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COROMANDEL
Special Feature: Multiple blocks
with accessible wild pigs.
The rugged volcanic Coromandel Peninsula is Auckland’s most
important summer recreational playground, offering sheltered
golden sand beaches and superb boating and fishing.
Inland areas have equal appeal to energetic trampers and hunters
who trek the extensive bush tracks bisecting the huge Coromandel
Forest Park. This park occupies most of the rugged high country
on the peninsula, running from the Karangahake Gorge between the
towns of Paeroa and Waihi, up to the northern tip at Cape
Colville. Seven roads wind their way across the peninsula giving
good access to hunting areas.
Most of the native forests have been logged for kauri and the
land scoured and tunnelled by gold miners, so hunters can expect
hard going through dense undergrowth, which sometimes hides sump
holes and washouts.
The Park headquarters is found in the picturesque Kauaeranga
Valley, inland from Thames, where DOC rangers issue permits, give
excellent advice and administer the dozen or so separate hunting
blocks as outlined below:-
Maratoto Block is mainly native forest and is accessed by the
beautiful Wentworth Valley on the east and Maratoto Road in the
west. It is adjoined by the extensive Tairua Block. Both have low
to moderate populations of wild pigs and goats.
Kauaeranga Block is north east of Thames and south of
Tapu-Coroglen highway, forming one large tract of bush together
with the Hikuai Block, both containing modest numbers of wild
pigs and goats.
Waikawau Block is accessed from the Tapu-Coroglen highway and
contains a moderate population of wild pigs and low numbers of
goats. It meets Whangapoua Block, which extends from Coromandel
township across to Mercury Bay.
Otama and Kennedy Bay blocks, north of Whitianga, have low to
moderate numbers of wild pigs and goats. Moehau at the northern
tip of the Peninsula has a moderate density of both species.
There are several DOC campsites around the Moehau block on the
adjoining Farm Park.
Mallard and grey ducks are found in low numbers and pheasant and
quail are sparsely spread around the peninsula.
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