27-761: The Kaimai Range (sometimes referred to as the Kaimai Ranges ) is a mountain range in the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of a series of ranges, with the Coromandel Range to the north and the Mamaku Ranges to the south. The Kaimai Range separates the Waikato in the west from the Bay of Plenty in the east. The highest point of the range is Mount Te Aroha (953 m), at the foot of which
54-538: A Māori legend that the sun god - male - loved the moon goddess - female. They never could see each another due to the planets positions. One day the moon goddess came to earth to see the sun god, knowing the risks, was turned to stone as the daylight came. Hers was the ultimate expression of love: Te Aroha in Māori. This is why on the Kaimai Range, to the right of Mt Te Aroha is a high skyline silhouetted rock that from afar
81-588: A great fish and pulled it right up from the sea. While he was not looking, his brothers fought over the fish and chopped it up. This great fish became the North Island, and thus a Māori name for the North Island is Te Ika-a-Māui ("The Fish of Māui"). The mountains and valleys are believed to have been formed as a result of Māui's brothers' hacking at the fish. During Captain James Cook 's voyage between 1769 and 1770 , Tahitian navigator Tupaia accompanied
108-510: A television broadcast relay station atop Mount Te Aroha in 1963, relaying Auckland's AKTV2 channel (now part of TVNZ 1 ) to Hamilton and Tauranga. Today, Mount Te Aroha is the main television transmitter and one of two main FM radio transmitters (along with Ruru) serving the Waikato. Airways New Zealand maintains a secondary surveillance radar and ADS-B installation on Te Weraiti , a peak on
135-648: A whole. During the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were over 100 metres lower than present day levels, the North and South islands were connected by a vast coastal plain which formed at the South Taranaki Bight . During this period, most of the North Island was covered in thorn scrubland and forest , while the modern-day Northland Peninsula was a subtropical rainforest . Sea levels began to rise 7,000 years ago, eventually separating
162-509: Is also normal to use the preposition in rather than on , for example "Hamilton is in the North Island", "my mother lives in the North Island". Maps, headings, tables, and adjectival expressions use North Island without "the". According to Māori mythology , the North and South Islands of New Zealand arose through the actions of the demigod Māui . Māui and his brothers were fishing from their canoe (the South Island) when he caught
189-435: Is located at the south-west tip of the island. The island has been known internationally as the North Island for many years. The Te Reo Māori name for it, Te Ika-a-Māui , also has official recognition but it remains seldom used by most residents. On some 19th-century maps, the North Island is named New Ulster (named after Ulster province in northern Ireland) which was also a province of New Zealand that included
216-545: Is shaped as a woman. It is known locally as the rock of Hinemoa. Within the Kaimai Ranges the Hendersons Tramline loop track follows the route of bush tramlines and haul lines once used to extract logs from the bush. The walk includes forest and clearings near the fringe of the park. A side track off the main walk leads down to the base of a waterfall and a large swimming hole. Also some 10–16 km, on
243-639: Is the world's 14th-largest island , constituting 43% of New Zealand's land area. It has a population of 4,077,800 (June 2024), which is 76% of New Zealand's residents, making it the most populous island in Polynesia and the 28th-most-populous island in the world. Twelve main urban areas (half of them officially cities) are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangārei , Auckland , Hamilton , Tauranga , Rotorua , Gisborne , New Plymouth , Napier , Hastings , Whanganui , Palmerston North , and New Zealand's capital city Wellington , which
270-584: Is the town of Te Aroha . The range's terrain is rough, and only two roads pass over it: State Highway 2 , across the northern end of the range through Karangahake Gorge , and State Highway 29 from Tauranga to Hamilton . Mt Te Aroha can be described as the northern head peak of the Kaimai Range. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "eat fermented food" for Kaimāī . The Kaimai Ranges feature in local Māori folklore. The name Te Aroha translates from Māori as Te - The & Aroha - Love. Literally "the love". The name comes from
297-686: The 2018 New Zealand census , an increase of 276 people (15.8%) since the 2013 census , and an increase of 327 people (19.2%) since the 2006 census . There were 678 households, comprising 1,026 males and 1,005 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.02 males per female. The median age was 40.8 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 426 people (21.0%) aged under 15 years, 312 (15.4%) aged 15 to 29, 1,062 (52.4%) aged 30 to 64, and 225 (11.1%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 94.4% European/ Pākehā , 12.4% Māori , 1.0% Pacific peoples , 1.3% Asian , and 2.2% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas
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#1732783009435324-492: The DC-3 Skyliner ZK-AYZ Hastings operating New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 from Whenuapai Airport , Auckland to Tauranga crashed into the range. All 23 aboard died, making it the worst air disaster in mainland New Zealand. The New Zealand Post Office engineering division (radio) built and maintained a microwave communications facility near the top of Kaimai range, close to
351-492: The Hamilton – Tauranga highway saddle. In the 1960s it was a Lenkurt relay as part of the national network, linking Sanitorium Hill near Cambridge to Rotorua , with a spur to Tauranga. It now has cell phone and various other radio communications facilities, and is owned and operated by Telecom New Zealand . Land Parcel: Part Section 126 Block II Tapapa SD [1] The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) commissioned
