Taranaki is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

in the west of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of

Mount Taranaki Mount Taranaki (), also known as Mount Egmont, is a dormant stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is the second highest point in the North Island, after Mount Ruapehu. The mountain has a seco ...

, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth District is home to more than 65 per cent of the population of Taranaki. New Plymouth is in North Taranaki along with Inglewood and Waitara. South Taranaki towns include Hāwera, Stratford, Eltham, and Ōpunake. Since 2005, Taranaki has used the promotional brand "Like no other".

Geography

Taranaki is on the west coast of the North Island, surrounding the volcanic peak of Mount Taranaki. The region covers an area of 7258 km². Its large bays north-west and south-west of

Cape Egmont Cape Egmont, splitting Northern and Southern Taranaki Bights, is the westernmost point of Taranaki, on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located close to the volcanic cone of Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont. It was named '' ...

are

North Taranaki Bight The North Taranaki Bight is a large bay that extends north and east from the north coast of Taranaki in New Zealand's North Island. The name is echoed by the South Taranaki Bight to the south of Cape Egmont. As with its southern counterpart, th ...

and

South Taranaki Bight The South Taranaki Bight is a large bay on the west coast of New Zealand, south of Taranaki, west of the Manawatu, north and west of the western entrance of Cook Strait and north of the South Island. The name is sometimes used for a much smaller ...

Mount Taranaki is the second highest mountain in the North Island, and the dominant geographical feature of the region. A Māori legend says that Mount Taranaki previously lived with the

Tongariro Mount Tongariro (; ) is a compound volcano in the Taupō Volcanic Zone of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located to the southwest of Lake Taupō, and is the northernmost of the three active volcanoes that dominate the landscape of th ...

, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu mountains of the central North Island but fled to its current location after a battle with Tongariro. A near-perfect cone, it last erupted in the mid-18th century. The mountain and its immediate surrounds form

Egmont National Park Egmont National Park () is located south of New Plymouth, close to the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The park covers Mount Taranaki and its slopes. The park was first created in 1881 as a forest reserve and went on to become N ...

. Historically, the area consisted of a narrow

coastal plain A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and a piedmont area. Some of the largest coastal plains are in Alaska and the southeastern United States. The Gulf Co ...

covered by bracken, tutu, rewarewa and karaka trees, with anywhere not close to the coast covered in dense forest. Māori had called the mountain ''Taranaki'' for many centuries, and Captain James Cook gave it the English name of ''Egmont'' after the

Earl of Egmont Earl of Egmont was a title in the Peerage of Ireland, created in 1733 for John Perceval, 1st Viscount Perceval. It became extinct with the death of the twelfth earl in 2011. History The Percevals claimed to be an ancient Anglo-Norman family, ...

, the recently retired First Lord of the Admiralty who had encouraged his expedition. The mountain has two alternative official names, "Mount Taranaki" and "Mount Egmont". Mt Taranaki

The region is exceptionally fertile thanks to generous rainfall and rich volcanic soil.

Dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history th ...

predominates, with Fonterra's Whareroa milk factory just outside of Hāwera producing the largest volume of dairy ingredients from a single factory anywhere in the world. There are also oil and gas deposits in the region, both on- and off-shore. The Maui gas field off the south-west coast has provided most of New Zealand's gas supply and once supported two methanol plants, (one formerly a synthetic-petrol plant called the Gas-To-Gasoline plant) at

Motunui Motunui (''large island'' in Māori, from ''Motu Nui'') is a settlement in northern Taranaki, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 3 close to the shore of the North Taranaki Bight, six kilometres east of Waitara. ...

. Fuel and fertiliser is also produced at a well complex at Kapuni and a number of smaller land-based oilfields. With the Maui field nearing depletion, new offshore resources have been developed: the Kupe field, 30 km south of Hāwera and the Pohokura gas field, 4.5 km north of Waitara. The way the land mass projects into the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea ( Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...

with northerly, westerly and southerly exposures, results in many excellent surfing and windsurfing locations, some of them considered world-class.

Demography

Taranaki covers and has a population of as of Statistics New Zealand's , percent of New Zealand's population. It has a population density of people per km². It is the tenth most populous region of New Zealand. Taranaki Region had a population of 117,561 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 7,953 people (7.3%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 13,434 people (12.9%) since the 2006 census. There were 45,249 households. There were 58,251 males and 59,310 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.98 males per female. The median age was 40.0 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 24,666 people (21.0%) aged under 15 years, 19,992 (17.0%) aged 15 to 29, 52,464 (44.6%) aged 30 to 64, and 20,436 (17.4%) aged 65 or older. Of those at least 15 years old, 13,776 (14.8%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 21,690 (23.3%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $29,900, compared with $31,800 nationally. 14,271 people (15.4%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 44,673 (48.1%) people were employed full-time, 14,133 (15.2%) were part-time, and 3,681 (4.0%) were unemployed.

