Kihikihi, a small town located in the

Waikato Waikato () is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsul ...

region of the North Island of

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 ...

, serves as a satellite community of

Te Awamutu Te Awamutu is a town in the Waikato region in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the council seat of the Waipa District and serves as a service town for the farming communities which surround it. Te Awamutu is located some south of Hamilt ...

, five kilometres to the north, and lies 35 kilometres south of

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. The 2018 New Zealand census recorded a population of 2,808 people The main reason for the large increase since 2013 is the construction of a large number of new dwellings. The town's outer rim has merged with the expanding rim of Te Awamutu, rendering the boundary between the two towns difficult to perceive. ''Kihikihi'' is a Māori-language word meaning "

cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into tw ...

"; the name imitates the sound made by the insect. A large statue of a cicada stands at the northern entrance to the town. Kihikihi's multi-purpose sports domain hosts national and international equestrian events such as the FEI Eventing World Cup. The town is also home to the historic Kihikihi Polo Club, founded in 1892 by the Kay family.

History

KIhikihi in the 19th century was described as a "border settlement" or a "frontier town" by James Cowan, ruined in the 1880s by the "Great Wet Peace" with the partition of the King Country and land-buying from Māori .

Demographics

Kihikihi covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Kihikihi Star Hotel (c

Kihikihi had a population of 2,808 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 336 people (13.6%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 447 people (18.9%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 999 households, comprising 1,389 males and 1,422 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.98 males per female, with 585 people (20.8%) aged under 15 years, 531 (18.9%) aged 15 to 29, 1,260 (44.9%) aged 30 to 64, and 432 (15.4%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 78.8% European/

Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non- Māori New Z ...

, 29.8%

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

, 2.5% Pacific peoples, 2.6% Asian, and 1.5% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas was 13.4, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 52.6% had no religion, 32.4% were Christian, 2.6% had Māori religious beliefs, 0.7% were

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

, 0.5% were

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and 1.7% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 273 (12.3%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 555 (25.0%) people had no formal qualifications. 315 people (14.2%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 1,170 (52.6%) people were employed full-time, 300 (13.5%) were part-time, and 96 (4.3%) were unemployed.

People

John Rochford Sir John Rochford or John de Rochford (died 1410) of Fenn of Boston, Lincolnshire, was an English politician. He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Lincolnshire November 1390, 1394, September 1397 and 1399 and for Cambridgeshire ...

(1832–1893) died in the Star Hotel and is buried in the Kihikihi Cemetery near the Kihikihi Primary school. He was one of the first to survey the routes of today's railways in both the North and South Islands. A reserve in Kihikhi commemorates the name of John Rochford.

Rewi Maniapoto Rewi Manga Maniapoto (1807–1894) was a Ngāti Maniapoto chief who led Kīngitanga forces during the New Zealand government Invasion of Waikato during the New Zealand Wars. Kinship Rewi, or Manga as he was known to his kin, was the child o ...

(1807–1894) lived in Kihikihi, on the site of the Rewi Maniapoto Reserve and the memorial. Kihikihi stood at the core of the productive farm-lands that Maori developed in the 1850s with the help of

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2 (programming language), used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum collection * Color manag ...

missionaries. The district supplied food to new settlers in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

for a brief period. The area became the heartland of anti-government Maori in 1863, during the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the ...

Archaeological sites

20 archaeological sites have been identified in the town, 9 of which are listed by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

- * c1868 Alpha Hotel * 1879 Major Jackson's House * 1881 Christ Church (Anglican) * 1883 Star Hotel * 1894 Rewi Maniapoto Memorial and Reserve * 1904 Town Hall * 1907 Constable's House and Police Station * 1920 World War One Memorial * 94 Lyon St Under the

Reserves Act 1977 The Reserves Act 1977 is an Act of Parliament passed in New Zealand. It is administered by the Department of Conservation It contains provisions for the acquisition, control, management, maintenance, development and use of public reserves. Ty ...

, a management plan for some of the historic area was drawn up for Waipa District Council.

Education

Kihikihi School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of Kihikihi is a dual medium Kura, meaning there is an Aoraki stream taught in English, and a Rumaki stream taught entirely in Te Reo Māori. It opened in 1873, and moved to its current site in 1884. It was destroyed by fire in 1938, and rebuilt in 1952.

Transport

Kihikihi is on SH3. An infrequent bus service operated by GoBus links it to Te Awamutu and Hamilton. The Kihikihi Trail cycleway to Te Awamutu opened in 2017.

References

{{Waipa District Populated places in Waikato Waipa District