[3][4] Immediately to the west is McLeod Bay, which is about 2 km (1.2 mi) long.

The McDonald sandbank lies a few metres offshore at low tide.

The promontory to the south of the settlement consists of a hill, Mount Aubrey, and a small gravel beach about 200 metres wide, Reotahi Bay.

[5] The heads contain the remnants of a number of extinct volcanoes with the dominant rocks being andesite or dacite.

[6] They are part of a 50 km2 (19 sq mi) stratovolcano that extended to the Hen and Chickens Islands.

[7] Gilbert Mair purchased the entire peninsula - everything south of a line running from McLeod Bay to the Pacific Coast, about 10,000 acres (40 km2) – from the Māori chief Te Tao, in 1839.

[9] On 8 February 1907 a tugboat named Awarua, belonging to the Devonport Steam Ferry Company, struck an uncharted rock and sunk near the Whangārei Heads.

She left for Kauri Mount to pick up logs to be delivered to Auckland.

[10][11] Statistics New Zealand describes Whangārei Heads as a rural settlement.

The settlement is part of the larger Bream Head statistical area.

The results were 94.9% European (Pākehā); 10.4% Māori; 1.3% Pasifika; 2.2% Asian; 0.6% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 1.9% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander".

The results were 95.0% European (Pākehā); 12.8% Māori; 2.3% Pasifika; 1.9% Asian; 0.6% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 2.1% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander".