What is Waipu known for? Waipu, 15 minutes south of Ruakākā, is famous for its extraordinary Scottish heritage: around 900 Highland Scots settled here in the 1850s after a double migration via Nova Scotia, a story told in the village's award winning museum. Today Waipu pairs that history with the longest running Highland Games in the Southern Hemisphere, good cafes, craft beer and a celebrated bakery.
The double migration
Waipu's founding story reads like fiction. In the early 1800s, hundreds of Highland Scots cleared from their lands followed the formidable preacher Norman McLeod across the Atlantic to Nova Scotia. When famine struck a generation later, the community built its own ships and sailed again, halfway around the world, eventually landing here in the 1850s. Around 900 settlers arrived in six ships, and their surnames still fill the local phone book.
The Waipu Museum on the main street tells the saga superbly and has the awards to prove it, weaving original artefacts, ship models and personal stories into one of provincial New Zealand's best small museums. Allow a good hour.
The village today
Modern Waipu wears its tartan lightly. The main street mixes a famously good bakery, cafes, a craft brewery taproom, galleries and boutique stores, all walkable in ten minutes and best enjoyed slower. On New Year's Day the village swells for the Waipu Highland Games, running annually since 1871, where caber tossing, pipe bands and Highland dancing take over Caledonian Park.
Waipu also makes a natural base camp for the surrounding attractions: Waipu Cove's swimming beach is minutes away, the glowworms of Waipu Caves are up the valley road, and the riverside walkway offers a flat stroll with birdlife. From Ruakākā, the village slots perfectly into a southern half day loop with Langs Beach.
