Te Kawa is a rural community in the

Ōtorohanga District Ōtorohanga District is a territorial municipality in the King Country area and Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is a mostly rural area, with Otorohanga town being by far the biggest urban area, with a population nearing 3, ...

and

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 New Zealand's North Island. It lies just to the south of the volcanic hills of

Kakepuku Kakepuku (Kakipuku-o-kahurere) is a volcanic cone which rises from the plain between the Waipā and Puniu rivers, about NW of Te Kawa and SW of Te Awamutu in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. Geology The 'Geology of the Wa ...

and Te Kawa. Until the swamp was drained in the 1900s, Te Kawa was well known for its eels. Te Kawa railway station, a station on 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 se ...

, was located in the area. It operated from 9 March 1887 and closed 17 October 1971. A post office was open by 1909 and a dairy factory and a school existed in 1913. Te Kawa Bridge over the Waipā opened in 1915. A town hall opened in 1928. Te Whakaaro Kotahi Marae in Te Kawa is a meeting ground of the

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 op ...

of Te Kanawa. It includes a small building.

Demographics

Te Kawa settlement is in three SA1 statistical areas which cover . The SA1 areas are part of the larger Te Kawa statistical area. The SA1 areas had a population of 504 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 84 people (20.0%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 54 people (12.0%) 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 150 households, comprising 264 males and 246 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.07 males per female, with 147 people (29.2%) aged under 15 years, 96 (19.0%) aged 15 to 29, 210 (41.7%) aged 30 to 64, and 57 (11.3%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 88.7% 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 ...

, 23.2%

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 ...

, 0.6% Pacific peoples, 2.4%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, and 1.8% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 58.3% had no religion, 28.6% were Christian, 0.6% had Māori religious beliefs, 1.2% were Muslim and 1.8% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 45 (12.6%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 75 (21.0%) people had no formal qualifications. 63 people (17.6%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 192 (53.8%) people were employed full-time, 54 (15.1%) were part-time, and 12 (3.4%) were unemployed.

Te Kawa statistical area

Te Kawa statistical area covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Te Kawa had a population of 1,209 at the

, an increase of 135 people (12.6%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 141 people (13.2%) since the

. There were 393 households, comprising 618 males and 591 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.05 males per female. The median age was 32.9 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 330 people (27.3%) aged under 15 years, 225 (18.6%) aged 15 to 29, 528 (43.7%) aged 30 to 64, and 126 (10.4%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 88.1% European/

, 20.1%

, 2.2% Pacific peoples, 3.5%

, and 1.7% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas was 10.2, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 57.1% had no religion, 30.3% were Christian, 0.5% had Māori religious beliefs, 0.5% were Muslim and 1.7% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 114 (13.0%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 165 (18.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $38,200, compared with $31,800 nationally. 144 people (16.4%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 489 (55.6%) people were employed full-time, 141 (16.0%) were part-time, and 33 (3.8%) were unemployed. Te_Kawa_from_Kakepuku

Te Kawa hill

Te Kawa hill is high and just to the north of the village. The 'Geology of the Waikato Area' says, "The Alexandra Volcanic Group consists of several low-angle composite cones, including

Karioi Karioi or Mount Karioi is a 2.4 million year old extinct stratovolcano SW of Raglan in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It was the earliest of the line of 6 calcalkalic volcanoes, the largest of which is Mount Pirongia (the oth ...

Pirongia Pirongia is a small town in the Waipa District of the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is 12 kilometres to the west of Te Awamutu, on the banks of the Waipā River, close to the foot of the 962 metre Mount Pirongia, which lies i ...

, Te Kawa and Tokanui volcanoes, aligned southeast from Mount Karioi on the coast to Tokanui." It was formed in the Late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

of subduction-related basaltic

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...

s. Te Kawa is the only Alexandra Volcanic with a crater remaining. Outcrops of coarse

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

and lapilli tuff are on the north and northeast sides of the crater and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

boulders with augite

megacryst In geology, a megacryst is a crystal or grain that is considerably larger than the encircling matrix. They are found in igneous and metamorphic rocks. Megacrysts can be further classified based on the nature of their origin, either as:Chapman, Carl ...

s in the crater. There is a pā site on the south side of the crater, with ramparts up to high and ditches up to deep. There are also several pits and terraces.

References

{{Ōtorohanga District Ōtorohanga District Populated places in Waikato

Demographics

Te Kawa statistical area

Te Kawa hill

See also

References