For Maori, the Bay of Plenty is culturally significant as the landing place of several of the original canoes (waka) that brought their ancestral settlers to New Zealand. It was more recently, however, that Captain Cook arrived and, relieved to find abundant supplies in several Maori villages, gave the bay its name. Today it is a popular holiday spot with Kiwi families, home to long, sweeping surf beaches dotted with holiday parks and flanked by rural farmland. Mount Manganui and Tauranga at the western end are the most populated towns and as you head east you find only a few relatively small settlements before reaching Whakatane, from where the road starts to wiggle its way around the East Cape

About 48 kilometres offshore is White Island, an active marine volcano, and one which almost continuously releases a plume of steam, making it easily visibly from the Bay of Plenty coastline. It is possible to visit the island by boat or plane, walk on the lunar-like landscape and learn about its fascinating geology.