Ohakune
Ohakune is a small town at the southern end of Tongariro National Park, close to the southwestern slopes of the active volcano Mount Ruapehu, in the North Island of New Zealand.
A rural service town known as New Zealand's Carrot Capital, Ohakune is a popular base in winter for skiers using the ski fields of Mount Ruapehu and in summer for trampers hiking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Ohakune is also famous for its giant carrot sculpture on the main road into the town.
Toponymy
The Ngāti Rangi iwi say the Māori language name Ohakune comes from the phrase "he Ohakune ki te ao", which broadly means "an opening to a new world" and refers to the descent from Mount Ruapehu into the valley and swamps of the area. In 2019 the New Zealand Geographic Board changed the official name to Ōhakune, indicating that the first letter was a long vowel, but swiftly reverted to Ohakune without a macron when Ngāti Rangi objected.History
Pre-European history
The lands to the south and west of Mount Ruapehu were historically inhabited by the Māori of the Ngāti Rangi iwi.Around the middle of the seventeenth century a marae at Rangataua, a small town about five kilometres south-east of Ohakune, was attacked and the inhabitants were driven from their homes by raiders from the Ngāti Raukawa, an iwi from farther east in Manawatū. Around 75 of the village's population were slain and the dozen or so survivors fled to Maungarongo and established a pā on the present site of the town of Ohakune.
Establishment
The Crown purchased 10,000 acres of Native land at Ohakune in 1879.In 1883, the first engineering reconnaissance commenced for the Marton—Te Awamutu section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway and a base was established upon the present site of Ohakune, soon becoming a permanent camp for railway and road construction workers. Settlement of the town commenced in the early 1890s around the confluence of the Mangawhero and Mangateitei rivers, along the road from Raetihi to Taumarunui. Forty quarter-acre sections in the township were sold at auction in February 1893. Prior to the completion of the railway to the town, all supplies had to be transported via cart from Hunterville, or from Whanganui via the Whanganui River steamer to Pipiriki and then by cart for the remaining distance. By March 1908 the railway line had reached Ohakune, with new development around the railway station to the northeast of the early settlement becoming known as Ohakune East and then Ohakune Junction. The period of railway construction activities was followed quickly by intensive timber milling; as the forest was cleared, cattle and sheep were introduced and farming progressed. Ohakune was constituted a town district in August 1908 and in November 1911 attained borough status.
Railway
The central North Island section of the North Island Main Trunk was the last part to be constructed. Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward drove the last spike on 6 November 1908, and the 'Last Spike' monument is at Manganui-o-te-Ao, near Pokaka to the north of Ohakune. A two-day NIMT service started on 9 November 1908, with an overnight stop at Ohakune or Taumarunui. On 14 February 1909, the first NIMT express left Auckland for Wellington, an overnight trip scheduled to take 19 hours 15 minutes, with a sleeping car, day cars with reclining seats, and postal/parcels vans. The dining car went on the north express from Wellington to Ohakune, then transferred to the southbound express, so avoiding the heavy gradients of the central section.A railway branch line from Ohakune to Raetihi was opened on 18 December 1917 and closed on 1 January 1968. A truss bridge formerly used by this branch still stands near the Big Carrot. In March 1918 there was a major fire at Raetihi. A relief train was sent along the branch line from Ohakune to rescue hundreds of people, many of whom were temporarily blinded by smoke and had sought shelter in waterways.
In the 1980s a section of the trunk line between Ohakune and Horopito was realigned, with three viaducts replaced to handle higher loads and speeds.
Although the railway was important for many years for moving passengers and freight including timber and produce, by the mid-1980s Ohakune was no longer a major stop for passenger or goods trains.
Timber milling
Alec Bennett and John Punch opened a sawmill at Raetihi in 1893. The tramway they built to remove logs from the bush now forms part of Te Ara Mangawhero, a new cycling and walking track between Ohakune and Mount Ruapehu. The earliest sawmill in Ohakune may have been J F Bell's mill, in operation there in 1904. Another of the early mills in Ohakune was established in 1909 by Frank Carter, whose business later developed into the firm Carter Holt Harvey. Carter's mill operated on the south side of the Mangateitei Stream until the bush around it was cleared in 1915. Sawmilling was the main industry in Ohakune between 1909, after the railway reached Ohakune, and the late 1920s. After this, sawmilling declined in importance as most of the bush around Ohakune had been felled by then, and in 1929 the Great Depression began.Milling picked up again in the 1960s when the Karioi Forest was replanted, and in the 1970s a pulp mill opened at Karioi.
