[5] French explorer Jean-François-Marie de Surville and his crew in the ship St Jean Baptiste were the first Europeans to enter Doubtless Bay, just 8 days after James Cook had named it.

They anchored off Rangiawhia Pa, just north east of Whatuwhiwhi, on 17 December 1769, and gathered cresses and green plants from the shore.

Here Father Paul-Antoine Léonard de Villefeix (chaplain on the St Jean Baptiste) conducted the first Christian service in New Zealand waters when he celebrated Mass on Christmas Day 1769.

A storm on 27 December stranded a party of men on shore at Whatuwhiwhi, where they were treated hospitably by the local Māori.

His party burned about 30 huts, destroyed one canoe filled with nets, and confiscated another.

They brought Ranginui back to their ship, where the crew members who had been stranded during the storm identified him as the chief who had been hospitable to them.

However, De Surville was determined to keep his captive, and St Jean Baptiste sailed for Peru the same day with Ranginui on board.

The anchors abandoned during the storm were located and raised in a community effort on 21 December 1974.

[8][9][10] Statistics New Zealand describes Karikari, which corresponds to Whatuwhiwhi, as a rural settlement.

The results were 62.5% European (Pākehā); 58.2% Māori; 6.5% Pasifika; 1.3% Asian; 0.4% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 0.9% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander".