otorohanga

Facts page This township of 9,000 has laid claim to being New Zealand's centre of Kiwi Ana. Visitors are greeted by giant corrugated Kiwis at the entrance to town before they witness samples of Kiwi icons in murals and sculptures up the main street. Even the public toilets have examples of Kiwi Ana displayed

Where it is It’s centrally located in the North Island on State Highway 3: 2 hours south of Auckland 45 minutes south of Hamilton 15 minutes north of the world famous Waitomo Caves 1½ hours west of Rotorua 1½ hours north east of Taupo

history The town site in 1822 was the scene of an attack on local Maoris by raiding North Auckland tribesmen, who had recently acquired flintlock muskets. A kahikatea tree in Pine Street stands as a memorial to this encounter. The present town originated as a permanent camp for construction workers engaged in the extension southward of the North Island Main Trunk railway. In the late 1880s, after the discovery of Waitomo Caves by Fred Mace and Tane Tinorau, Otorohanga became the base for the first tourists visiting the caves, 10 miles south-west. The town has been subject to serious flooding which has made necessary the development of a large protection scheme involving diversion cuts and stop-banking. Otorohanga was constituted a town district in 1924, and became a borough on 1 October 1952

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