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Taranaki
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Taranaki
Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont.
The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth District is one of three in the region and is home to more than 65 per cent of the population of Taranaki. The Stratford District includes the main centres of Stratford, Midhirst, Toko and Whangamōmona. The South Taranaki District includes Hāwera, Manaia, Eltham, and Ōpunake.
Since 2005, Taranaki has used the promotional brand "Like no other".
Taranaki is on the west coast of the North Island, surrounding the volcanic peak of Mount Taranaki. The region covers an area of 7258 km2. Its large bays north-west and south-west of Cape Egmont are North Taranaki Bight and South Taranaki Bight.
Mount Taranaki is the second highest mountain in the North Island, and the dominant geographical feature of the region. A Māori legend says that Mount Taranaki previously lived with the Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe and Ruapehu mountains of the central North Island but fled to its current location after a battle with Tongariro. A near-perfect cone, it last erupted in the mid-18th century. The mountain and its immediate surrounds form Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki (formerly known as Egmont National Park). Historically, the area consisted of a narrow coastal plain covered by bracken, tutu, rewarewa and karaka trees, with anywhere not close to the coast covered in dense forest.
Māori had called the mountain Taranaki for many centuries, and Captain James Cook gave it the English name of Egmont after the Earl of Egmont, the recently retired First Lord of the Admiralty who had encouraged his expedition. The mountain had two alternative official names, "Mount Taranaki" and "Mount Egmont" from the 1980s until 2025 when the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill was passed into law which saw Mount Egmont and Mount Taranaki cease as official geographical names to be replaced by Taranaki Maunga.
The region is exceptionally fertile thanks to generous rainfall and rich volcanic soil. Dairy farming predominates, with Fonterra's Whareroa milk factory just outside of Hāwera producing the largest volume of dairy ingredients from a single factory anywhere in the world. There are also both on and off shore oil and gas deposits in the region. The Maui gas field off the south-west coast has provided most of New Zealand's gas supply and once supported two methanol plants, (one formerly a synthetic-petrol plant called the Gas-To-Gasoline plant) at Motunui. Fuel and fertiliser is also produced at a well complex at Kapuni and a number of smaller land-based oilfields. With the Maui field nearing depletion, new offshore resources have been developed: the Kupe field, 30 km south of Hāwera and the Pohokura gas field, 4.5 km north of Waitara.
The way the land mass projects into the Tasman Sea with northerly, westerly and southerly exposures, results in many excellent surfing and windsurfing locations, some of them considered world-class.
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Taranaki AI simulator
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Taranaki
Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont.
The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth District is one of three in the region and is home to more than 65 per cent of the population of Taranaki. The Stratford District includes the main centres of Stratford, Midhirst, Toko and Whangamōmona. The South Taranaki District includes Hāwera, Manaia, Eltham, and Ōpunake.
Since 2005, Taranaki has used the promotional brand "Like no other".
Taranaki is on the west coast of the North Island, surrounding the volcanic peak of Mount Taranaki. The region covers an area of 7258 km2. Its large bays north-west and south-west of Cape Egmont are North Taranaki Bight and South Taranaki Bight.
Mount Taranaki is the second highest mountain in the North Island, and the dominant geographical feature of the region. A Māori legend says that Mount Taranaki previously lived with the Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe and Ruapehu mountains of the central North Island but fled to its current location after a battle with Tongariro. A near-perfect cone, it last erupted in the mid-18th century. The mountain and its immediate surrounds form Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki (formerly known as Egmont National Park). Historically, the area consisted of a narrow coastal plain covered by bracken, tutu, rewarewa and karaka trees, with anywhere not close to the coast covered in dense forest.
Māori had called the mountain Taranaki for many centuries, and Captain James Cook gave it the English name of Egmont after the Earl of Egmont, the recently retired First Lord of the Admiralty who had encouraged his expedition. The mountain had two alternative official names, "Mount Taranaki" and "Mount Egmont" from the 1980s until 2025 when the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill was passed into law which saw Mount Egmont and Mount Taranaki cease as official geographical names to be replaced by Taranaki Maunga.
The region is exceptionally fertile thanks to generous rainfall and rich volcanic soil. Dairy farming predominates, with Fonterra's Whareroa milk factory just outside of Hāwera producing the largest volume of dairy ingredients from a single factory anywhere in the world. There are also both on and off shore oil and gas deposits in the region. The Maui gas field off the south-west coast has provided most of New Zealand's gas supply and once supported two methanol plants, (one formerly a synthetic-petrol plant called the Gas-To-Gasoline plant) at Motunui. Fuel and fertiliser is also produced at a well complex at Kapuni and a number of smaller land-based oilfields. With the Maui field nearing depletion, new offshore resources have been developed: the Kupe field, 30 km south of Hāwera and the Pohokura gas field, 4.5 km north of Waitara.
The way the land mass projects into the Tasman Sea with northerly, westerly and southerly exposures, results in many excellent surfing and windsurfing locations, some of them considered world-class.