Wharekirauponga (WKP) lies within the Hauraki Goldfield, a classic epithermal mining district where approximately 50 epithermal veins have produced over 12 million ounces of gold and 52 million ounces of silver since its discovery in 1862. Located on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand these veins are hosted mainly in Miocene to Pliocene andesites or dacites overlying a Jurassic aged metasedimentary sequence.Early attempts to prospect and mine WKP from 1893-1897 were abandoned with only 19 oz of bullion recovered from a 14-tonne test parcel. Modern exploration at WKP undertaken by Amoco, BP and others from 1978-1993 included 5,500 metres of drilling in 23 holes testing the outcropping mineralisation along the main stream. Newmont acquired a controlling interest in the property in 2005 and started reconnaissance geologic mapping across the prospect in 2007-2008. The exploration scope was defined for the project up front and included 1) targeting high grade, underground mineable veins 2) define larger district-scale structures for drill testing and 3) do not become distracted by the small-scale veins and vein swarms common at the prospect. Interest quickly moved from previously explored areas to additional areas of alteration and veining mapped in the field. Large areas of ground around the prospect, previously interpreted to be overlain by thick post-mineral andesite flows, were found to be mantled by a thin layer of landslide debris, greatly enlarging the size of the prospective area. CITATION: Streiff, R, Randall, S, McArthur, F, Gardner, T and Torckler, L, 2019. Road to discovery at WKP, New Zealand, in Proceedings PACRIM 2019, pp 256259 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).