Urban areas

Just under half the residents live in New Plymouth, with Hāwera being the next most populous town in the region.

Culture and identity

The region has had a strong Māori presence for centuries. The local iwi (

tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

) include

Ngāti Mutunga Ngāti Mutunga is a Māori iwi (tribe) of New Zealand, whose original tribal lands were in north Taranaki. They migrated from Taranaki, first to Wellington (with Ngāti Toa and other Taranaki Hāpu), and then to the Chatham Islands (along wit ...

, Ngāti Maru,

Ngāti Ruanui Ngāti Ruanui is a Māori iwi traditionally based in the Taranaki region of New Zealand. In the 2006 census, 7,035 people claimed affiliation to the iwi. However, most members now live outside the traditional areas of the iwi. History Early his ...

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth D ...

Te Āti Awa Te Āti Awa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Taranaki and Wellington regions of New Zealand. Approximately 17,000 people registered their affiliation to Te Āti Awa in 2001, with around 10,000 in Taranaki, 2,000 in Wellington and aro ...

, Nga Rauru, Ngāruahinerangi and

Ngāti Tama Ngāti Tama is a historic Māori iwi of present-day New Zealand which whakapapas back to Tama Ariki, the chief navigator on the Tokomaru waka. The iwi of Ngati Tama is located in north Taranaki around Poutama. The Mōhakatino river marks the ...

. Ethnicities were 84.8% European/Pākehā, 19.8% Māori, 2.1% Pacific peoples, 4.5% Asian, and 2.0% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The percentage of people born overseas was 13.6, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 51.7% had no religion, 36.0% were Christian, 0.8% were Hindu, 0.5% were Muslim, 0.4% were Buddhist and 2.5% had other religions.

History

The area became home to a number of Māori tribes from the 13th century. From about 1823 the Māori began having contact with European

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

s as well as traders who arrived by schooner to buy flax. Around the 1820s and 1830s, whalers targeted Southern right whales in the

. In March 1828 Richard "Dicky" Barrett (1807–47) set up a trading post at Ngamotu (present-day New Plymouth). Barrett and his companions, who were armed with muskets and cannon, were welcomed by the Āti Awa tribe for assisting in their continuing wars with

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 ...

Māori. Following a bloody encounter at Ngamotu in 1832, most of the 2000 Āti Awa living near Ngamotu, as well as Barrett, migrated south to the Kapiti region and Marlborough. In late 1839 Barrett returned to Taranaki to act as a purchasing agent for the

New Zealand Company The New Zealand Company, chartered in the United Kingdom, was a company that existed in the first half of the 19th century on a business model focused on the systematic colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principl ...

, which had already begun on-selling the land to prospective settlers in England with the expectation of securing its title. Barrett claimed to have negotiated the purchase of an area extending from Mokau to

, and inland to the upper reaches of the Whanganui River including

Mt Taranaki Mount Taranaki (), also known as Mount Egmont, is a dormant stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is the second highest point in the North Island, after Mount Ruapehu. The mountain has a secon ...

. A later deed of sale included New Plymouth and all the coastal lands of North Taranaki, including Waitara. European settlement at New Plymouth began with the arrival of the ''William Bryan'' in March 1841. European expansion beyond New Plymouth, however, was prevented by Māori opposition to selling their land, a sentiment that deepened as links strengthened with the

King Movement King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

. Tension over land ownership continued to mount, leading to the outbreak of

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

at Waitara in March 1860. Although the pressure for the sale of the Waitara block resulted from the colonists' hunger for land in Taranaki, the greater issue fuelling the conflict was the Government's desire to impose British administration, law and civilisation on the Māori. The war was fought by more than 3,500 imperial troops brought in from Australia as well as volunteer soldiers and militia against Māori forces that fluctuated from a few hundred and to 1,500. Total losses among the imperial, volunteer, and militia troops are estimated to have been 238, while Māori casualties totalled about 200. An uneasy truce was negotiated a year later, only to be broken in April 1863 as tensions over land occupation boiled over again. A total of 5,000 troops fought in the Second Taranaki War against about 1,500 men, women and children. The style of warfare differed markedly from that of the 1860-61 conflict as the army systematically took possession of Māori land by driving off the inhabitants, adopting a " scorched earth" strategy of laying waste to the villages and cultivations of Māori, whether warlike or otherwise. As the troops advanced, the Government built an expanding line of redoubts, behind which settlers built homes and developed farms. The effect was a creeping confiscation of almost a million acres (4,000 km²) of land.The Taranaki Report: Kaupapa Tuatahi by the Waitangi Tribunal, 1996
The present main highway on the inland side of

