore the forests and bring back native birds. The best coastal forests are at Cudlip and Te Muri Points, with kānuka, taraire, pūriri, karaka, and kōwhai. As you wander the trails, you will also spot individual trees uniquely shaped by exposure to the coastal environment.
The western part of the park is part of the ancestral domain of Ngāti Rongo hapū. There are four pā sites: at Opahi, Cudlip, and Te Muri Points, and above Otarawao Bay. In 1844, the entrepreneurial ship owner John Sullivan settled at Te Muri and married Merehai, a Ngāti Rongo woman and member of the Makoare Ponui family, at Ōtarawao Bay. Sullivan resided in the bay with his family until the 1850s, when the court rejected his claim to land ownership in favour of the Hermera’s Reserve settlement. Although Sullivan left and acquired land on the Mahurangi Peninsula, now connected with the eastern part of the park, his family name was still associated with the bay, and his descendants returned there in the 1900s. Sullivan and over 100 Māori and European settlers are buried in the Te Muri urupā.
