On clear days this lofty wooden viewing platform, located about 13km west of the city centre, provides a panorama of nearly the entire Bay of Plenty – see if you can spot Whakaari (White Island) steaming away in the distance. To get here, take SH2 to Te Puna and turn south on Minden Rd; the lookout is about 3km up the road.
Minden Lookout
Tauranga
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
8.56 MILES
The steep slopes of 232m-high Mauao swarm with walkers in the morning, when the Mount’s early risers perform their ritual climb to the summit. The ascent…
25.1 MILES
Waihi’s superb Gold Discovery Centre tells of the area’s gold-mining past, present and future through interactive displays, focusing on personal and…
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27.17 MILES
The Wingspan National Bird of Prey Centre is dedicated to conserving threatened NZ raptors, particularly the karearea (NZ falcon). Learn about the birds…
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29.48 MILES
Known as Tikitere to the Ngāti Rangiteaorere people, this highly active geothermal reserve lies 16km northeast of Rotorua on the Whakatāne road (SH30). It…
6.5 MILES
The city's pre-eminent gallery stages challenging exhibitions of thought-provoking contemporary work. The building itself is a former bank, though you’d…
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6.6 MILES
Surrounded by mature trees and lovely gardens, Tauranga's original mission station incorporates the Bay of Plenty's earliest buildings, along with one of…
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23.33 MILES
Due to copyright, all the movie sets around NZ were dismantled after the filming of The Lord of the Rings, but Hobbiton’s owners negotiated to keep their…
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28.83 MILES
The natural springs here are home to wild trout and eels, which you can peer at through an underwater viewer, and plenty of animals, including tuatara (a…
Nearby Tauranga attractions
3.16 MILES
Country-club-like Mills Reef, 7km southwest of the city centre at Bethlehem, has tastings of its award-winning wines. This isn't grape-growing country, so…
5.27 MILES
Located on a nondescript suburban street, this marae (traditional meeting place) has a sensationally carved wharenui (meeting house). This is the private…
6.24 MILES
A fairly ordinary-looking Victorian villa stranded on a hill as the roads around it grew, Brain Watkins House (no, not Brian) was built in 1881 from kauri…
6.5 MILES
The city's pre-eminent gallery stages challenging exhibitions of thought-provoking contemporary work. The building itself is a former bank, though you’d…
6.6 MILES
Hairy Maclary author Lynley Dodd lived in Tauranga for years, and NZ’s favourite literary animals were immortalised in bronze on Tauranga’s wharf in 2015…
6.6 MILES
Surrounded by mature trees and lovely gardens, Tauranga's original mission station incorporates the Bay of Plenty's earliest buildings, along with one of…
6.63 MILES
Shaded by huge pohutukawa trees, spooky Monmouth Redoubt was originally a Māori pā (fortified village), then taken over and adapted by British soldiers…
6.65 MILES
At its best in late spring and summer, this verdant pocket of roses sits behind an ivy-covered colonnade on a cliff overlooking the harbour, and is like a…