Panorama taken from the seafront at Whitianga. The picutre overlooks parts of Mercury Bay and Long Beach.

Whitianga - Coromandel Peninsula visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Whitianga' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from Waikato.

Whitianga is a popular seaside resort town on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. Whitianga is on Mercury Bay, popular for big game fishing, and Whitianga Harbour harbours many pleasure boats and yachts.

Whitianga was settled in 950 by the Kupe of the Maori. The original name for the town is Te Whitianga a Kupe (Kupe's crossing place). Historic industries included boat building, kauri milling, flax milling, gold mining and gum digging. Today, tourism is playing an important role with thousands visiting each year to use Whitanga as a base to explore the Coromandel Peninsula. At a result, the town now has many hotels and motels to cater for the tourist trade and a growing number of restaurants, shops and cafes.

Whitinaga itself also has a sandy beach that lines the seafront, called Long Beach. A small passenger ferry from Whitianga Quay crosses the harbour entrance to Ferry Landing which provides access to Shakespeare Reserve, Shakespeare Cliff and Lonely Bay next to Cooks Beach.

Whitianga is on Highway 25, 208 km from Auckland, 93 km from Thames, 42 km from Tairua.