follows the path taken by the colonial forces under Major General

Trevor Chute General (United Kingdom), General Sir Trevor Chute, Order of the Bath, KCB (31 July 1816 – 12 March 1886) was an Irish-born officer who served in the British Army during the Victorian era. Born in County Kerry, Ireland, Chute joined the Bri ...

as they marched, with great difficulty, from Patea to New Plymouth in 1866. Armed Māori resistance continued in South Taranaki until early 1869, led by the warrior Titokowaru, who reclaimed land almost as far south as

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...

. A decade later, spiritual leader Te Whiti o Rongomai, based at

Parihaka Parihaka is a community in the Taranaki region of New Zealand, located between Mount Taranaki and the Tasman Sea. In the 1870s and 1880s the settlement, then reputed to be the largest Māori village in New Zealand, became the centre of a major camp ...

, launched a campaign of passive resistance against government land confiscation, which culminated in a raid by colonial troops on 5 November 1881. The confiscations, subsequently acknowledged by the New Zealand Government as unjust and illegal,Ngati Awa Raupatu Report, chapter 10, Waitangi Tribunal, 1999.
/ref> began in 1865 and soon included the entire Taranaki district. Towns including Normanby, Hāwera and Carlyle ( Patea) were established on land confiscated as military settlements. The release of a Waitangi Tribunal report on the situation in 1996 led to some debate on the matter. In a speech to a group of psychologists, Associate Minister of Māori Affairs

Tariana Turia Dame Tariana Turia (born 8 April 1944) is a New Zealand politician. She was first elected to Parliament in 1996. Turia gained considerable prominence during the foreshore and seabed controversy in 2004, and eventually broke with the Labour P ...

compared the suppression of Taranaki Māori to the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, provoking a vigorous reaction around New Zealand, with Prime Minister

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

among those voicing criticism.

Economy

The subnational gross domestic product (GDP) of Taranaki was estimated at NZ$9.51 billion in the year to March 2020, 2.94% of New Zealand's national GDP. The regional GDP per capita was estimated at $76,715 in the same period, the highest in New Zealand. Taranaki’s economy is centred around

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history th ...

, hydrocarbon exploration, and manufacturing (including agricultural and energy based manufacturing) with these industries making up approximately 40 percent of the region’s GDP in 2019. Taranaki has had the highest GDP per capita from 2007 onward except in 2017 when Wellington was higher. In the 2019-20 season, there were 468,000 milking cows in Taranaki, 9.5% of the country's total herd. The cows produced 185,320 tonnes of milk solids, worth $1,334 million at the national average farmgate price ($7.20 per kg). The Dairy Farming industry is the largest employer in Taranaki, comprising 5 per cent of all employees. The region is home to the world’s largest milk production facility by annual volume, Fonterra’s Whareroa Plant near Hawera, which produces milk powder, butter, casein whey and cheese. The region also boasts the largest secondary cheese operation in Asia-Pacific as well as a high-tech lactose plant producing pharmaceutical lactose for the global medical industry and a speciality artisan cheese facility. Natural gas from Taranaki’s fields accounts for around 20% of New Zealand’s primary energy supply. It provides heat, energy and hot water supply for over 245,000 New Zealand households as well as more than 10,000 commercial users such as restaurants, hotels, greenhouses and hospitals. The single biggest user of natural gas is Methanex, also based in Taranaki, who use it as a feedstock to produce methanol for export. Taranaki's natural gas is also used to make urea for use on farms. The head offices of many energy companies are based in the region along with specialist service and supply companies, including freight, logistics, fabrication, technical, professional services and consultancies as well as environmental and health and safety expertise. The region is renowned for its world class engineering design and project management skills, which tackles on and off shore fabrication and construction.

Governance

Provincial government

From 1853 the Taranaki region was governed as the Taranaki Province (initially known as the New Plymouth Province) until the abolition of New Zealand provinces in 1876. The leading office was that of the superintendent. The following is a list of superintendents of the Province of Taranaki during this time:

Taranaki Regional Council

The Taranaki Regional Council was formed as part of major nationwide

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

reforms in November 1989, for the purpose of

integrated catchment management Integrated catchment management (ICM) is a subset of environmental planning which approaches sustainable resource management from a catchment perspective, in contrast to a piecemeal approach that artificially separates land management from water man ...

