New Plymouth

Though not its capital, New Plymouth is the largest city in the Taranaki region of New Zealand as well as the administrative head of the New Plymouth District in the North Island. The city has 49,500 inhabitants.

With its entire northern coast being the Tasman Sea, the 2,200-square-kilometer district is adjacent to the Waitomo District (in the Waikato region), bounded to the east by the Ruapehu District (in the Manawatu-Wanganui region) and in the south by the Stratford District (mostly in the Taranaki region). The cities of Auckland and Wellington both are about the same distance from New Plymouth. A journey by car to either will take about five hours. A flight takes about fifty minutes.

History

The area where New Plymouth was founded in 1841 was, for centuries, the home of many Maori tribes. The first Europeans operating in this region were whalers. The first European settlers arrived in 1840. Mainly from England, Poland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, as well as from China and India, they came aboard the ship “William Bryant”. The settlers initially arrived just to buy land, but the demand for new land led to conflict with the Maori, who were not willing to sell their land. The new settlers therefore expropriated the land from the Maori. This conflict was the trigger for two of the New Zealand wars in Taranaki, which lasted ten years and resulted in huge losses for the Maori, who were vastly inferior to the British-led soldiers.

Economy

Tourism

A growing sector of the district is devoted to tourism. New Plymouth is becoming more and more popular as the place to vacation, or even to live, because excellent surfing conditions can be found on its coast (hence the name “Surf Highway 45). And one does not need to travel far to Mount Taranaki (in the Stratford district), to enjoy a stay in the Egmont National Park hiking or skiing or snowboarding in winter.
In New Plymouth there is even a botanical garden that is worth seeing – at least the time of its establishment. There is also the quite controversial 45-meter-high sculpture by Len Lye, called “wind wall” (or wind-stick). The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is also in New Plymouth; it houses the most important collection of contemporary art in all of Australasia.

Energy
Off the coast, the district has some of the largest oil and gas resources of the country. Thus, especially in New Plymouth itself, oil and gas processing plants and companies exist in the field of petrochemicals.

Banking
New Plymouth is one of the Taranaki region’s growing financial centers. The Taranaki Savings Bank (TSB) is here, the only bank of New Zealand that neither the government nor any foreign company has shares in.
Agriculture
The fourth industry, agriculture, should also be mentioned. Here, the dairy industry still functions in the region.