Bream Head is a promontory on the east coast of Northland in the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Located at the end of a 30 kilometre-long peninsula, the head juts into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

to the southeast of

Whangārei Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the regional capital of Northland Region. It is part of the Whangarei District, Whangārei District, a local body created in 1989 from the former Whangārei City, Whangārei County and ...

. The

Hen and Chicken Islands The Hen and Chicken Islands (usually known collectively as the ''Hen and Chickens'') lie to the east of the North Auckland Peninsula off the coast of northern New Zealand. They lie east of Bream Head and south-east of Whangarei with a total ...

are located off the headland at a distance of 12 kilometres. Bream Head features a prominent bluff 490 metres in height, the remains of a

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

andesitic volcano. It forms the northern extremity of

Bream Bay Bream Bay is an embayment and area south-east of Whangārei, on the east coast of New Zealand. The bay runs from Bream Head, at the mouth of Whangārei Harbour, 22 kilometres south to the headland of Bream Tail, east of Langs Beach and north ...

, and guards the entrance to

Whangārei Harbour Whangārei Harbour is a large harbour on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The harbour stretches from Whangārei City, and the termination of the Hātea River, south east around the Onerahi peninsula and out to the Pacific Oce ...

, a natural inlet extending to the northwest. The

Marsden Point Oil Refinery Marsden Point Oil Refinery is a 96,000 BPD refinery located at Marsden Point, Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand. It is the only oil refinery in New Zealand, and is operated by Refining NZ. The point was named after Samuel Marsden. The regional sur ...

is located on the opposing shore of the harbour five kilometres to the west. To Bream Head's immediate North is a long sandy beach called Ocean Beach.

Gallery

Image:Ocean_Beach, Northland, New_Zealand.jpg, Ocean Beach, looking South Image:Ocean_Beach, Northland, New_Zealand2.jpg, Ocean Beach, looking North Image:Bream Head end.jpg, The eastern tip of Bream Head Image:Bream Head.jpg, Bream Head, viewed from the south Whangarei District Headlands of the Northland Region Volcanic plugs of New Zealand Volcanoes of the Northland Region {{Northland-geo-stub