New Zealand - Whangamata - Whangamata Area School - Room 5 - 1981 Do you have more information about the school or the people in this photo? Please use the comment section below to share. To search for other photos from this school, please type the schools name in to our search engine. Whangamata - The town of Whangamatā is sited on the southeast coast of the Coromandel Peninsula - In holiday times the population swells considerably: New Year's celebrations fill the town to over 25,000 though this falls soon after New Year's Day - A number of off-shore islands can be seen from the beach. Hauturu or Clark Island is accessible by wading at low tide and is popular in summer months for rock-pool fossickers and kayakers. Whenuakura, sometimes known as Donut Island, sits about a kilometre east of the southern part of Whangamatā beach (Otahu Beach). Tuatara roamed on Whenuakura until fairly recently. Whenuakura Island has a large collapsed blow hole which has formed a small beach inside the island – hence the alternative name. - The Maori name 'Whangamatā' comes from the words 'whanga', which means bay, and 'matā', which means a hard stone, in reference to the obsidian which washes up on the beach. Areas along the coast such as Onemana were locations where matā (chert) and matā tūhua (obsidian) were found and processed into stone tools