Peka Peka, sometimes spelled Pekapeka, is a seaside locality on the

Kapiti Coast The Kapiti Coast District is a local government district of the Wellington Region in the lower North Island of New Zealand, 50 km north of Wellington City. The district is named after Kapiti Island, a prominent island offshore. The pop ...

of New Zealand's

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. It is located just off

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbere ...

and 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 ser ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

between

Waikanae Waikanae (, ) is a town on the Kapiti Coast, 60 kilometres north of the Wellington CBD. The name is a Māori word meaning "waters" (''wai'') "of the grey mullet". The town lies between Paraparaumu, eight kilometres to the southwest, and Ōtak ...

and

Te Horo Te Horo and Te Horo Beach are two localities on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand's North Island. Te Horo Beach is the larger of the two settlements and, as its name implies, is located on the Tasman Sea coast. Te Horo is located to the east, a sh ...

. Peka Peka was briefly internationally famous when a young

emperor penguin The emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri'') is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in length and weighing from . Feathers of th ...

, nicknamed ''Happy Feet'', appeared on Peka Peka beach on 21 June 2011. Emperor penguins are usually only found in the Antarctic. Peka Peka Beach is a clothing-optional beach by custom. New Zealand has no official nude beaches, as public nudity is legal on any beach where it is "known to occur".

Demographics

Peka Peka statistical area covers . It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Peka Peka had a population of 612 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 108 people (21.4%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 255 people (71.4%) 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 246 households. There were 303 males and 309 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.98 males per female. The median age was 52.1 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 99 people (16.2%) aged under 15 years, 66 (10.8%) aged 15 to 29, 300 (49.0%) aged 30 to 64, and 144 (23.5%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 93.1% European/Pākehā, 6.4% Māori, 2.0% Pacific peoples, 3.4% Asian, and 3.4% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 24.0%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 58.8% had no religion, 31.4% were Christian, 0.5% were Hindu, 1.0% were Muslim, 1.0% were Buddhist and 2.0% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 168 (32.7%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 54 (10.5%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $42,500, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 219 (42.7%) people were employed full-time, 99 (19.3%) were part-time, and 15 (2.9%) were unemployed. The demographics for Peka Peka are also incorporated in Waikanae#Demographics.

References

{{Kapiti Coast District Populated places in the Wellington Region Kapiti Coast District Naturism in New Zealand Nude beaches Beaches of the Wellington Region