Holiday ideas for culture vultures, art buffs + foddie lovers
Winter is banished in Kerikeri. The choice of what you do ranges from heritage exploration or tapping into the local art scene.
Kerikeri with its direct flight connections to Auckland is a perfect weekend escape for art buffs, a lazy weekend where you can simply collapse with a good book into garden spaces or take leisurely walks around Kerikeri finding heritage nuggets.
Best time to visit Kerikeri
Year round
Getting to Kerikeri
Fly from Auckland
Drive to Kerikeri
In several hours you pass ancient Kauri trees, farms and towns such as Whangarei with a wealth of temptations to stop and stay awhile and rolling farmland. Glorious quintessential kiwi scenery.
Weather in Kerikeri
https://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/locations/kerikeri
Kerikeri’s Highlights
- Kororipo Heritage Precinct
- Wharepuke Sculpture Garden
- Little Black Gallery
- Art Glass Studio & Penny Ryan Design
- Dinner at Maha
Culture & heritage Kororipo Heritage Park
Stroll through history and walk in the footsteps of human occupation. It is an extraordinary place for both locals and overseas visitors as artefacts, buildings and archaelogical elements create a visitor lived in experience. You are spoiled for choice what to do and see.
Kororipo Heritage Park is at the end of Kerikeri Inlet. The precinct is home to Stone Store, Kemp House, Kororipo Pa and Rewa’s Village. Aotearoa’s modern identity was forged in this area, it is where Maori and Europeans interacted and lived together. Visitors can easily spend half a day mulling over goods in the Stone Store, wondering about people’s lives in Kemp House and watching the placid waters of the inlet.
Stone Store
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Kemp House
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Kororipo Pa
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Rewa’s Village
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Art Galleries, the excitement of entering a creative space. Buzz, the pleasure of decorative objects and art works. The cool blues and greens of the New Zealand landscape, the vibrant burst of a floral palate, the use of blacks, grays and half tone whites bring to mind the place the artists call home. Kerikeri will not disappoint. Wharepuke Sculpture Garden is the home to an internationally recognised print maker and part of the Northland creative community.
Need a breath of fresh air - SHORT WALKS
Eat & drink
MĀHA
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The Plough and Feather
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Cafe Jerusalem
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The Old Packhouse
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Wharepuke Sculpture Park- Art Park Kerikeri is your weekend accommodation. Light airy chalets are nestled within a tropical garden. Over five acres of mature garden, sculptures embedded among native trees, a restaurant and the enthusiasm of an artist makes for a memorable Kerikeri visit. Wharepuke offers accommodation in several chalets dotted throughout the garden. A quiet artistic retreat in the winterless North is appealing. The garden is now designated as a garden of national significance.
Travel pack information
- Kororipo heritage park and historic precinct
A unique cluster of Maori and Christian missionary contact period places and structures, including the fortified pa (village) Kororipo pa and associated sites rivals Waitangi for its historical significance. There are many archeological sites within the Basin and its waterways. Prior to European arrival the waterways were the coastal settlement of Hongi Heka of NgaPuhi, a pivotal figure in New Zealand history in the 1820s and 1830s. The waterways were a traditional transport route to the Taiamai Plains. By 1835, Kororipo appeared to be unoccupied and was bought by James Kemp, Church Missionary Society in 1838. The land witnessed increased presence of European settlement and the changes in society globalisation brought to Aotearoa NZ. Today the only potential invasion is a coach load of tourists.
- The Kerikeri Mission Station was founded in 1819. The Kerikeri Mission House, built in 1822, is New Zealand’s oldest surviving building. The Stone Store, built in 1836 as part of the mission settlement, is New Zealand’s oldest stone building and the oldest trading building. The two stand close together and dominate the former wharf frontage to the river. They are of contrasting form and shape.
The current site is enhanced by the river with reintroduced native bush. The views are not dissimilar to what greeted Europeans in the nineteenth century. The stunning Kerikeri Falls, one of the outstanding natural features is a short stroll away from the precinct on easy gravel paths.
- Kororipo Pā Historic Walk: Kerikeri, Northland check for details
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