Bream Head

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox landform Bream Head is a promontory on the east coast of Northland in the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the end of a 30 kilometre-long peninsula, the head juts into the Pacific Ocean to the southeast of Whangārei. The Te Whara Track in the Bream Head Scenic Reserve is at least 700 years old.<ref name="Scenic reserve">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Hen and Chicken Islands are located off the headland at a distance of 12 kilometres. It forms the northern extremity of Bream Bay, and guards the entrance to Whangārei Harbour, a natural inlet extending to the northwest. The Marsden Point Oil Refinery is located on the opposing shore of the harbour five kilometres to the west.

To Bream Head's immediate north is a long sandy beach called Ocean Beach.

Biology

It contains a scenic reserve, the Bream Head Scenic Reserve, which unlike Bream Head is an official name.<ref>NZ gazetteer Bream Head</ref> This has a long history of Māori occupation, being now wāhi tapu, and is one of the most important coastal broadleaf forest reserves in Northland with its population of native flax snail – pūpūharakeke<ref name="Scenic reserve"/> and Whirinaki skinks.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Geology

Bream Head features a prominent bluff usually known by the same name or Te Whara Template:Convert in height,<ref name="NZTopoMapBH">NZ TopoMap:Bream Head</ref> and to its west Mount Lion at a height of Template:Convert, the remains of a Miocene andesitic volcano.

Gallery

• Ocean Beach, Northland, New Zealand.jpg

  Ocean Beach, looking South

• Ocean Beach, Northland, New Zealand2.jpg

  Ocean Beach, looking North

• Bream Head end.jpg

  The eastern tip of Bream Head

• Bream Head.jpg

  Bream Head, viewed from the south