Katikati is a town in New Zealand (North Island) located on the Uretara Stream near a tidal inlet towards the northern end of

Tauranga Harbour Tauranga Harbour is the natural tidal harbour that surrounds Tauranga CBD and the Mount Maunganui area of Tauranga, New Zealand, and which flows into the Pacific Ocean at Mount Maunganui. The harbour is effectively two flooded river systems separ ...

, 28 kilometres south of

Waihi Waihi is a town in Hauraki District in the North Island of New Zealand, especially notable for its history as a gold mine town. The town is at the foot of the Coromandel Peninsula, close to the western end of the Bay of Plenty. The nearby res ...

and 40 kilometres northwest of

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

. State Highway 2 passes through the town; a bypass scheduled to have begun construction in 2008 is on hold.NZTA: Katikati Bypass
Katikati has become known for its many murals painted on walls of commercial buildings. These were started in the 1990s to regenerate tourist interest in the town and district, and led to the town being recognised New Zealand's 'Most Beautiful Small Town' award for towns of less than 8,000 population in 2005 by the

Keep New Zealand Beautiful Society Litter is a global issue and has a significant human impact on the environment. Litter is especially hazardous because it can enter ecosystems and harm a country's biodiversity. Litter is a prevalent environmental issue in New Zealand. New Zeal ...

. In 2018, Katikati was named "Avocado Capital of New Zealan

Besides its avocado orchards, there are many kiwi-fruit orchards in and around Katikati. There are

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

three kilometres to the south of Katikati at Sapphire Springs.

History and culture

Pre-European history

Katikati was a Maori community that derived from the waka

Mātaatua ''Mātaatua'' was one of the great voyaging canoes by which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand, according to Māori tradition. Māori traditions say that the ''Mātaatua'' was initially sent from Hawaiki to bring supplies of kūmara to Māori ...

and is affiliated with the tribal group in Tauranga,

Ngāi Te Rangi Ngāi Te Rangi or Ngāiterangi is a Māori iwi, based in Tauranga, New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends to Mayor Island / Tuhua and Bowentown in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, south of Te Puke and to Maketu in the east. Ngāi ...

. It was later settled in 1875 by

Ulster Scots people The Ulster Scots ( Ulster-Scots: ''Ulstèr-Scotch''; ga, Albanaigh Ultach), also called Ulster Scots people (''Ulstèr-Scotch fowk'') or (in North America) Scotch-Irish (''Scotch-Airisch''), are an ethnic group in Ireland, who speak an Ulst ...

from

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

through the

Orange Institution The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants, particularly those of Ulster Scots heritage. It als ...

European settlement

The land upon which the town was built was taken from local Māori after the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the M ...

and was given to the settlers by the Central Government. The settlement was established by the Englishman

George Vesey Stewart George Vesey Stewart (1832–1920) was a notable New Zealand farmer, coloniser and local politician. He was born in Brighton, Sussex, England in about 1832. The in the newly formed electorate was hotly contested. Four candidates were nomin ...

, who led two groups of mostly Irish settlers there aboard the ships ''Carisbrook Castle'' (1875) and ''Lady Jocelyn'' (1878). The settlement was formed from two distinct groups: "the settlers useful" (tenant farmers) and "the settlers ornamental" (those with wealth). The settlement managed to withstand early economic problems and developed into a healthy town, based around farming and agriculture. In the latter 19th century, the

kauri gum Kauri gum is resin from kauri trees (''Agathis australis''), which historically had several important industrial uses. It can also be used to make crafts such as jewellery. Kauri forests once covered much of the North Island of New Zealand, be ...

digging trade became an important industry in the area. Katikati was one of the southernmost areas where the gum could be found, as it is close to the historical southern limit for where

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now largely res ...

trees could thrive.

Marae

There are two

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 ...

in the Katikati area.

