Awatoto is a coastal suburb area located near Napier,

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The New Zealand

Ministry for Culture and Heritage The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the arts, culture, built heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting sectors in New Zealand and advising government on ...

gives a translation of "stream for hauling canoes" for ''Awatōtō''. Awatoto had a population of 309 at the

2013 New Zealand census The 2013 New Zealand census was the thirty-third national census. "The National Census Day" used for the census was on Tuesday, 5 March 2013. The population of New Zealand was counted as 4,242,048, – an increase of 214,101 or 5.3% over the 20 ...

, a decrease of 48 people since the 2006 census. There were 153 males and 156 females. 83.2% were European/Pākehā, 23.2% were Māori, 1.1% were Pacific peoples and 4.2% were Asian.

History

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The tribe is organised into six geographical and administrative di ...

occupied the area prior to colonisation. Waitangi Mission Station was set up on the north bank of the

Ngaruroro River The Ngaruroro River is located in the eastern North Island of New Zealand. It runs for a total of 164 kilometres southeast from the Kaweka Range, Kaimanawa Range and Ruahine Range and then east before emptying into Hawke Bay roughly halfway bet ...

for the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

William Colenso William Colenso (17 November 1811 – 10 February 1899) FRS was a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician. He attended the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and later wrote an accou ...

in 1844. Awatoto was included in the sale of the Ahuriri Block for £1,500 on 17 November 1851. A soap works was set up in 1883. It burnt down in 1910 and 1915 and was flooded in 1917. Settlement of the area dates from the late 1800s, although population was minimal until the post-war years. Meeanee developed as a small settlement in the 1940s and 1950s, servicing the surrounding dairy farms. The population increased from the mid-1990s, a result of new dwellings being added to the area. DSG3264_Awatoto_1July2006_JChristianson

Railway station

Awatoto railway station was near Awatoto Road, opened on 20 June 1884. In 1880 authority was sought for £45 to be spent building a station and platform at Awatoto. It was a

flag station In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, s ...

, on the first section of the

Palmerston North–Gisborne Line The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (PNGL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk at Palmerston North and runs east through the Manawatū Gorge to Woodville, where i ...

, which opened on 12 October 1874, from Napier to

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

. The line was built by international contractors

John Brogden and Sons John Brogden and Sons was a firm of Railway Contractors, Iron and Coal Miners and Iron Smelters operating, initially as a general contractor, from roughly 1828 until its bankruptcy in 1880. Formation The business started in the 1820s when John ...

. They organised the first train carrying passengers from Napier to Waitangi on Tuesday 30 June 1874. By 1896 Awatoto had a shelter shed, platform, cart approach and a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

for 18 wagons, extended to 23 in 1898, 45 in 1911 and 100 in 1954. In 1914 it became a tablet station and a railway house was built for the tablet man. In 1972 a new crossing loop was built nearer Waitangi bridge. On 31 January 1982 Awatoto closed to goods, except in wagon loads, and to passengers. It closed completely on 22 September 1986. Only a single track now runs through the former station site.

Geography

Awatoto is on a flood plain, separated from the Pacific Ocean by a shingle spit, just north of where the Clive, Ngaruroro and Tutaekuri River estuaries meet

Hawke Bay Hawke Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui), formerly named ''Hawke's Bay'', is a large bay on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, surrounded by the Hawke's Bay region. It stretches from Māhia Peninsula in the northeast to Cape Kidnap ...

. Until the 1931 earthquake the Tutaekuri flowed north to

Ahuriri Lagoon Ahuriri Lagoon ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Orotū) was a large tidal lagoon at Napier, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, that largely drained when the area was raised by the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. Before the earthquake, the lagoon ...

, but a diversion was built from 1934. The

Heretaunga Plains :''There are two places in New Zealand called Heretaunga. For the suburb of Upper Hutt, see Heretaunga, Wellington.'' The Heretaunga Plains is a alluvial plain at the southern end of Hawke Bay on the east coast of the North Island of New Zeala ...

Flood Control Scheme, with stop banking, pumps and gravel and river mouth management, helps control floodwaters, but they can still reach the underside of bridges, requiring closures. Awatoto is some south of the Napier city centre at 39°S 176°E, on the coast of Hawke's Bay. State Highway 51 (until 1 August 2019 it was SH2) passes through Awatoto, along the coastline between Napier and

. A cycleway opened from Bluff Hill to Awatoto in 2004. It was extended south in 2016, over a long x wide, 145 tonne, steel, clip-on bridge.

Waitangi bridges

Both road and railway cross the river estuary. The rail bridge is long, originally built in 1873. From about 1861 a road ran along the beach, with a punt to cross the estuary. Following sea erosion of the beach, a new bridge was built in 1865. Undermined piles closed the bridge in 1867. It was rebuilt in 1897. The bridge was closed for a fortnight in 1905, when temporary piles gave way under a traction engine. Spans washed out in a 1918 flood. It collapsed under 2 trucks in 1928. Four piers were undermined in May 1938, closing the bridge until September.

Waitangi Regional Park

Waitangi Regional Park covers about and extends about along the coast between Awatoto and

Haumoana Haumoana is a coastal town just south of the Tukituki River outlet in Hawke Bay on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located 12 km south of Napier and ten kilometres east of Hastings. The village incorporates a school, a ...

. A wetland was re-established in 2019. Birds in the area include

herons The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

spoonbills Spoonbills are a genus, ''Platalea'', of large, long-legged wading birds. The spoonbills have a global distribution, being found on every continent except Antarctica. The genus name ''Platalea'' derives from Ancient Greek and means "broad", re ...

, godwits, and

gannets Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus ''Morus'' in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. Gannets are large white birds with yellowish heads; black-tipped wings; and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the N ...

Fertiliser factory

Just to the north of the wetland is the largest

superphosphate Triple superphosphate is a component of fertilizer that primarily consists of monocalcium phosphate, Ca(H2PO4)2. Triple superphosphate is obtained by treating phosphate rock with phosphoric acid. Traditional routes for extraction of phosphate roc ...

factory in the country, producing around 250,000 tonnes a year. It began in 1953 on and was bought by

Ravensdown Kempthorne Prosser & Co. Ltd, also known as the New Zealand Drug Company Ltd, was the leading drug and fertiliser manufacturer in New Zealand from 1869 until 1978. The company's full name was Kempthorne Prosser & Co.'s New Zealand Drug Co. Ltd, es ...

in 1987. It is Napier port’s largest importer. Rinse water from a boiler water treatment plant is discharged into the estuary. In 2020 aluminium, cadmium, copper, chromium, zinc, fluoride, nitrate and nickel levels in the drain were above ANZECC (2000) trigger levels.

Suburb

Awatoto is partly an industrial area. Paua Fresh Ltd is an abalone farm in Awatoto, Napier. The facility is currently producing 6,000 kg annually, and sells live abalone throughout

, and can also supply frozen product if requested. The coast at Awatoto is mostly used for fishing. Water activities do take place at the Awatoto river mouth just south of the industrial area. Awatoto is the site of water extraction and bottling.

References

{{coord, -39.5447, 176.9186, region:NZ-HKB, display=title Beaches of the Hawke's Bay Region Suburbs of Napier, New Zealand Populated places around Hawke Bay