All About Mercury Bay

Mercury Bay is a large V-shaped bay on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand. The bay was named by the English navigator Captain James Cook during one of his expeditions. By Māori it was named Te-Whanganui-o-Hei, the Great Bay of Hei.

On 9 November 1769, Cook landed on the shores of the bay to observe a Transit of Mercury. In 1919, an area of land around Shakespeare Cliff was set aside and a small memorial was constructed based on the erroneous notion that it was the location of Cook's observation. But the actual site of Cook's landing and observation was the eastern end of Cook's Beach, near the Purangi estuary. A smaller memorial plinth was established there also.

The mouth of Mercury Bay is ten kilometers across, and its coastline extends some 20 km. On the shore of the bay is the resort town of Whitianga, and a natural harbour is formed by an arm of the bay which extends inland a further six kilometers southward. Several small islets are located at the southern and northern extremities of the bay and the Mercury Islands are 10 km to the north.

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