One tradition suggests an ancestral canoe was lead by a big shark (mango nui) giving the harbour and the town its Mangonui name.
Doubtless Bay was named by Captain James Cook who, in sighting it, is reputed to have said 'Doubtless a bay.'
The bay west of Mangonui is claimed as the site where the Polynesian explorer, Kupe, first landed and a monument at Taipa marks this spot and from which Maori migration and settlement commenced many years later.
The area extends from Taupo Bay in the east to the Karikari Peninsula in the west and includes the settlements of Hihi, Coopers Beach, Cable Bay, Taipa and Whatuwhiwhi and, at its centre, Mangonui.
Both the French explorer, Jean Francois Marie de Surville and Captain Cook visited the area in December 1769 at the same time but unbeknown to each other. Surville's violent encounter with Maori resulted in his vessel St Jean Baptiste losing three anchors off the peninsular. One is now in Kaitaia's museum.
The Mangonui township grew as a trading port where kauri logs were milled and prepared for export. Farming in the area had begun too and by the early 1800s it became known as a favourite haven for whalers. By 1860 it became the administrative centre for the Far North with government offices, hotels, a hospital and coastal shipping links with Auckland.
Gum digging and flax milling boosted growth in the 19th century, but after 1900 kauri and gum business shifted west to Kaitaia. The administrative centre followed in 1918 and the hospital in 1934. Disappearance of the old industries and better roading led to Mangonui's decline as a coastal shipping port in the 1950s.
The traditional homeland of Ngati Kahu is the Karikari Peninsula, the rocky outer part of which was once an island but now joined to the mainland by accretion, now forming Tokerau beach on the eastern side.
Commercial fishing continues around Doubtless Bay and the beautiful Whangaroa Harbour further north-west. Mangonui's fish and chip shop, built on wooden piles over the sea, is both self-styled and actually world famous. Across the harbour from the Mangonui Village is Butler Point, now home to a whaling museum and the historic Captain Butler's House.
Slightly further afield are the Ancient Kauri Kingdom and Gumdiggers Park, north of Awanui.
With 70 kilometres of some of the most beautiful bays and beaches in the world, Doubtless Bay is doubtless a superb attraction.