Whakanewha Regional Park

Whakanewha Regional Park is located on the southern coast of Waiheke Island. Covering 270 hectares the park, is comprised mainly of bush with some mature stands of trees and a large wetland.

There are many walking tracks within the park the most notable being the track to the pa site above the beach and the walk to the Cascades. The Cascades are a series of cascading waterfalls, said by some to be behind the naming of the island - Waiheke or falling water. Some claim this is erroneous.

The land was bought by the Auckland Regional Council in the 1990s after a campaign led by then-Gulf News editor Jim Eagles and others, including now-chairman of the ARC Mike Lee and left-wing politico Peter Lee (no relation).

Its foreshore comprises two beaches. Just behind the more western of the two sits a large pohutukawa knows locally as the Wedding Tree. The site can be book for functions, including weddings.

The western beach is also the nesting ground each year for several pairs of the highly endangered northern New Zealand dotterel. Only about 1400 of the bird, endemic to New Zealand, remain. A protection society, called Guardians of the Dotterels and manned by volunteers was established on Waiheke to help protect the breeding site. Dogs are prohibited from the beach and beach-users strongly encouraged to avoid getting too close to the sensitive birds which lay their eggs in shallow scrapes in the sand.

The island's only public campsite is just behind the eastern beach at Poukaraka Flats.

The park's resident ranger is long-term islander Andy Spence, who is also these days the ARC's biodiversity officer for Waiheke.

The Cascades