378-590: The 2023 census, 63.1% of North Islanders identified as European ( Pākehā ), 19.8% as Māori , 10.6% as Pacific peoples , 19.3% as Asian , 1.9% as Middle Eastern/Latin American/African, and 1.1% as other ethnicities. Percentages add to more than 100% as people can identify with more than one ethnicity. Māori form the majority in three districts of the North Island: Kawerau (63.2%), Ōpōtiki (66.2%) and Wairoa (68.5%). Europeans formed
405-487: The Gordon backroad from te Aroha is a four-wheel drive track named Thomsons track, that takes venturers from the foothills around manawaru to the ranges top, where a large swimming hole is present. The Kaimai Range is the result of a fault that uplifted primarily andesitic rocks from long-extinct volcanoes. This fault has not been active for about 140,000 years and started more than a million years ago. In pre-European times,
432-636: The Kaimai range, 5 kilometers north of the State Highway 29 saddle. This is used to facilitate air traffic control . North Island The North Island ( Māori : Te Ika-a-Māui [tɛ i.kɐ ɐ mɑː.ʉ.i] , lit. 'the fish of Māui', officially North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui or historically New Ulster ) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand , separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait . With an area of 113,729 km (43,911 sq mi), it
459-600: The North Island. In 2009 the New Zealand Geographic Board found that, along with the South Island, the North Island had no official name. After a public consultation, the board officially named it North Island, or the aforementioned Te Ika-a-Māui, in October 2013. In prose, the two main islands of New Zealand are called the North Island and the South Island , with the definite article. It
486-437: The South Island, this is solely due to the North Island having higher natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) and international migration; since the late 1980s, the internal migration flow has been from the North Island to the South Island. In the year to June 2020, the North Island gained 21,950 people from natural increase and 62,710 people from international migration, while losing 3,570 people from internal migration. At
513-462: The South Island, with the country's largest city, Auckland, and the capital, Wellington, accounting for nearly half of it. There are 30 urban areas in the North Island with a population of 10,000 or more: The sub-national GDP of the North Island was estimated at NZ$ 282.355 billion in 2021 (78% of New Zealand's national GDP). Nine local government regions cover the North Island and its adjacent islands and territorial waters. Healthcare in
540-403: The area was densely forested by trees such as kauri , mataī and tawa , and was a home for birds such as kererū , tūī , kākā and kiwi . Kaimai statistical area, which does not include the entire range, covers 327.89 km (126.60 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 2,420 as of June 2024, with a population density of 7.4 people per km. Kaimai had a population of 2,028 at
567-411: The circumnavigation of New Zealand. The maps described the North Island as " Ea Heinom Auwe " and " Aeheinomowe ", which recognises the "Fish of Māui" element. Another Māori name that was given to the North Island, but is now used less commonly, is Aotearoa . Use of Aotearoa to describe the North Island fell out of favour in the early 20th century, and it is now a collective Māori name for New Zealand as
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#1732783009435594-451: The conclusion of the Otago gold rush in the 1860s, New Zealand's European population growth has experienced a steady 'Northern drift' as population centres in the North Island have grown faster than those of New Zealand's South Island. This population trend has continued into the twenty-first century, but at a much slower rate. While the North Island's population continues to grow faster than
621-660: The islands and linking the Cook Strait to the Tasman Sea . The North Island has an estimated population of 4,077,800 as of June 2024. The North Island had a population of 3,808,005 at the 2023 New Zealand census , an increase of 213,453 people (5.9%) since the 2018 census , and an increase of 570,957 people (17.6%) since the 2013 census . Of the total population, 733,893 people (19.3%) were aged under 15 years, 743,154 (19.5%) were 15 to 29, 1,721,427 (45.2%) were 30 to 64, and 609,534 (16.0%) were 65 or older. Ever since
648-470: The plurality in the Auckland region (49.8%) and are the majority in the remaining 39 districts. The proportion of North Islanders born overseas at the 2018 census were 29.3%. The most common foreign countries of birth were England (15.4% of overseas-born residents), Mainland China (11.3%), India (10.1%), South Africa (5.9%), Australia (5.5%) and Samoa (5.3%). The North Island has a larger population than
675-553: The tunnel started from both sides of the range in 1969: the headings met in 1976 and the tunnel opened on 12 September 1978. The Kaimai Range and this tunnel led to a Silver Fern railcar service between Auckland and Tauranga being named the Kaimai Express . This service operated from 1991 until 2001. A peak of the Kaimai directly above the tunnel, previously unnamed, was named Stokes Peak in 2010 in honour of geographer Evelyn Stokes . At approximately 9:09 am on 3 July 1963
702-470: Was $ 36,800, compared with $ 31,800 nationally. 309 people (19.3%) earned over $ 70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 915 (57.1%) people were employed full-time, 276 (17.2%) were part-time, and 42 (2.6%) were unemployed. The Kaimai Railway Tunnel runs for nearly nine kilometres under the range, making it the longest tunnel in New Zealand. Construction of
729-428: Was 15.1, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 60.2% had no religion, 29.7% were Christian , 0.6% had Māori religious beliefs , 0.1% were Buddhist and 0.9% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 273 (17.0%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 252 (15.7%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income
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