New Zealand · The Far North
Northland
The warmest corner of the country, the finest gamefishing with a strong Māori influence.
The Region
Northland is the warmest corner of New Zealand, and its most spiritual. Cape Reinga, where the Tasman meets the Pacific, is the place Māori souls depart the world; Tāne Mahuta, the kauri king of the forest, has stood in the Waipoua forest for well over a thousand years. Between them lie empty golden beaches, the diving grounds of the Poor Knights, and the hundred-and-forty-odd islands of the Bay of Islands.
We design the far north slowly. It rewards a private boat more than a schedule, a long lunch more than a checklist. The people who hold its stories, from kauri guardians to skippers who know which bay will be empty, are people we have spent twenty-five years getting to know.
We will not list everything we do here. Three moments give the flavour; the rest emerges in conversation.
01
A Moment We Design
The Poor Knights, from the water
Jacques Cousteau put the Poor Knights Islands in his global top ten — the only non-tropical dive site on the list. A marine reserve for fifty years, the islands drop sheer into fish-thick water warmed by the East Auckland current. You go by private charter out of Tutukaka; you snorkel, dive, or simply drift the archways while lunch is set on deck.
02
A Moment We Design
A day under sail in the Bay
The Bay of Islands is best understood the way it was always travelled — under sail. A crewed yacht for your party alone, an island beach chosen for the day’s wind, a picnic put ashore, and the kind of afternoon where nobody checks the time. In the evening, the water to yourself.
03
A Moment We Design
The pink beach
Below the cliffs at the top of the country sits a shell-pink beach reached by farm track and quad. Private land, private sand. We arrange the picnic; the Pacific does the rest. It is the kind of place the far north keeps quietly up its sleeve.
The Region, In Pictures
A catamaran anchored off Waewaetorea in the Bay of Islands
When To Come
The season is part of the design
They call it the winterless north for a reason. October to May is the long season, with the water warmest from February, the anchorages busiest in the school holidays and quiet again by the first week of February.
Winter is mild, green and almost empty, and the fishing barely notices the calendar. If your journey leans to walking and forest rather than swimming, June to September is a quietly excellent time to come.
Where You Might Stay
The lodges that live here
A handful of the places we place guests in Northland. Each carries a dossier: who it suits, the nights it deserves, how we set it inside a journey.
Design your journey
Tell us what pulled at you here. We'll design the journey around it, with the right people waiting when the helicopter lands.
Start a Conversation