Te Rehunga is a rural locality located in the

Tararua District The Tararua District is a district near the south-east corner of New Zealand's North Island that is administered by the Tararua District Council. It has a population of and an area of 4,364.65 km². The Tararua District Council was created b ...

, part of the Manawatu Whanganui Region of New Zealand. Known today for its sheep and dairy farming, Te Rehunga is adjacent to the agricultural service towns of

Dannevirke Dannevirke ( "Earthworks (archaeology), work of the Danes", a reference to Danevirke; mi, Taniwaka, lit= or ''Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua'', the area where the town is), is a rural service town in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island, New ...

and Woodville, and borders the eastern slopes of the

Ruahine Range The Ruahine Range is the largest of several mountain ranges in the North Island of New Zealand that form a ridge running parallel with the east coast of the island between East Cape and Wellington. The ridge is at its most pronounced from the cen ...

. Local education is provided by Ruahine primary school, with older students attending the nearby

Dannevirke High School Dannevirke ( "work of the Danes", a reference to Danevirke; mi, Taniwaka, lit= or ''Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua'', the area where the town is), is a rural service town in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island, New Zealand. It is the major ...

. The other primary school in Te Rehunga, Rua Roa, was closed in 2003 and the student population transferred to Ruahine School.

Local history

The area was settled originally by

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 ...

iwi 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 ...

'' (tribes), primarily members of the

Rangitāne Rangitāne is a Māori people, Māori iwi (tribe). Their rohe (territory) is in the Manawatū-Whanganui, Manawatū, Horowhenua, Wairarapa and Marlborough Region, Marlborough areas of New Zealand.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 ...

. A nearby

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

, or "meeting house", is the famous Makirikiri Aotea Marae in Dannevirke. There is a strong Māori presence in Te Rehunga, and the Māori continue to play a vital role in the culture and community at large. European settlement in the region began with the arrival of Scandinavian settlers, brought in to begin logging the old-growth timber in the region known as the " Seventy-Mile Bush" (from

Norsewood Norsewood is a small rural settlement in the Tararua District and Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. The town is situated east of the Ruahine Mountain range and is located 20 kilometres northeast of Dannevirke. Geography ...

south to what is now Eketahuna). To this day, Te Rehunga retains some significant vestiges of the original Danish settlement, including descendants of the Danish and Norwegian families.

Today

The Te Rehunga area, although affected by the expected closure of the nearby PPCS Oringi meat-processing plant, continues to slowly progress economically, due in part to its proximity to the Ruahine Forest Parks,Ruahine Forest Park
as well as adjacent to the busy SH2 national highway linking Auckland and Wellington via Hawke's Bay.

References

{{coord, -40.21, 176.01, display=title Tararua District