Florence Hill Lookout

Just south of Papatowai, Florence Hill Lookout oversees sweeping Tautuku Bay and Tautuku Peninsula in the distance. Ancient forests with trees over 1000 years old grow right down to the bay in this scene, which is the only place left on the east coast where native forest fully covers a catchment from hilltops right to the ocean edge. It doesn’t take too much imagination to see this vista presenting a picture of New Zealand before the arrival of humans.