ohakune

Town on the Waimarino plain, 100 km from Whanganui. A long-established pā, Maungarongo, is the home of Ngāti Rangi, a sub-tribe of Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi. Ōhakune was founded in 1895 on the Waimarino block, which the government bought in 1887. Like Raetihi, it was reached via the Whanganui River and dray road from Pipiriki until the railway arrived in 1908 and made it a rival to the older settlement. Much of the district’s wealth comes from market gardening, started in 1925 by several Chinese families on the fertile volcanic soils. The Tūroa ski field on the slopes of Mt Ruapehu was opened in 1979, and other kinds of outdoor recreation are also popular.