The Matakana Coast
The land
Bishop Lane runs along the inner end of the Tāwharanui Peninsula, on its western, landward side, above Buckleton Beach and facing Kawau Bay. Over the ridge to the north lies Whangateau Harbour. Eight kilometres east, the peninsula runs out through Tāwharanui Regional Park to Takatū Point. Bluestone's properties sit on this neck of land, between the sheltered harbour and the open bay.
For most of the last century this was farmland. The land along Bishop Lane was Bishophill Farm, held by the Buckleton family, whose name the beach below still carries: J. G. Buckleton bought here in 1954 and laid out the first holiday houses at Buckleton Beach in 1957. The neighbouring bays, Baddeleys and Campbells, are named for farming families in the same way. Earlier, from the 1870s, the wider peninsula was farmed, milled for kauri, cut for mānuka firewood, and quarried for shingle. In 1973 the outer peninsula became a regional park, and today it is an open sanctuary where kiwi call at night.
The land has a far older story. Ngāti Manuhiri are mana whenua of Tāwharanui, Whangateau and Ōmaha, and their historical claims were settled with the Crown in the Ngāti Manuhiri Claims Settlement Act 2012. That history is theirs to tell, and it is told with them on Te Hikoi o Ponui, the heritage trail at Tāwharanui Regional Park, twenty minutes from the estate.
Open sanctuary: white-sand beach, native bush, marine reserve, kiwi at night.
Saturday mornings, the heart of the area. Go early.
Long white-sand surf beach, ten minutes.
Snorkel with snapper, glass-bottom boat, at Leigh.
Photo: Korkut Tas, CC BY-SA 3.0
Winery, restaurant, and a sculpture trail through native bush.
Craft beer, grazing plates, casual.
Mansion House by water taxi or skippered boat.
Forty minutes by car, ten by helicopter.
Getting here
Guests arrive quickly and arrive somewhere else entirely: produce-driven restaurants, boutique shops, vineyards and Saturday markets, oyster farms and surf beaches, island ferries and sculpture trails.
Bluestone Estate champions the coast as much as it hosts you on it. Ask us for the places we love.
Bluestone