Market gardens
From the early 1900s, Chinese began to settle in Ohakune, which had fertile, loamy volcanic soil good for growing crops. They worked as gardeners and shopkeepers, selling produce to bushmen and sawmillers in the area. Market gardening expanded after the arrival of the railway, as access to markets in Auckland and Wellington became easier. Chinese market gardeners began to lease recently deforested land, removing stumps, improving the soil and then growing oats, root vegetables and cabbages. After several years grass would be sown on the improved land and the lease would return to the land owners, while the Chinese would move to another site to garden. By 1939 there were about 20 Chinese market gardeners operating from Ohakune with about 1500 acres under cultivation in the greater Ohakune/Raetihi area, and in 1941 a report stated that Ohakune and the surrounding district produced almost half of the North Island's vegetables. During World War 2, Ohakune became a base for the government's Services Vegetable Production scheme. Growers were contracted to supply vegetables to New Zealand and Allied Forces in the Pacific, and to the army base at Waiouru. Labour was scarce, so prisoners from the nearby Waikune Prison Camp were brought in to help tend the crops.After World War 2, some market gardens were converted to farms for returned soldiers, so there was less land available for the Chinese gardeners to lease. Consolidation of gardens into bigger operations, specialisation and mechanisation reduced the number of market gardens. Produce began to be transported by road rather than rail. Many Chinese growers left the area, often moving to Pukekohe, and the percentage of gardens in Ohakune run by Europeans increased. A big decrease in the number of market gardens occurred in the 1980s as the original farmers died.
1942 flood
A serious flood occurred in Ohakune on 6 January 1942, killing one resident. Both rivers in the town burst their banks, topsoil on market gardens was washed away, and huge quantities of silt and "driftwood" were deposited on the streets. The Waimarino Acclimatisation Society blamed the floods on removal of native bush on Mount Ruapehu, leading to erosion.Ohakune Mountain Road, Turoa ski field and Turoa Alpine Village
For many years skiers, trampers and residents of Ohakune promoted the idea of a road from Ohakune up Mount Ruapehu to provide access to a new ski area. In 1910 the Ohakune Ruapehu Alpine Club created a track, and for years there were funding requests, engineering reports and discussions with the Tongariro National Park Board and the government. In November 1952, the Ohakune Chamber of Commerce and Ohakune Borough Council asked the Tongariro National Park Board for permission to build a nine-mile road to Blyth Hut. Residents donated money and volunteers worked on the road, aiming to build a mile of road each year. It took 10 years of mainly volunteer labour to construct the road, which was officially opened on 4 March 1963. The road was extended higher up the mountain in 1966–1967. Over its short length the road rises through rimu forest, beech forest and tussock.A ski tow operated by an Ohakune company was installed on the mountain in May 1962, and with construction of the access road completed, development of the Turoa ski field became viable. Turoa ski field opened for skiing in 1978, with its official opening in 1979.
Initially, accommodation for skiers visiting the newly opened ski field was provided at a large caravan park at Rochfort Park, which had formerly been Rochfort Station on the closed Raetihi railway branch line. This land later became the site of the Big Carrot and Carrotland. The ski field company then bought 50 acres of land nearby on the southern outskirts of Ohakune and built Turoa Alpine Village, consisting of chalet and A-frame style lodges, to provide accommodation for the 1980 ski season and beyond.
Geography
Ohakune is located in the Ruapehu District and the Manawatū-Whanganui region, to the immediate south-west of the slopes of the Mount Ruapehu stratovolcano. The associated Ohakune volcanic complex is just to the north of the town and the small maar lakes Rangatauanui and Rangatauaiti are to the south of the town. The town is west of Waiouru, northeast of Whanganui, north of Wellington and south of Auckland, and is at an elevation of.The Mangateitei Stream flows roughly east to west through the town, joining the Mangawhero River which flows southward from near the railway station and then turns west.
Climate
Demographics
Stats NZ describes Ohakune as a small urban area, which covers. It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km2.Ōhakune had a population of 1,284 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 102 people since the 2018 census, and an increase of 300 people since the 2013 census. There were 657 males, 621 females, and 9 people of other genders in 576 dwellings. 2.8% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. The median age was 35.7 years. There were 297 people aged under 15 years, 195 aged 15 to 29, 624 aged 30 to 64, and 171 aged 65 or older.
People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 70.8% European ; 40.0% Māori; 2.6% Pasifika; 6.3% Asian; 1.4% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders ; and 2.1% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 96.0%, Māori by 11.0%, Samoan by 0.2%, and other languages by 7.0%. No language could be spoken by 2.3%. New Zealand Sign Language was known by 0.7%. The percentage of people born overseas was 15.9, compared with 28.8% nationally.
Religious affiliations were 25.0% Christian, 0.7% Hindu, 0.7% Islam, 5.6% Māori religious beliefs, 0.5% Buddhist, 0.9% New Age, and 1.6% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 58.9%, and 6.1% of people did not answer the census question.
Of those at least 15 years old, 192 people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 558 had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 234 people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $40,100, compared with $41,500 nationally. 114 people earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was 549 full-time, 144 part-time, and 30 unemployed.