Is Whangārei worth visiting from Ruakākā? Yes. Thirty minutes north of Ruakākā, Whangārei offers the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery, the Town Basin marina waterfront with its cafes and galleries, the 26 metre Whangārei Falls, treetop boardwalks among kauri at AH Reed Park, the charming Claphams Clock Museum and the region's main shopping and dining.
The Town Basin and the golden dome
Whangārei's heart is its Town Basin, where ocean going yachts moor in the middle of the city and a boardwalk loops the Hātea River past cafes, galleries and craft markets. Rising over it all is the Hundertwasser Art Centre, the last building authorised by the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who lived out his years in Northland: a hand laid mosaic of colour crowned with a golden dome and an afforested roof, with not a deliberately straight line in the place. Inside, the Wairau Māori Art Gallery gives contemporary Māori art a dedicated national stage.
Allow a slow morning for the building, the rooftop and the Basin, with lunch at one of the waterfront tables watching the yachts. Claphams National Clock Museum next door, home to well over a thousand ticking, chiming, cuckooing timepieces, is the city's most cheerfully eccentric half hour.
Falls, forest and the practical city
Ten minutes from the centre, Whangārei Falls drops a curtain of water 26 metres over basalt cliffs into a swimming hole ringed by forest, with viewing platforms top and bottom and an easy loop walk. From the falls, the Hātea walkway leads through to AH Reed Memorial Park, where a boardwalk lifts you into the canopy beside 500 year old kauri, one of the easiest great forest experiences in the north.
Whangārei is also where Bream Bay does its serious shopping: supermarkets, hardware, outdoor gear, a cinema and the hospital all live here, which makes the city run a practical pairing with the fun. From Ruakākā it is an easy 30 minute hop up State Highway 1, with the Heads scenic drive available as the long way home.
