Oceanic Manor stands on the ocean side of Marine Parade, ninety metres from the sand and a fifteen-minute walk around the base track of Mauao. Refined rooms, two places to eat, a saltwater bathhouse, three event spaces — and The Beacon Room, a private gaming lounge for adult guests.
Check-in from 2pm, out by 11am. Reception is staffed for the whole twenty-four hours — there is someone at the desk at three in the morning. Parking is on site and free for guests.
The house went up in 1938 for a Tauranga shipping family who wanted to be able to see the harbour entrance from the upstairs windows. It took in paying guests from the 1950s, went quiet for a long stretch, and was restored and reopened as a 54-room hotel in 2011. The stair, the tiled entrance floor and most of the window frames are the original ones.
As a casino hotel we are a little unusual in the Bay of Plenty, and we would rather be plain about it than coy: The Beacon Room is one room among many. It seats fewer people than Moturiki Kitchen does. Guests who never open its door — most of them — get a seaside hotel with good beds, a proper breakfast and the beach at the end of the path.
There is nothing to play on this website and nothing to install — we run a hotel on Marine Parade, not an internet business. Casino entertainment here happens in one room, on the premises, for guests aged 20 and over, with photo ID checked at the door.
54 rooms across five categories, from a 23 m² Dune Room at the back to two 71 m² Oceanic Suites on the top floor. Twenty-six of them face the water.
Bay of Plenty produce, mostly from within an hour of the door — snapper and kingfish off the boats at Tauranga, avocados from Katikati, citrus from Te Puke. Breakfast 6.30 to 10.30, dinner from 5.30.
The gaming lounge: 62 slot machines, nine table games — blackjack, roulette, baccarat and poker — and four live dealer tables. Open to guests and visitors aged 20 and over. Photo ID at the door, always.
Stay & play, a bathhouse weekend, a winter rate for three nights or more, and a dining package that includes a table at Moturiki Kitchen. Hotel packages, priced in dollars.
Saltwater drawn from the same aquifer the Mount hot pools use, two plunge pools at 38°C and 16°C, a steam room and three treatment rooms. Open 7am to 9pm; guests book at the desk.
The Matakana Room seats 140 for dinner or 190 standing, The Omanu Room takes 40, and Boardroom No. 2 holds 12 around one table. Weddings, conferences, birthdays that run late.
Named for the bay on the sheltered side of the peninsula, where the pilot boats still go out to bring container ships through the harbour entrance. A hundred and forty labels on the list, thirty of them from the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne, and eleven beers on tap from breweries within forty minutes of here. Open noon until midnight, and until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.
The bar takes 48 people seated. There is a terrace off it with another 24 seats, which is where most people end up between four and six in the afternoon.
A 16-metre lap pool in the courtyard, heated to 27°C from September to May and covered in winter. The Saltwater Bathhouse sits behind it: two plunge pools, a steam room, three treatment rooms and a quiet room with eight chairs that nobody is allowed to bring a phone into.
The gym is small and honest about it — six machines and a rack of free weights, open around the clock with your room key. Most guests walk the base track instead; it is 3.4 km and takes about forty-five minutes at a conversational pace.
One room on the ground floor, behind its own door, open from noon to 3am Sunday to Thursday and to 4am on Friday and Saturday. Sixty-two slot machines — video slots, a row of classic reels and four progressives. Nine table games: blackjack, roulette, baccarat and poker, dealt by our own croupiers. Four live gaming tables run from 6pm. The Pilot's Table is a separate high-limit room for six players, booked ahead.
Entry is 20 and over, with photo ID, whether you are staying here or not. There are no cash machines on the gaming floor and there is a clock visible from every table. The full picture is on the casino page.
Every rate below is for two people and includes breakfast at Moturiki Kitchen, the pool, the gym and the wifi. Rates move with the season — January and the school holidays are the dearest, June and July the cheapest.
Ring reservations on +64 7 575 4186 between 7am and 8pm and describe what you want. They know which of the Ocean Rooms get the morning sun first and which of the Dune Rooms is quietest, and they will tell you honestly if the room you are asking for is the wrong one for you.
The concierge desk is on from 7am to 9pm and will book any of this. They will also tell you honestly when the weather means you should do something else — the harbour cruise is no fun in a northerly.
The headland at the end of the beach, 232 m up. The base track is 3.4 km and flat; the summit track is forty minutes up and rather less down. Go at first light in summer — by nine it is busy.
Straight across Marine Parade. Patrolled by the surf club through summer between the flags. Boards and wetsuits hire from the shop by the surf club, four minutes on foot; the desk will ring ahead.
Saltwater, at the foot of Mauao, open until ten at night. If you would rather not walk it, The Saltwater Bathhouse here draws from the same aquifer and is quieter after eight.
The harbour side, flat and sheltered, where the water is calm when the ocean beach is not. Best swimming for small children. The pilot boats go out from the wharf at the far end.
Harbour cruises out past Matakana Island, kayaks, and fishing charters that go as far as Tūhua on a settled day. Twelve minutes to the Tauranga marina by car if you are taking a bigger boat out.
Kiwifruit country, and most of what turns up on the breakfast table. Beyond it: Rotorua and the geothermal ground an hour south, Whakatāne and the eastern bay an hour and a half along the coast.
The Beacon Room is licensed under the Gambling Act 2003 and we take the host responsibility part of it seriously rather than decoratively. Everyone working the floor is trained to notice when someone has stopped enjoying themselves, and to say something. There are no cash machines in the room. A clock is visible from every table. The room closes at three most nights, and it closes whether the tables are full or not.
If you want to bar yourself from the room, ask any staff member. It is done in writing, in confidence, and it takes about five minutes.
These lines are free and answered around the clock.
Fill this in and it lands at the front desk. Or ring reservations on +64 7 575 4186 between 7am and 8pm — for most things that is quicker.
+64 7 575 4180
Twenty-four hours, every day
+64 7 575 4186
7am–8pm, seven days
[email protected]
118 Marine Parade
Mount Maunganui 3116
Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Directions →
The Beacon Room at Oceanic Manor is reserved for adults aged 20 and over, in line with New Zealand law. The rest of the hotel — the rooms, Moturiki Kitchen and The Saltwater Bathhouse — welcomes guests of every age.
Gambling Helpline 0800 654 655 · free, any hour
We are sorry — we cannot let you through. If you would like to talk to someone about gambling, the Gambling Helpline is 0800 654 655, free, any hour.
