Kawerau

Under Pūtauaki in the eastern Bay of Plenty, Kawerau accommodation makes a quiet inland base on the Tarawera River.

The mill and the forest set the pace here. Tarawera Falls, where the river appears halfway down a rock face, lies out through the pines on a forestry road that needs a permit. Whakatāne and the coast are half an hour on, Rotorua under an hour the other way, so a cottage here splits the difference.