Te Rere a Tukahia Marae Katikati is a town in New Zealand (North Island) located on the Uretara Stream near a tidal inlet towards the northern end of Tauranga Harbour, 28 kilometres south of Waihi and 40 kilometres northwest of Tauranga. State Highway 2 passes through ...

and its

Tamawhariua Katikati is a town in New Zealand (North Island) located on the Uretara Stream near a tidal inlet towards the northern end of Tauranga Harbour, 28 kilometres south of Waihi and 40 kilometres northwest of Tauranga. State Highway 2 passes through ...

meeting house are affiliated with the

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 ...

of Ngāi Tamawhariua. Tuapiro Marae and its Ngā Kurī a Wharei meeting house are affiliated with the

Ngāti Ranginui Ngāti Ranginui is a Māori iwi (tribe) in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends from Waihi in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, to south of Te Puke in the south, and to Tauranga in the east. The rohe does not exten ...

hapū of Ngāti Te Wai.

Transport

Katikati is situated on State Highway 2. There are proposals to bypass Katikati with an upgrade including two roundabouts. Katikati was previously on the

East Coast Main Trunk The East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) is a railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawerau ...

railway line. The railway closed in September 1978 when the

Kaimai Tunnel The Kaimai Tunnel is a Rail transport in New Zealand, railway tunnel through the Kaimai Range in the North Island of New Zealand. Since it was opened in 1978, it has held the title of Tunnels in New Zealand#Railway Tunnels, longest tunnel, at , ...

opened. The railway from Apata through to Paeroa remained in place until 1980. There were proposals to keep the section of railway from Apata to Katikati before it was dismantled.

Demographics

Katikati covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Katikati, Wall Painting on Main Road 2

Katikati had a population of 5,010 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 915 people (22.3%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 1,386 people (38.2%) 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 2,034 households, comprising 2,382 males and 2,625 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.91 males per female. The median age was 53.1 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 795 people (15.9%) aged under 15 years, 693 (13.8%) aged 15 to 29, 1,596 (31.9%) aged 30 to 64, and 1,923 (38.4%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 78.7% 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 Ze ...

, 11.5%

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 ...

, 5.8% Pacific peoples, 11.4%

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 1.1% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas was 28.3, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 43.4% had no religion, 36.5% were

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, 1.0% had Māori religious beliefs, 3.4% were

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

, 0.2% were

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, 0.7% were

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and 6.2% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 492 (11.7%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 1,071 (25.4%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $22,800, compared with $31,800 nationally. 255 people (6.0%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 1,377 (32.7%) people were employed full-time, 546 (13.0%) were part-time, and 105 (2.5%) were unemployed.

Education

Katikati Primary School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students, with a roll of as of .

Katikati College Katikati College is a co-educational Year 7 to 13 school. It is located in the town of Katikati which is approximately northwest of the city of Tauranga in the Western Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of ...

is a co-educational state intermediate and high school for Year 7 to 13 students, with a roll of .

Notable people

Alan Edward Mulgan Alan Edward Mulgan (18 May 1881 – 29 August 1962) was a New Zealand journalist, writer and broadcaster. He was born in Katikati, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, of Protestant Irish parents, on 18 May 1881, and died in Lower Hutt. In 1935, M ...

, journalist, writer, and broadcaster *

Bunny Walters Bunny Te Kokiri Miha Waahi Walters (31 May 1953 – 14 December 2016) was a New Zealand singer who had a number of New Zealand hits during the 1970s. He is best known for the hits "Brandy" and "Take the Money and Run". Background Of Ngāi Te Ra ...

, singer *

Richard O'Brien Richard Timothy Smith. known professionally as Richard O'Brien, is a British-New Zealand actor, writer, musician, composer, and television presenter. He wrote the musical stage show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' in 1973, which has remained in conti ...

, actor, director, and producer *

Dave Gallaher David Gallaher (30October 1873 – 4October 1917) was an Irish-born New Zealand rugby union footballer best remembered as the captain of the "Original All Blacks"—the 1905–06 New Zealand national team, the first representative New Zealand ...

, rugby player

References

External links

Katikati History WebsiteKatikati WebsiteKatikati Mobile AppKatikati CollegeKatikati PrimaryMatahui Primary
{{Authority control Western Bay of Plenty District Populated places in the Bay of Plenty Region Populated places around the Tauranga Harbour