Tōrere, also written Torere, is a small coastal settlement in the

Ōpōtiki District Ōpōtiki District is a Districts of New Zealand, territorial authority district in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region on the North Island of New Zealand. It stretches from Kutarere and the eastern shore of Ōhiwa Harbour in the west to Cape Runaw ...

of the

Bay of Plenty Region The Bay of Plenty Region is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region in the North Island of New Zealand. Also called just the Bay of Plenty (BOP), it is situated around the Bay of Plenty, marine bight of that same name. The bay was name ...

on New Zealand's

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. It is about by road north-east of the town of

Ōpōtiki Ōpōtiki (; from ''Ōpōtiki-Mai-Tawhiti'') is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Ōpōtiki District Council, the mayor of Ōpōtiki and comes under the Bay of Plenty Region ...

. Neighburing localities include

Opape Opape is a small coastal settlement in the Ōpōtiki District of the Bay of Plenty Region on New Zealand's North Island. It is east of Omarumutu Opape is the eastern end of the traditional territory of the Whakatōhea Māori people, Māori iwi ...

to the south-west and

Hāwai Hāwai is a coastal settlement in the Ōpōtiki District and Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. History Hāwai is in the ''rohe'' (traditional tribal area) of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. Te Whānau ā Apanui placed a ''rāhui'' on ...

to the north-east. Tōrere is the ancestral home of the

Ngāitai Ngāitai is a Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) centred around Tōrere in the eastern Bay of Plenty of New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () ...

people.

History

Tōrere was one of the earliest places visited by the ''

Tainui Tainui is a tribal waka (canoe), waka confederation of New Zealand Māori people, Māori iwi. The Tainui confederation comprises four principal related Māori iwi of the central North Island of New Zealand: Hauraki Māori, Hauraki, Ngāti Maniapo ...

'' migratory waka. Traditional histories tell of Tōrere-nui-ā-rua, eldest child and daughter of

Hoturoa According to Māori tradition, Hoturoa was the leader of the ''Tainui'' canoe, during the migration of the Māori people to New Zealand, around 1400. He is considered the founding ancestor of the Tainui confederation of tribes (iwi), who now in ...

she is referred to as the aho ariki. Tōrere disembarked from the Tainui waka to escape from the advances of the tohunga known as Taikehu. During her escape, Tōrere met a local

rangatira In Māori culture, () are tribal chiefs, the leaders (often hereditary) of a (subtribe or clan). Ideally, were people of great practical wisdom who held authority () on behalf of the tribe and maintained boundaries between a tribe's land ( ...

, Manaakiao and the two married. Their descendants became known as

, and the area was named after Tōrere-nui-ā-rua. The bodies of two girls washed ashore at Torere in 1900. They were among 16 children and two adults who had drowned while crossing the

Mōtū River The Mōtū River is a major waterway in the eastern part of the North Island of New Zealand. It rises south-west of Mātāwai in the Gisborne District, on the south-western side of the Raukūmara Range, and heads roughly northwards to the Pacif ...

days earlier. The body of a 54-year-old woman washed ashore at Torere in 2017. A

hui The Hui people are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the northwestern provinces and in the Zhongyuan region. According to the 2 ...

, held in Torere in August 2018, found locals were opposed to a national Māori Battalion Museum being established at Waitangi to commemorate local men who served or died during World War II.

Marae

Tōrere has a

marae A ' (in Māori language, New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian language, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan language, Tongan), ' (in Marquesan language, Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan language, Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves reli ...

. It includes the Holy Trinity Memorial Church, a 1950s church decorated with carved pillars,

tukutuku Tukutuku panelling is a distinctive art form of the Māori people of New Zealand, a traditional latticework used to decorate meeting houses (wharenui). Other names are Tuitui and Arapaki. Tukutuku flank the posts around the edge of the wharenu ...

panels and stained-glass windows. Its World War II Roll of Honour includes the names of almost 40 local men who served in the

Māori Battalion The 28th (Māori) Battalion, more commonly known as the Māori Battalion (), was a light infantry battalion of the New Zealand Army that served during the Second World War. The battalion was formed following pressure on the Labour government ...

, including eight killed in action.

Education

Te Kura o Torere is a co-educational Māori immersion primary school, with a roll of as of It was established on 27 February 1878 as a Māori school with fifteen pupils. It functioned as a post office, telephone exchange and birth, death and marriage registry during the early 19th century. It became a general school in 1969, then a Māori immersion school in 2001. It features a carved gateway.

Economy

One of the area's largest businesses is Torere Macadamias, an organic

macadamia ''Macadamia'' is a genus of four species of trees in the flowering plant family Proteaceae. They are indigenous to Australia—specifically, northeastern New South Wales and central and southeastern Queensland. Two species of the genus are comm ...

farm established on land not suited to other forms of agriculture. The farm featured on '' Country Calendar'' in 2017. Macadamia research from the farm has been presented at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

. The farm is a major global producer of macadamias and related products.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torere Ōpōtiki District Populated places in the Bay of Plenty Region