Taranaki Anniversary – March 10, 2025

History of Taranaki Anniversary

Around eight million years ago, the supercontinent, Gondwana split apart and formed a relatively small landmass. The Tasman Sea opened up, and the landmass that would one day become New Zealand moved away from Australia and Antarctica. The early separation of New Zealand from the rest of the continent and the complete isolation created a unique evolutionary path in New Zealand. The effect of isolation and early separation can be seen even in fossil records. It also resulted in the presence of a lot of endemic species found nowhere else on earth.

New Zealand is made up of two main islands, the North and South Islands, as well as a few smaller islands. Taranaki is on the west coast of the North Island. It is a beautiful piece of land where the volcanic peak, Mount Taranaki, stands tall, witnessing the history of the island. The indigenous people settlers were from Polynesia. These tribes settled on the island some 700 years ago and called themselves Maori.

The internal conflicts among the Maori during the 19th century nearly wiped out their population in Taranaki. The same period is also marked by the arrival of European settlers. The surveyor for the Plymouth Company, Frederic Carrington, chose Taranaki as the region for the settlement. It is fertile land great for agriculture due to good rainfall and rich volcanic soil.