Kaihere is a dispersed

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, 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, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

rural settlement on SH27, overlooking the

Hauraki Plains The Hauraki Plains are a geographical feature and non-administrative area (though Hauraki Plains County Council existed from 1920 to 1989 and a statistical Area Unit remains) located in the northern North Island of New Zealand, at the lower ( ...

. It has a school, hall, domain a

rest area A rest area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a motorway, expressway, or highway, at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary roads. Other names include motorway servi ...

and is the starting point for the Hapuakohe Walkway.

Demographics

Kaihere's

meshblock Mesh blocks or meshblocks are a small geographic unit used in the census of several countries. New Zealand New Zealand's countrywide meshblock framework was first set up in 1976, although the term dates back to at least the 1916 census. The me ...

(1069500 includes the school and most houses) had these census results -

Geology

The village lies on the edge of

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

, of the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

Manaia Hill Group, and the

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

of the Hauraki

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...

. Much of the village is built on the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 That formation has

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

s of

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

quartz vein In geology, a vein is a distinct sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock. Veins form when mineral constituents carried by an aqueous solution within the rock mass are deposited through precipitation. The hydraulic flow involved ...

-stone,

cryptocrystalline Cryptocrystalline is a rock microstructure, rock texture made up of such minute crystals that its crystalline nature is only vaguely revealed even microscopically in thin section by transmitted polarized light. Among the sedimentary rocks, chert a ...

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

, and banded

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

, with

cobbles Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...

of greywacke, in a poorly cemented bed of

pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular vol ...

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

. The Hauraki

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...

probably started about 3 million years ago. Subsidence now is about a year. 1915_Patetonga_and_Kaihere_plans_and_notice_of_auction

History

The early inhabitants largely used the wetlands for fishing.

Ngāti Hako Ngāti Hako is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. The people of Ngati Hako are acknowledged as the earliest settlers in the Hauraki region. Although Ngati Hako endured long periods of conflict with the Marutūāhu peoples, they were never completely o ...

and

Ngāti Pāoa Ngāti Pāoa is a Māori people, Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) that has extensive links to the Hauraki and Waikato tribes of New Zealand. Its traditional lands stretch from the western side of the Hauraki Plains to Auckland. They also settled on Hauraki ...

lived in the area when early

settler A settler is a person who has human migration, migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a ...

s arrived. The

Musket Wars The Musket Wars were a series of as many as 3,000 battles and raids fought throughout New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands) among Māori between 1807 and 1837, after Māori first obtained muskets and then engaged in an intertribal arms ra ...

caused much disruption in the 1820s. Government gradually bought the wetlands, including Kaihere, until it controlled enough to enact the Hauraki Plains Act 1908. In 1906 work started on a road to

Ohinewai Ohinewai or Ōhinewai is a small settlement in the Waikato Region, in New Zealand. It is located on the east bank of the Waikato River on SH1, 9 km north of Huntly The name is Māori for "girl's water place" (''o'' = place of, ''hine'' = ...

and on cutting the bends in the

Piako River The Piako River is a lowland river system that drains into the Firth of Thames on the North Island of New Zealand. Together with the Waihou River, it is one of the two main rivers systems which drains the Hauraki Plains. It is the dominant river ...

below Kaihere Landing. From 1908 stopbanks and drainage canals were built. By March 1915 had been sold to 294 farmers, mainly for

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

ing.

Flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

was milled at Kaihere from the 1890s to the 1940s. Flax growing was set back by fires, which were a problem as the peat dried out, following drainage. A 2018 plan will strengthen stopbanks and diversion ponds below Kaihere. 1922_steamers_at_Kaihere_Landing

Transport

telemetry Telemetry is the in situ data collection, collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic data transmission, transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Gr ...

box on SH27, south of Kaihere recorded average traffic up by 31% in the decade 2008 to 2017, from 3,965 to 5,182. 982 (19%) of those were heavy vehicles, mainly trucks. Until 1941 Northern Steamships linked Kaihere Landing with

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

thrice weekly. Some of the landing is still visible.

Education

Kaihere School is a 2-class rural primary school, with a roll of as of The school has a fort, native bush walk, playing field, netball court and a pool. It is a Silver Enviroschool.

War memorial pavilion

The 1929 Kaihere war memorial pavilion is listed as A - Heritage Feature in

Hauraki District Hauraki District is a territorial authority within the Hauraki region of New Zealand. The seat of the council is at Paeroa. The area covered by the district extends from the southwest coast of the Firth of Thames southeast towards Te Aroha, alth ...

Plan. It is a small timber gabled box cottage, in front of the 1917 Community Hall, with kauri bench seats under the veranda. It was moved from the Domain in Ohinewai Road to the school in 2005, was used by the Woman's Institute and was intended as a library and sports pavilion. A new memorial was dedicated on 25 April 2006, with the moved First World War

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

, a new one for World War 2 and a settlers memorial wall.

References

{{Hauraki District Hauraki District Populated places in Waikato