Just beyond the town is the beginning of the Te Moehau Range, which forms the bulk of the northern end of the Coromandel Peninsula, and contains valuable ecological areas, including a population of the threatened North Island brown kiwi.

[7] This was built by Richard (Dick) Goudie, a local man whose grandparents had settled in Cabbage Bay.

Dick Goudie later ran a taxi service from the town, being the first to drive a motor vehicle across the new bridge at Papa Aroha which opened up the northern peninsula from Coromandel.

Fossicking for semi-precious stones such as carnelian and for kauri gum are popular activities among tourists visiting the town.

[8] Another member of the Goudie family, John, developed a motor camp a few kilometres north of the town some years later.[when?]

The Motukawao Islands lie five kilometres off the coast to the southwest of Colville, in the Hauraki Gulf.

[2] Colville statistical area is much larger than the town, and covers the western side of the Coromandel Peninsula north of the Waikawau River and the entire area north of and including Kennedy Bay, but excludes Coromandel town.