Marokopa is a rural community in

Waitomo District Waitomo District is a territorial authority, located in the Waikato region, at the north of the King Country area in the North Island of New Zealand. A small part of the district, the locality of Tiroa, however, lies in the Manawatū-Whanganui ...

and

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 ...

region 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 ...

. It is located close to the coast between

Awakino Awakino is a settlement in the south of Waitomo District, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 3 at the mouth of the Awakino River, five kilometres north of Mokau. It is 79 km southwest of Te Kuiti, and 98&n ...

and

Kawhia Harbour Kawhia Harbour (Maori: ''Kāwhia'') is one of three large natural inlets in the Tasman Sea coast of the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located to the south of Raglan Harbour, Ruapuke and Aotea Harbour, 40 kilometres southwe ...

. The

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 ...

includes the coastal township of Marokopa, at the mouth of the Marokopa River, and the south side of the small village of Awamarino, about upstream. The area was settled by

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

workers in the 19th century. It has been predominantly a farming locale since the early 20th century. In 1911 a large dairy factory was built, which mainly made butter which was shipped to

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 ...

. The Awamarino factory was enlarged in 1932, but closed in 1937. A telephone link to Te Kuiti was completed in 1914 and a service car ran on Tuesdays and Fridays from 1920. The town also had a post office, a flaxmill and a school (1908-1982). The nearest school is now Piripiri, upstream. There is a campground.

Demographics

In 2018, Marokopa was in meshblocks 4002699-700. Previously, it was in meshblock 1019000. These meshblocks had these census results - Monotis_fossil_shells_-_Kiritehere_beach

Monotis_fossil_shells_-_Kiritehere_beach

Geology

The coast between Marokopa and Kiritehere is accessible at low tide. Along the few kilometres, a succession of

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch ...

and

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 ...

rocks are exposed. They are part of the western limb of the Kawhia

Syncline In structural geology, a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure, whereas an anticline is the inverse of a syncline. A synclinorium (plural synclinoriums or synclinoria) is a large syncline with superimpose ...

, which extends north to the Hakarimatas and have been described as the best Triassic sequence in the North Island. The rocks are youngest at Marokopa ( Aratauran) and oldest to the south of Kiritehere ( Otapirian), where there is a large bed of monotis, one of the

index fossils Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. “Biostratigraphy.” ''Oxford Reference: Dictionary of Bi ...

Marae

Marokopa Marae and Miromiro i te Pō meeting house are a meeting ground for the local

Ngāti Maniapoto Ngāti Maniapoto is an iwi (tribe) based in the Waikato-Waitomo region of New Zealand's North Island. It is part of the Tainui confederation, the members of which trace their whakapapa (genealogy) back to people who arrived in New Zealand on th ...

hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...

Ngāti Kinohaku Kinohaku was a Maori woman of Ngāti Maniapoto in the Tainui tribal confederation from the Waikato region, New Zealand. She is the eponymous ancestor of the Ngāti Kinohaku hapu (sub-tribe) of Ngāti Maniapoto and probably lived in the seventeen ...

, Te Kanawa and Peehi.

References

{{Waitomo District Populated places in Waikato Waitomo District

Demographics

Geology

Marae

See also

References