Hi peeps! Thought I'd throw in my tuppence worth about Whakatane! We really like Whakatane, in fact we camped down there in a nice campsite at Thornton Beach at New Year with our 3 girlies and had great fun! Our budget didn't stretch to going over to White Island as it is pretty expensive but we did sit on the beautiful beach and watch smoke spiralling out the top of White Island in the distance, awesome!

Whakatane is pretty small and it depends what you're looking for in terms of a trip, if you love the beach then there's not much to not love about the place, about 15mins drive Ohope is beautiful too and is great for surfing. Also the hot springs at Awakeri are worth a look. As Lil Amy said, most places in NZ (well can only speak for Bay of Plenty) don't stay open long on a Sunday as there's a real emphasis on quality time with families.