The Karikari Peninsula on the east coast of the far north of Northland,

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 ...

, is between

Rangaunu Harbour Rangaunu Harbour is a shallow harbour in the far north of New Zealand. It is situated on the east coast at the base of the Aupouri Peninsula. The name in Māori language, Māori means "To pull out a shoal of fish". With an area of it is the fifth ...

to the west, and

Doubtless Bay Doubtless Bay is a bay on the east coast of the Northland Region, north-east of Kaitaia, in New Zealand. It extends from Knuckle Point on Karikari Peninsula in the north to Berghan Point at Hihi in the south. There are rocky headlands, backed by ...

to the southeast. It is a right-angled land mass of two relatively distinct parts. The rocky northern part, which has an east–west orientation and is approximately 17 km long, was originally an island but is now connected to the mainland by a low sandy

tombolo A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. A tombolo, from the Italian ', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ''ayre'' (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind), is a deposition landform by which an island become ...

approximately 11 km long, which has a north–south orientation. The spiritually significant Puwheke sits high above the north-facing beaches.

Demographics

Karikari Peninsula covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Karikari Peninsula had a population of 1,251 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 87 people (7.5%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 309 people (32.8%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 465 households, comprising 630 males and 624 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.01 males per female. The median age was 51.8 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 225 people (18.0%) aged under 15 years, 123 (9.8%) aged 15 to 29, 579 (46.3%) aged 30 to 64, and 324 (25.9%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 69.5% European/Pākehā, 44.4% Māori, 5.8% Pacific peoples, 1.4% Asian, and 1.9% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas was 10.3, compared with 27.1% nationally. Of those people who chose to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 45.8% had no religion; 43.9% were Christian; 2.2% had Māori religious beliefs; Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism each had 0.2% as adherents; and 1.6% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 96 (9.4%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 222 (21.6%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $22,400, compared with $31,800 nationally. 81 people (7.9%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 399 (38.9%) people were employed full-time, 165 (16.1%) were part-time, and 63 (6.1%) were unemployed.

History and culture

The local iwi are

Ngāti Kahu Ngāti Kahu is a Māori iwi of Northland, New Zealand. The iwi is one of the six Muriwhenua iwi of the far north of the North Island. Ngāti Kahu take their name from their founding ancestress, Kahutianui, and link their ancestry back to the wak ...

. In

Māori mythology Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern fantastic tales relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pr ...

, the

waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori w ...

Waipapa Waipapa is a small town in the Bay of Islands, Northland, New Zealand. It is around 10 minutes drive from Kerikeri, the nearest urban centre to Waipapa, located on State Highway 10. Waipapa itself has no school and most people travel into Ke ...

, captained by Kaiwhetu and Wairere, made its first landing in New Zealand at Karikari. The two largest settlements are

Whatuwhiwhi Whatuwhiwhi is a settlement at the northern end of Tokerau Beach, on the Karikari Peninsula of Northland, New Zealand. To the south is Doubtless Bay. Kaitaia is about 39 km away. There are three shaded and sandy coves. Swimming is safe, bu ...

, which is situated the south side of the north-eastern part of the peninsula, and nearby

Tokerau Beach Tokerau Beach is a settlement on the northwestern side of Doubtless Bay on the Karikari Peninsula of Northland, New Zealand. Demographics Statistics New Zealand describes Tokerau Beach as a rural settlement. It covers . Tokerau Beach is part o ...

, which lies at the northern end of the eastern side of the sandy strip. Maitai Bay (formerly called Matai Bay) on the northeast coast and Rangiputa on the west coast are popular tourist destinations. The tombolo once had

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now largely res ...

forests, but in the 1960s the only vegetation was short scrub, some

gorse ''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are n ...

and

wīwī Wīwī is a common name for several species of New Zealand rushes and sedges whose individual plants grow as a clump with wire-like stems. The name ''wīwī'' has been adopted in English from the Māori language. *''Ficinia nodosa'', knobby club-ru ...

(rushes)."Doubtless Bay"
An Encyclopedia of New Zealand 1966, ''Te Ara''. Retrieved 12 December 2011. Grapes are grown on the northern side of Karikari.

Marae

The Karikari Peninsula has two

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

affiliated with

hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...

. Haiti-tai-marangai Marae and meeting house are affiliated with Te Rorohuri / Te Whānau Moana. Werowero Marae is affiliated with

Ngāti Tara ki Werowero Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

Notes

{{Far North District Far North District Populated places in the Northland Region Tombolos Peninsulas of the Northland Region