Bream Head

Bream Head

Māori: **Te Whara**
Bream Head Māori: Te Whara
Cape
	Bream Head and surrounding islands viewed from neighbouring Mt Manaia
	Bream Head
	Coordinates: 35°51′15″S 174°35′29″E / 35.85426°S 174.59132°E
Location	Northland, New Zealand
Offshore water bodies	Southern Pacific Ocean
Native name	Māori: Te Whara
Volcanic field	Taurikura volcanic complex
Last eruption	19.1 million years ago

Bream Head is a promontory on the east coast of Northland in the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the end of a 30 kilometre-long peninsula, the head juts into the Pacific Ocean to the southeast of Whangārei. The Te Whara Track in the Bream Head Scenic Reserve is at least 700 years old.^[1] The Hen and Chicken Islands are located off the headland at a distance of 12 kilometres. It forms the northern extremity of Bream Bay, and guards the entrance to Whangārei Harbour, a natural inlet extending to the northwest. The Marsden Point Oil Refinery 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.

Biology

It contains a scenic reserve, the Bream Head Scenic Reserve, which unlike Bream Head is an official name.^[2] This has a long history of Māori occupation, being now wāhi tapu, and is one of the most important coastal broadleaf forest reserves in Northland with its population of native flax snail – pūpūharakeke^[1] and Whirinaki skinks.^[3]

Geology

Bream Head and nearby volcanics map with andesite in red shading and dacite in purple shading. The approximate Taurikura volcanic complex is in white shading. Clicking on the map enlarges it, and enables panning and mouseover of volcanic feature name/wikilink and ages before present. The key to the other volcanics that are shown with panning is basalt - brown, monogenic basalts - dark brown, undifferentiated basalts of the Tangihua Complex in Northland Allochthon - light brown, arc basalts - deep orange brown, arc ring basalts -orange brown, rhyolite - violet, basaltic andesite`- light red) , ignimbrite (lighter shades of violet), and plutonic - gray.

Bream Head features a prominent bluff usually known by the same name or Te Whara 476 metres (1,562 ft) in height,^[4] and to its west Mount Lion at a height of 395 metres (1,296 ft), the remains of a Miocene andesitic volcano.

Gallery

Ocean Beach, looking South
Ocean Beach, looking North
The eastern tip of Bream Head
Bream Head, viewed from the south

References

^ ^a ^b "Bream Head Scenic Reserve". Retrieved 17 January 2023.
^ NZ gazetteer Bream Head
^ "New Zealand Herpetological Society:Kakerakau skink Oligosoma kakerakau (Barr et al. 2021)". Retrieved 17 January 2023.
^ NZ TopoMap:Bream Head

[Scenic_reserve-1] "Bream Head Scenic Reserve". Retrieved 17 January 2023.

[2] NZ gazetteer Bream Head

[3] "New Zealand Herpetological Society:Kakerakau skink Oligosoma kakerakau (Barr et al. 2021)". Retrieved 17 January 2023.

[NZTopoMapBH-4] NZ TopoMap:Bream Head

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