Coromandel, NZ

Long-running Coromandel Town fixture in a wooden colonial building, courtyard built around the century-old tree it's named after. Local oysters, mussels, market fish and a decent regional wine list — the default nicer dinner in town.

Daytime cafe and dinner spot just off Coromandel Town's main strip, with a leaning towards craft beer and shared plates. Garlic mussels and the lamb dumplings are what regulars rebook for.

Manuka-smoked fish out the back, retail counter at the front, a few tables for those who can't wait until they get to the bach. The smoked kahawai pate is the most-bought thing in town, and rightly so.

Restored 1900s timber church on Hahei's main road, now a candlelit bistro doing wood-fired pizzas, simple Italian-leaning mains and one of the better wine lists in the area. Date-night register, kid-friendly at the early sitting.

Marina-side restaurant doing tapas, mid-priced mains and serious cocktails with sunset views straight up the harbour. Less ambitious cooking than Peppertree but a better room and a long deck.

Tiny pan-Asian dinner-only room run by a couple who cook everything themselves — Thai curries, Vietnamese-leaning salads, Malay-style noodles. Tight menu, sharp execution, BYO friendly.

Beachfront cafe-pub on Buffalo Beach in Whitianga: burgers, beer-battered fish, big chips, brunch through dinner. Not aiming high but the deck is right on the sand and the kitchen turns out the same plate at 11am or 8pm.

Quirky daytime cafe and weekend live-music room in Flaxmill Bay, across the harbour from Whitianga. Hearty brunch plates, big slices, art on every wall — and frequent acoustic gigs on Saturday nights.

Mexican street-food kitchen on the Ferry Landing side, painted bright and small enough that you order at the window. Tacos and burritos done quickly, with margaritas you carry to the picnic tables outside.

Faux-Irish pub on Whitianga's harbour, but the kitchen does honest pub plates — fish and chips, lamb shanks, a respectable Guinness pie — and the wraparound deck has one of the better water views in town.

Vegetarian, mostly organic, off-grid cafe a short drive north of Coromandel Town. Tofu burgers, herbal teas, garden seating under a kauri canopy — the kind of place that exists in a few specific corners of New Zealand and nowhere else.

Hahei brewery and gastropub in a garden setting on Grange Road, brews on site, smokes its own brisket out the back. Serves the closest thing the peninsula has to a craft-beer destination, plus loaded plates that suit the IPAs.

Wood-fired pizzeria on Tairua's main strip, run by an Italian pizzaiolo who proofs the 00-flour dough two days and fires it hot and fast. Tight menu of classic pizzas plus housemade tiramisu and panna cotta — the destination Italian on this side of the peninsula.

Tairua main-street kitchen leaning modern NZ — seafood chowder, lamb rump, dessert pavlova, all done without fuss. The first-pick lunch on this side of the peninsula when you want something more than a cafe counter.

The clifftop track winds from Grange Road through pohutukawa-shaded saddles down to the limestone archway. About 2.5km each way; allow 90 minutes return and time to swim.

Forty-five minutes one way from the north end of Whangapoua Beach, scrambling over a rocky headland into a chunk of unbuilt coastal bush, then down to one of the best beaches in the country.

Classic Kauaeranga Valley climb to the Pinnacles Hut and the rocky summit, by way of a stone-paved packhorse track laid by kauri-gum diggers a century ago. Most do it as an overnight; very fit walkers turn it as a long day.

Short loop above Cooks Beach to a clifftop lookout, with side spurs down to Lonely Bay and Flaxmill Bay. Half an hour for the lookout alone; an hour and a half if you do both bay drops.

Up at the peninsula's northern tip, this 10km one-way walk crosses ridge-tops and farmland between two end-of-the-road bays. The most remote-feeling track in the region and surprisingly graded — moderate, not hard.

Twenty-minute uphill from a Tairua suburban street to the volcanic plug above the harbour, with 360-degree views over the bar, the bay and the Mercury Islands. Short, sharp, and the best view-for-effort ratio on the peninsula.

Adult-only geothermal complex built into landscaped lagoons a few minutes from central Whitianga, with a spa and a restaurant attached. The water is real (drilled to a deep mineral aquifer), the setting is tropical-cosplay, the result is restorative.

Narrow-gauge railway hand-built by the potter Barry Brickell up the side of a hill of native bush north of Coromandel Town — switchbacks, tunnels and a viewing tower at the top. Add the zipline circuit through the same canopy for a half day.

Wonderfully strange water-powered theme park on the 309 Road, all the contraptions built from old kitchen knives, washing machines, bicycles, toilets. Half a day for kids; an hour of bemused appreciation for grown-ups.

Two-hour cruise from Hahei Beach into the marine reserve around Cathedral Cove and the surrounding sea caves. Quicker, drier and rougher than kayaking; better for kids and non-paddlers.

Half-day double-kayak paddle from Hahei Beach round to the cove, with stops in sea caves and time to swim under the arch. Guided in small groups, suitable for first-timers in calm conditions.

Compact local-history museum in Whitianga's old butter factory, covering Cook's 1769 landing, kauri logging, the gold years and the bay's modern fishing fleet. Volunteer-run; the staff are the value.

The limestone archway that Narnia made famous, at the end of a clifftop track in from Grange Road that's the way most people see it. Arriving by boat from Hahei dodges the walk and the parking lottery.

Geothermal water bubbles up through the sand at one specific stretch south of the rocky outcrop, and visitors dig their own shallow tubs in the two-hour window either side of low tide. Strange ritual, surprisingly fun.

Hidden behind a 30-minute coastal scramble from Whangapoua, this unbuilt crescent of white sand backs onto untouched bush. Named in more than one 'world's best deserted beaches' list, and on a weekday morning it still mostly lives up to it.

Long sweep of pale sand on the peninsula's east coast, mostly bach holidays and dog walks — and the staging point for the New Chums walk at the far north end.

Salmon-pink sand crushed from broken shells, a string of pohutukawa for shade, and the village trailhead for kayak and boat tours to Cathedral Cove. The default beach day for visitors who don't want to drive far.

Small community museum in the old Whitianga dairy factory, telling the kauri-logging, Cook-landing and gold-rush story of the bay in a single morning. Heavy on artefacts, light on interpretation panels — exactly the kind of local museum that grows on you.

Tiny scoop of sand below Shakespeare Cliff, accessed only by a short steep bush path. Sheltered, shallow, almost always empty — the swim Cooks Beach locals do when the main beach is too windy.