THE ‘HEADS

Mapping home - Parua Bay and Whangarei Heads

Parua Bay & Whangarei Heads Map - A Love Letter to Home

Hand-drawn New Zealand map art celebrating the places where memories are made

Home is where the art is.

The journey starts here, I grew up in Parua Bay and I live in Parua Bay again today. I caught my first wave at Ocean Beach and my first snapper off Busby Head. As a kid I caught kingfish and explored the nooks and crannies of the Whangarei Harbour in a 12' tinny. We'd jump off the Pataua footbridge and body surf out at Kauri Mountain. Getting pipis and cockles, scallops and mussels, smashing oysters off the rocks, riding motorbikes, doing skids in paddocks in a Mazda 808 station wagon, hiking up the streams, finding golf balls and selling them at the golf course, spending the profits at the dairy on lollies, throwing eggs at the the raft race and just going and getting lost in the bush. Always barefoot, just like my kids here today.

These childhood reflections combined with raising my kids here now and watching them create similar memories laid the foundation. But it was during the first Covid lockdown in 2020 that I actually started drawing a local map. I was fascinated by the fact that the rain that often falls on the roof of my house in Parua Bay Village flows out through the Pataua estuary, not the much closer Whangarei Harbour. We are connected, and I love that. A lot of water has flowed under the Pataua footbridge since then. A lot of things have changed and a lot of things remain unchanged. These volcanic peaks etched into our skyline, that form the backdrop of our daily lives are 20 million years old for example.

This map is loaded with the local goods: the amazing beaches and walking trails winding up Mt Manaia, Te Whara Bream Head, Peach Cove, Smugglers Bay and Reotahi. The beautiful beaches, the pohutukawa, kauri, nikau and puriri. We are spoilt for choice. This map really is about water flow though, and the diversity of water that we have here that connects all of us - Parua Bay, the Nook, McLeod Bay, Reotahi, Little Munro Bay, Taurikura, Urquharts Bay, Smugglers Bay and around to Ocean Beach and Kauri Mountain, and towards Taiharuru and Pataua.

The BB Map of Parua Bay and Whangarei Heads including the catchments of Pataua and Taiharuru is my map-based love letter to Manaia and surrounding areas. It's a sense-of-place map that seeks to show what this place feels like, and to inspire deeper understanding and sense of belonging based on my experience.

I have memories in every inch of this map, and I want to share this with you as a keepsake to hold and share your own memories of this beautiful area. Not all of my maps can I say this about, but I actually live in this map.

Why This Map Makes the Perfect Local Gift

Whether you're a local wanting to celebrate your connection to Parua Bay, Pataua, Taiharuru or Whangarei Heads, someone who grew up here and moved away, just starting your own journey here or you're looking for a meaningful New Zealand gift that captures a specific place, this hand-drawn map artwork tells a unique story of our special corner of Northland.

[Shop the BB Map of the HEADS Unframed Print →]
[Shop the BB Map of the HEADS Framed Print →]