New Zealand’s northern peninsula, with the southern boundary defined by a line running from Karangahake Gorge to the north Waikato head, and excluding Lake Waikari. It includes all of the Coromandel Peninsula, the Hauraki Gulf and its islands, and Northland. This is a land of deeply incised coastlines, steep in parts but invariably warm and moist. The soils vary as much as the landscape, but fundamentally this is a Pacific Island-like region, rich in seafood and exotic fruits.

Te Tai Tokerau was dominated by kauri forest before European settlement, with significant (for food) areas of swamp. Traditional food sources, other than seafood, included kereru (pigeon), kiwi, weka, teal, godwit and native ducks.

Top-of-the-list local delicacies like toheroa are no longer available because of over fishing or, like kereru, because of legislation, but there is still an abundance of seafood.

Contemporary, distinctive regional foods include wild pig, bush beef, paua, cockles, pipi, scallops, Pacific oysters, kina, packhorse crayfish, paddle crabs, marlin, large shark, rig, snapper, kahawai, kingfish, mullet and yellow belly flounder. Horticulture in the north produces kumara, peruperu, market garden crops, citrus, bananas and wine (merlot, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, syrah).