The Tairua River is located on the Coromandel Peninsula in the North Island of New Zealand.
It flows north and then northeast for a total of 35 kilometres from its source in the Coromandel Range to the west of Whangamata, passing through the town of Hikuai before reaching the Pacific Ocean at Tairua on the peninsula's east coast.
The small Shoe Island lies directly opposite the river's mouth, two kilometres into the Pacific.