Te Teko is a small inland town along the banks of the

Rangitaiki River The Rangitaiki River is the longest river in the Bay of Plenty region in New Zealand's North Island. It is long, and rises inland from northern Hawkes Bay to the east of the Kaingaroa Forest. The Rangitaiki catchment covers an area of 3005&nb ...

in the

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...

region of New Zealand's

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. The township includes a racecourse, golf course, police station, and a primary school. The primary school was established in 1881. Te Hoko is in the ''

rohe The Māori people of New Zealand use the word ''rohe'' to describe the territory or boundaries of ''iwi'' (tribes), although some divide their rohe into several ''takiwā''. The areas shown on the map (right) are indicative only, and some iwi ...

'' (tribal area) of the

Ngāti Awa Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi (tribe) centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. It is made of 22 hapū (subtribes), with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns ...

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 ...

History and culture

History

In the mid-1860s, Te Teko was the site of a significant siege on a Māori pā as part of the

East Cape War The East Cape War, sometimes also called the East Coast War, was a series of conflicts fought in the North Island of New Zealand from April 1865 to October 1866 between colonial and Māori military forces. At least five separate campaigns wer ...

. After peace came to the region, a hotel was established on the banks of the Rangitaiki River in 1879 and Te Teko rose in importance as a boat service was established to ferry hotel customers and travellers across the river. A bridge made the boat service redundant in 1915.

Marae

Te Teko has several

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 ...

, which are meeting grounds for Ngāti Awa hapū: * Kokohinau or Tuhimata Marae and O Ruataupare meeting house are affiliated with Te Pahipoto. * Te Māpou Marae and Rongotangiawa meeting house are affiliated with Ngāti Hāmua. * Ruaihona Marae and Ruaihona meeting house are affiliated with Ngāi Tamaoki. * Tuariki Marae and Tuariki meeting house are affiliated with Tuariki. * Tūteao Marae and Tūteao meeting house are affiliated with Ngā Maihi. * Uiraroa Marae and Uiraroa meeting house are affiliated with Ngāi Tamawera. In October 2020, the Government committed $4,871,246 from the

Provincial Growth Fund Shane Geoffrey Jones (born 3 September 1959) is a New Zealand politician. He served as a New Zealand First list MP from 2017 to 2020 and was previously a Labour list MP from 2005 to 2014. Jones was a cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Gove ...

to upgrade a group of 12 marae, including Ruaihona, Tuariki, Tūteao and Uiraroa Marae, creating 23 jobs. It also committed $500,000 to upgrade Te Māpou Marae, creating 6.2 jobs.

Demographics

The population of Te Teko was 441 in the 2018 census, an increase of 102 from 2013. There were 225 males and 219 females. 94.6% of people identified as Māori and 18.4% as European/Pākehā The statistical area of Te Teko Lakes. which at 71 square kilometres is larger than the town and also includes

Te Mahoe Te Mahoe is a rural settlement in the Whakatāne District and Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island, next to Lake Matahina. The community consists of about 150 people, including 30 families in the village at the base of the Lake Ma ...

, had a population of 1,758 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 309 people (21.3%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 51 people (3.0%) 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 465 households. There were 870 males and 888 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.98 males per female. The median age was 32.9 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 435 people (24.7%) aged under 15 years, 396 (22.5%) aged 15 to 29, 747 (42.5%) aged 30 to 64, and 183 (10.4%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 36.0% European/Pākehā, 78.8% Māori, 3.4% Pacific peoples, 2.0% Asian, and 0.5% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 4.9%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 36.7% had no religion, 21.3% were Christian, 0.2% were Buddhist and 33.4% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 132 (10.0%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 318 (24.0%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $19,800, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 516 (39.0%) people were employed full-time, 189 (14.3%) were part-time, and 135 (10.2%) were unemployed.

Geography

The

passes through the town as it flows northwards to its mouth on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, and State Highways 30 and 34 meet in the town. SH 30 cuts through the town on its route from Whakatane to

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

, while SH 34 crosses it in the town's west and runs southwest to

Kawerau Kawerau is a town in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is situated 100 km south-east of Tauranga and 58 km east of Rotorua. It is the seat of the Kawerau District Council, and the only town in Kawerau Distric ...

. To the west of the town runs the

East Coast Main Trunk Railway 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 ...

, and from it diverges the

Murupara Branch The Murupara Branch is a long branch railway line from the East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) at Kawerau to Murupara, built to serve a new pulp and paper mill harvesting the radiata pine trees of the Kaingaroa Forest on the Kaingaroa Plateau in the ...

line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

, which skirts the south of Te Teko. Te Teko has the highest mean daily maximum temperature (20.26 °C) of any settlement in New Zealand, although it is not the warmest town in New Zealand as the mean daily minimum temperature of 8.56 °C is comparatively low. Rainfall is high, averaging 1474mm per year.Climate charts for Te Teko
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Education

Te Kura o Te Teko is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of .

References

{{coord, -38.0361, 176.7961, display=title, format=dms Whakatane District Populated places in the Bay of Plenty Region