Pukehou is a farming locality in southern

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

, in the eastern

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 ...

of New Zealand. Pukehou is located on State Highway 2, about halfway between

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

and

Waipukurau Waipukurau is the largest town in the Central Hawke's Bay District on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Tukituki River, 7 kilometres south of Waipawa and 50 kilometres southwest of Hastings. H ...

. The locality's name (originally ''Pukehouhou'') is

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 ...

, and means "Hill of houhou", the 'houhou' or 'Puahou' being a small native flowering tree, ''

Pseudopanax arboreus ''Pseudopanax arboreus'' or five finger (Māori: ''puahou'' or ''whauwhaupaku''), is a New Zealand native tree belonging to the family Araliaceae. It is one of New Zealand's more common native trees, being found widely in bush, scrub and garden ...

'' or ''Five Finger'' (

: 'Puahou' or 'Whauwhaupaku'). Christ Church, the oldest church in Hawke's Bay and the Waiapu Diocese, was built by Samuel Williams in 1859. It was constructed of local timber with roofing of hand split

totara ''Podocarpus totara'' (; from the Maori-language ; the spelling "totara" is also common in English) is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island and northeastern South Island in lowland, montane a ...

shingles and measured 40 feet by 20 feet. It was extended in both 1881 and 1893, work in the latter date including the north and south transept and chancel. It church was repaired in 1959 with the roof being repiled, repainted and reshingled, and was repainted in 1993. The church has two significant stained glass windows. The east window was designed by John Bonnor while

Karl Parsons Karl Bergemann Parsons (23 January 1884 – 30 September 1934) was a British stained glass artist associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Early life, 1884 – 1898 Parsons was born in Peckham in south London on 23 January 1884, the 12th a ...

designed the north one. The church is registered as a Category I heritage building 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 ...

Marae

Pukehou Marae and Keke Haunga meeting house is a meeting place of Ngāti Kekehaunga,

Ngāti Pukututu Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

and Ngāti Whatuiāpiti, of

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The tribe is organised into six geographical and administrative di ...

. In October 2020, the Government committed $6,020,910 from the

Provincial Growth Fund Shane Geoffrey Jones (born 3 September 1959) is a New Zealand politician. He served as a New Zealand First list MP from 2017 to 2020 and was previously a Labour list MP from 2005 to 2014. Jones was a cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Gove ...

to upgrade a group of 18 marae, including Pukehou Marae. The funding was expected to create 39 jobs.

Education

Pukehou School is a Year 1–8 co-educational state primary school. It is a decile 5 school with a roll of as of

Te Aute College Te Aute College (Māori: Te Kura o Te Aute) is a school in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand. It opened in 1854 with twelve pupils under Samuel Williams, an Anglican missionary, and nephew and son-in-law of Bishop William Williams. It has a ...

is a Year 9–15 boys' single-sex, state integrated secondary school. It is a decile 3 school with a roll of as of

Railway station

Pukehou had a

flag station In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, s ...

on the

Palmerston North–Gisborne Line The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (PNGL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk at Palmerston North and runs east through the Manawatū Gorge to Woodville, where i ...

. It opened on Monday 28 August 1876, when the railway was extended from Te Aute to

Waipawa Waipawa is the second-largest town in Central Hawke's Bay in the east of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a population of At the 2013 census, it had a population of 1,965, a change of 2.2 percent from the 2006 census. The town is locate ...

as part of the Paki Paki to

contract, which international contractors, Brogdens, were building. By 1883 there were 3 trains a day in each direction, serving a shelter shed, platform and a short siding. Stockyards were added in 1889 and, in 1912, an automatic tablet exchanger. On 8 December 1912 the name was changed to Te Aute, but Pukehou reverted to its original name on 14 September 1913. The station closed to all traffic on 31 January 1966. On Sunday 12 November 1995 the Wellington to Napier

Bay Express The ''Bay Express'' was a passenger train between Wellington and Napier in New Zealand's North Island, operating from Monday, 11 December 1989 until Sunday, 7 October 2001. It was operated by New Zealand Railways Corporation's InterCity Rail d ...

derailed at Pukehou, due to taking a curve at . One person died the following day.

References

External links

1890s photo of Pukehou swamp and railway
Central Hawke's Bay District Populated places in the Hawke's Bay Region {{HawkesBay-geo-stub