Whakanewha Regional Park is one of Auckland City's 28 regional parks. The park is located on the south side of Waiheke Island. The easiest access is from the Sculpture Car Park off Gordons Road. From there, it is a short walk to Rocky Bay Beach and various walks in the mostly regenerating forest. You can also take a bus to Omiha Memorial Hall and follow the signs into the park around the shoreline.
The park features a mature coastal forest with taraire, kohekohe, and old kanuka trees. Behind the coast is regenerating mānuka and kānuka shrubland, which have replaced the farmland since 1994. Rocky Bay Beach marks the park's south side and is a pebble and shell beach with wide tidal mudflats. Due to the absence of possums on Waiheke Island, relatively rare native wetland birds are also present, including bittern, banded rail, spotless crake, and dotterel.
The walking trails include linked tracks around the bay and through the forest that create a series of loops. The best tracks are the Nikau Track from the Sculpture Car Park to the Cascades Loop, then return on the Tarata Track, Kowhai Track and Dotties Lane. Te Ara Hura also runs through the park on the Nikau Walk, then follows the coast northwest to Omiha Bay.
Māori long occupied Whakanewha, with shell middens and a pā site located in the area. The name translates to "shading eyes from the setting sun". In the 1840s and 1850s, Ngāti Pāoa iwi supplied lumber, fruit and vegetables to the developing city of Auckland from various locations around Waiheke, including Whakanewha. Around 1855, Samuel Wood purchased part of Whakanewha. The purchase led to a dispute with the Māori residents, who had not been consulted. The government confirmed Wood's title to the land in 1858, and the area was developed as a sheep farm.
It stayed that way for over 100 years until Auckland City purchased the land in 1994 for redevelopment as a regional park. Forest regeneration began, and the tracks, campsite and beach reserve were developed with the park opening in 2007.
