BROOK SABIN/STUFF
New Zealand s tiny towns are home to some of our best hidden gems, from an emerald lake, to cliffs that look like they re from the moon.
New Year’s Day may seem like an odd time to put together a guide to New Zealand’s oldest towns. But with many of us either on holiday or planning one, we’re hoping it’ll come in handy. Not just for history buffs, our oldest settlements include a former booze and brothel mecca now doing a roaring trade in jet boat rides and island-hopping cruises, a smallholder farm service town turned wining, dining and shopping hub, and New Zealand’s answer to the French Riviera. Plus arguably the best place in Aotearoa to get a bellyful of fresh kai moana.
Cape Reinga Lighthouse is one of New Zealand’s most-visited and photographed lighthouses. The famous Cape Reinga Lighthouse does more than just look pretty in a picture – it has an important job, providing one of the first lights ships will see as they approach New Zealand. Built in 1941, it replaced a lighthouse on nearby Motuopao Island which, because of its remote location, had become too dangerous to service – a few years earlier, the wife of an assistant lighthouse keeper was swept off the rocks. The new lighthouse at Cape Reinga was the last staffed lighthouse built in New Zealand, and had two keepers up until 1987, when it was automated.