The District is serviced by the townships of Waihi Beach, Katikati, Omokoroa, Te Puna,Te Puke and Maketu.

Smaller rural settlements to the east are at Paengaroa, Pongakawa and Pukehina and small but growing coastal settlements in the west are Kauri Point, Tanners Point, Ongare, Tuapiro and Athenree.

The land of the Western Bay of Plenty faces north-east to the sea.

To the west are the rugged bush-covered Kaimai Ranges. Numerous streams drain the Kaimais, flowing down through the hills and coastal lowlands, into the swampy estuaries and mudflats of the Tauranga Harbour.

The Kaituna River drains the lakes of Rotorua and Rotoiti into the Maketu Estuary and out to sea, while smaller streams drain the eastern District into the Waihi Estuary.

Matakana Island forms a natural barrier between Tauranga Harbour and the Pacific Ocean.


Vegetation and Wildlife
This diverse landscape combined with a favourable temperate climate, provides an area rich in resources such as indigenous flora and fauna, highly versatile soils, rivers and harbours.

Prior to human settlement, the District was largely covered in forest, scrub and wetlands.

Pohutukawa forest occurred on many of the headlands and hill slopes adjacent to the harbour in association with tall coastal forest including puriri, karaka, tawa, rewarewa and kohekohe.

The extensive swamps of Kawa and Waihi were to the east of the District, while around Tauranga Harbour there were extensive freshwater and saline wetlands. Many species of birds, animals and fish were present, including some species now extinct, such as Huia. Coastal margins provided nesting sites for a huge number of seabirds.

In the course of several centuries of Maori occupation much of the original forest cover was cleared by fire and replaced by manuka and fern. Forest remained mostly on the steeper hills and in the gullies.

In terms of ecological significance, the major difference between present day vegetation and pre-European vegetation cover is the change to wetlands. Extensive drainage has resulted in only a tiny proportion (about 5%) of the freshwater wetlands remaining today and there is very little swamp forest.

Strips of indigenous forest extend down many of the gorges that drain the plateaux of pastoral land and exotic forestry. These gorges and waterways form important natural corridors for movement of species between the coast and hills.