North Island Attractions

The pride of Te Kuiti is a magnificent Maori meeting house, built in 1878 for Te Kooti. After he was pardoned by the government in 1883 he presented the house to the tribe that had taken him in during his exile.

Otorohanga (pop. 2500), 20km north of Te Kuiti, has a bird park with a kiwi house, in which the birds can be observed in night-time conditions, and aviaries housing other native species.

Pureora Forest Park (830 sq.km), 60km southeast of Te Kuiti, is famed for the many different bird species found here. There are a number of trails through the park. The soil was formed from pumice ejected during the eruption of Mount Taupo in the 2nd C. AD.

Now a small settlement of 300 people, in the 19th C. Kawhia was an important trading center (timber, flax, grain) that shipped cargoes to Sydney and even as far afield as California. After the land wars and the peace of 1881 it declined into insignificance.

On Te Puia beach, 4km west of Kawhia, hot springs gush out of the sand at low tide, so that visitors can have their own thermal bath.

South of the entrance to Kawhia Harbour, reached on a side road, is the Maori settlement of Taharoa, round which are considerable deposits of dark ferruginous sand. It is processed in modern plants and exported, mainly to Japan.

Inland from the North Taranaki Bight (west coast), between Mokau and Kawhia, extends the rugged and infertile area known as the King Country. It is a region of karstic limestone, with deep gorges, intricate karstic cave systems and bizarre rock formations.The first Europeans landed in this area in the early 19th C. on the wild west coast at Mokau and Kawhia. They traded with the Maoris, exchanging guns for flax and dried tattooed heads, which were much sought after in Europe. Missionaries taught the natives European farming methods, and soon wheat was being exported from Kawhia.Between Mokau and Kawhia lived the warlike Te Maniapoto tribes, who believed that their ancestors had arrived here in the Tainui ancestral canoe. They were keen partisans of the Maori King Movement and supported the rebels in Taranaki and Waikato against the government.After the defeat of the rebels at Orakau the Maori king, whose residence had been at Ngaruawahia on the Waikato River, sought refuge in this area. The Ngati-Maniapoto tribes held on to their land, and settlers did not dare to venture into the King Country.In 1881 the mighty Maori chief Rewi Maniapoto made peace with the government. He sold and leased land to the whites, against the will of the Maoris, and permitted the construction of a railroad through the King Country.

The most notable feature of Matakohe, situated on Highway 12 at the north end of Kaipara Harbour, is the Coates Memorial Church, built in honor of Prime Minister Joseph Gordon Coates (1878-1943), who is depicted as a knight in amour in a round stained-glass window.

Visitors to the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens will enjoy a unique art and garden experience. The garden trail winds through a 1 kilometer stretch of over 50 sculptures.