Taupiri
Taupiri is a small township of about 450 people on the eastern bank of the Waikato River in the Waikato District of New Zealand. It is overlooked by Taupiri mountain, the sacred burial ground for the Waikato tribes of the MÄori people, located just to the north.
Taupiri is located near the northern end of the Waikato Basin immediately south of the junction of the Mangawara Stream (which drains the northern part of the basin) and the Waikato River. The Waikato River then flows northward through the Taupiri Gorge between the HÄkarimata Range to the south and the Taupiri Range to the north, into the Lower Waikato.
State Highway 1 (SH1) and the North Island Main Trunk railway line run through the town and the gorge, linking Huntly 8 kilometres to the north and NgÄruawÄhia 7 kilometres to the south. The intersection of SH1 and State Highway 1b (SH1B) is at the northern end of Taupiri. When the NgÄruawÄhia Bypass[1] section of the Waikato Expressway is completed the first 2 kilometres of SH1b will become SH1 which will mean that SH1 will bypass Taupiri.
Until sometime in the 19th century, a large MÄori village or town, Kaitotehe, stood on the flat land on the other side of the river, below the HÄkarimata Range.[2] In early years it was the headquarters of NgÄti Mahuta.[3] Te Putu built Taupiri pÄ on the summit of a spur of Taupiri mountain, in the 17th century. When Te Putu was killed, he was buried at the pÄ, which thus became tapu (sacred) and was abandoned. Early European travellers in the area were obliged by MÄori to cross to the other side of the Waikato River to avoid the sacred area. In the early 19th century, Kaitotehe was the home of PÅtatau Te Wherowhero, the paramount chief of NgÄti Mahuta who became the first MÄori King.[4]
Taupiri township was settled by PÄkehÄ in the 1870s, and became a farming centre, with flax mills and a sawmill.[5] A dairy factory was built in 1921, then a larger one in 1930.[3] In the 2006 census, 32 per cent of the population were MÄori.[3]
References
- ↑ NZ Transport Agency: NgÄruawÄhia section of the Waikato Expressway
- ↑ "Introduction". The New Zealand Railways Magazine 9 (6). 1934. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
- 1 2 3 "Taupiri Community Plan 2008 - 2018" (PDF). Waikato District Council. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
- ↑ Kelly, Leslie G. (1940). "Taupiri pa". The Journal of the Polynesian Society 49 (193): 148–59.
- ↑ Swarbrick, Nancy. "Waikato places - NgÄruawÄhia". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 8 December 2011.
Coordinates: 37°37′S 175°11′E / 37.617°S 175.183°E