Takapuna is located in the northern North Island of New Zealand. It is the seat of the North Shore city council, one of the four councils which administer the conurbation of Auckland. The Auckland city centre is seven kilometres to the south, on the other side of the Waitemata Harbour

Takapuna is located on the isthmus of a peninsula which extends south into the northern waters of the Waitemata at the harbour's eastern end. As such, the suburb has a coastline on Shoal Bay, an arm of the Waitemata to the southeast, as well as having a coast on the Hauraki Gulf to the northwest. As if this were not enough, the northern end of the suburb is dominated by the large collapsed volcanic crater of Lake Pupuke. Some points in Takapuna are less than 500 metres from all three of these bodies of water.

To the southeast of Takapuna lies the six-kilometre-long peninsula which contains the suburbs of Belmont and Devonport. To the west lie the suburbs of Westlake and Northcote. The suburb of Milford lies to the north, on the far shore of Lake Pupuke.