Horopito is a locality in the North Island of New Zealand. It lies on State Highway 4 between the village of National Park and the town of

Raetihi Raetihi, a small town in the center of New Zealand's North Island, is located at the junction of State Highways 4 and 49 in the Manawatū-Whanganui region. It lies in a valley between Tongariro and Whanganui National Parks, 11 kilometres west ...

. Horopito was the setting for the 1981 New Zealand feature film '' Smash Palace''. More recently (2011) there has been talk of a short film set in a caravan in Horopito. The film will be entered into the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

. In the early days Horopito was a bustling sawmilling town. It had a railway station (1907-1986), school, two hotels, a bank, a strip club, post office and numerous houses. In 1907 a former Liberal MP,

Kennedy Macdonald Thomas Kennedy Macdonald (6 April 1847 – 17 October 1914), known as Kennedy Macdonald or Kennedy Mac, was a 19th-century Liberal Party Member of Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand. Early life Macdonald was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer in nor ...

, had the impression that Hamilton, Horopito, Waiouru, Marton, and Palmerston North would be the chief places along the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and se ...

line and was advertised as, "The future mercantile and industrial centre between Auckland and Wellington". In the 1920/30s Horopito fell into decline. People left for better work opportunities. Today nothing remains of most of the buildings. The hub of Horopito is the wreckers, Horopito Motors. The yard has been the scene of a few kiwi films like, '' Smash Palace'' and ''

Goodbye Pork Pie ''Goodbye Pork Pie'' is a 1981 New Zealand comedy film directed by Geoff Murphy, co-produced by Murphy and Nigel Hutchinson, and written by Geoff Murphy and Ian Mune. The film was New Zealand's first large-scale local hit. One book described ...

''. Since 2014, the Cold Kiwi Motorcycle Rally has been held at Horopito., www.coldkiwi.co.nz

References

Populated places in Manawatū-Whanganui {{ManawatuWanganui-geo-stub