. The regional council was the successor to the Taranaki Catchment Board, the Taranaki United Council, the Taranaki Harbours Board, and 16 small special-purpose local bodies that were abolished under the ''Local Government Amendment Act (No 3) 1988''. The council's headquarters were established in the central location of Stratford to "provide a good compromise in respect of overcoming traditional south vs north Taranaki community of interest conflicts" (Taranaki Regional Council, 2001 p. 6). Chairs * Ross Allen (1989–2001) * David Walter (2001–2007) * David MacLeod (2007–2022) * Charlotte Littlewood (2022–present)

Motion picture location

Taranaki's landscape and the mountain's supposed resemblance to Mount Fuji led it to be selected as the location for ''

The Last Samurai ''The Last Samurai'' is a 2003 epic period action drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz from a story devised by Logan. The film stars Ken Watanabe in the ...

'', a motion picture set in 19th-century Japan. The movie starred Tom Cruise.

Sports teams

Notable sports teams from Taranaki include: * Yarrows Taranaki Bulls - Mitre 10 Cup Rugby Union Team * Team Taranaki - Central Premier League Football Team *

Taranaki Mountainairs The Taranaki Airs are a New Zealand basketball team based in New Plymouth. The Airs compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at TSB Stadium. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the Steelformers Airs. T ...

- NBL Basketball Team * Taranaki Thunder - Women's Basketball Team * Taranaki Cricket - Men's Cricket Team

Notable people

Harry Atkinson Sir Harry Albert Atkinson (1 November 1831 – 28 June 1892) served as the tenth premier of New Zealand on four separate occasions in the late 19th century, and was Colonial Treasurer for a total of ten years. He was responsible for guiding ...

– Premier of New Zealand and Colonial Treasurer *

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his ca ...

(Te Rangi Hīroa) of

– Māori scholar, politician, military leader, health administrator, anthropologist, museum director, born in Urenui * Richard Faull - New Zealand neuroscientist and academic, born and raised in Tikorangi * Māui Wiremu Pita Naera Pōmare of

- politician, Minister of Health * Frederic Carrington – surveyor and father of New Plymouth * William Douglas Cook – founder of Eastwoodhill Arboretum, Ngatapa, Gisborne and of Pukeiti, world-famous rhododendron garden, New Plymouth. *

Wiremu Kīngi Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke (c. 1795 – 13 January 1882), Māori Chief of the Te Āti Awa Tribe, was leader of the Māori forces in the First Taranaki War. He was born in 1795-1800 in Manukorihi pa, near Waitara. He was one of the 3 sons o ...

– Māori Chief of

, leader in the

First Taranaki War The First Taranaki War (also known as the North Taranaki War) was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori and the New Zealand government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island from M ...

* William Malone – First World War officer *

Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye (; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, M ...

– artist, filmmaker born in Christchurch, collection only housed in New Plymouth * Michael Smither – artist *

Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...

– scholar of ancient history * Te Whiti o Rongomai – spiritual leader of Parihaka and pioneer of peaceful protest strategies

Sports people

*All Blacks: Beauden Barrett, Scott Barrett, Jordie Barrett,

Grant Fox Grant James Fox (born 16 June 1962) is a former rugby union player from New Zealand. He was a member of the All Blacks team that won the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. He is also the father of professional golfer, Ryan Fox. Playing career ...

, Luke McAlister,

Kayla McAlister Kayla Ahki (née McAlister; born 6 August 1988) is a New Zealand netball and rugby sevens player. She has previously played for the Northern Mystics in 2011, and was a training partner in 2012, and currently plays for the New Zealand women's n ...

, Graham Mourie, Conrad Smith, Carl Hayman *Rugby League: , Issac Luke, Curtis Rona, Howie Tamati Graham West * Michael Campbell – golfer * Paige Hareb – professional surfer * Peter Snell – Gold medal-winning athlete, born in Ōpunake Commonwealth gold Bowls, Brian Symes. 7s,World, Commonwealth,Olympic gold medalists..Gayle Broughton & Mikalya Blyde. Silver Ferns, Ardean Harper,

References

External links

Taranaki – Like No Other: The Official Tourism website

Puke Ariki: Taranaki's combined museum, library and visitor information centre

Taranaki Tourism website with in-depth information about the region and an image library

Taranaki Regional Council website
{{Coord, 39, 18, S, 174, 8, E, region:NZ_type:adm1st, display=title