Whitianga, New Zealand

The attractive town of WHITIANGA clusters where Whitianga Harbour meets the broad sweep of Mercury Bay, a huge bite out of the Coromandel Peninsula coastline named by Captain Cook, who stopped here in 1769 so that his party of scientists could observe the planet passing across the face of the sun. Today it's a popular Kiwi summer-holiday destination, the population of 4000 swelling dramatically during January as vacationers flock to the town's Buffalo Beach, a long sweep of surf-pounded white sand. Whitianga makes a good base from which to make a series of half-day and day-trips to wonderfully secluded spots.