Understand
New Plymouth is the main center of the Taranaki region, which has a total population of around 100,000.
Get in
By air
New Plymouth Airport is located on the coast 7km to the north of the city at Bellblock. A taxi service is available to town (Cost: $15 - $20).
On the rare days when Mount Taranaki is totally free of cloud, southbound flights can get spectacular views of the mountaintop.
By bus
Bus services to Auckland and Wellington run twice daily, with a choice of several operators. A new bus terminal was opened in 2004 in Ariki St.
By car
State Highway 3 passes through New Plymouth.
From the north: (Auckland or Hamilton) State Highway 3 departs State Highway 1 at Hamilton and travels via Te Kuiti in the King Country and Waitara in Taranaki. The journey from Hamilton is ~270km - at least 3.5 hours by car, though allow 4.5 hours to be safe. A section of this road is narrow, winding, and includes a very short single-lane tunnel. It is prone to closure by slips in bad weather.
From the south: (Wellington and Palmerston North) Travel via State Highway 1 and/or State Highway 3 to Bulls then via State Highway 3 through Wanganui to Hawera, then inland via Stratford (which always has petrol 2c a litre cheaper than the standard price) and Inglewood. Wellington to New Plymouth is ~360km and takes 4.5 - 5.5 hours non-stop, depending on traffic near Wellington; allow 6 - 7 hours including scenic stops and rest breaks.
State Highway 45, The Surf Highway, which follows the coast (though seldom in sight of it) around the west of the mountain, via Opunake, is ~25 km longer and hillier, but scenic, alternative route from Hawera. Allow an extra half hour over travelling State Highway 3 direct.
State Highway 43, The Forgotten World Highway, intersects State Highway 3 at Stratford. This can be an interesting alternative trip from the Central North Island via Taumarunui. The road winds and climbs for 160km and includes about 30km unsealed though a spectacularly beautiful gorge. It's worth stopping at the numerous historical information boards along the way. Allow 4-6 hours. (Note: There is no petrol available between Stratford and Taumarunui and this highway section is difficult to maintain.)
By train
Passenger rail services ceased in 1985. The remaining railway line is used for goods entering and leaving the port.
However on rare occasions, a steam engine can be seen on the track. This most likely will be from the Waitara Railway Preservation Society, which runs the engine between Waitara and Lepperton,
See
Do
Eat
: For the place called New Plymouth in the United States, see New Plymouth, Idaho.
New Plymouth is the port and main city in the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
The city is a service centre for the region's principal economic activities including intensive pastoral activities (mainly dairy farming) as well as oil, natural gas and petrochemical exploration and production.
New Plymouth is also a bustling financial centre as the home of the TSB Bank (formerly the Taranaki Savings Bank), which is the only 100% non-government New Zealand-owned bank. The population is about 49,000. Notable features are the excellent botanic gardens (eg Pukekura Park), the controversial 45 m high artwork called the wind wand designed by Len Lye, and picturesque views of Mount Taranaki (also known as Mount Egmont).
It is also noted for being a coastal city with a mountain within 30 minutes drive, where residents and visitors to New Plymouth can snowboard, ski, water ski and surf all in the same day.
History
:Main Article: History of New Plymouth
In 1828 Richard "Dicky" Barrett (1807-47) set up a trading post at Ngamotu after arriving on the trading vessel Adventure. Barrett traded with the local Maori and helped negotiate the purchase of land from them on behalf of the New Zealand Company. The first of the town’s settlers arrived on the William Bryan, which anchored off the coast on March 31, 1841. A series of disputes over ownership and settlement of land developed soon after and New Plymouth became a fortified garrison town as soldiers fought Maori in the First Taranaki War.
Growth and governance
Province of New Plymouth
The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 created the Province of New Plymouth, with a Provincial Council given jurisdiction over an area of 400,000ha.
Five years later the name of the province was changed to Taranaki. A Town Board was formed in 1863 and in August 1876 the town was constituted as a borough.
Borough/City of New Plymouth
Its new status did little to overcome some outside perceptions, however. In 1876 author E. W. Payton wrote that "all the great bustling 'cities' of the colony had a patronising way of trying to snub New Plymouth, referring to it in such derogatory terms as the dullest hole in the colony … nothing whatever to do there …I find a great liking for this 'slow, old hole' … it is a quiet, unassuming place and has not done so much to attract immigrants and settlers by exaggerating reports, as some districts have done."
The Fitzroy Town District was merged with New Plymouth borough in August 1911; Vogeltown, Frankleigh Park and Westown were added a year later, followed by St Aubyn-Moturoa. By 1913 the town had a population of 7538. Seafront land was added in 1931 and 1941; land acquired on Omata Rd was added in 1955 and in 1960 large areas including land to the south of Paritutu, as well as Hurdon, Ferndale and Huatoki were included, as well as land straddling Mangorei Rd between the Henui Stream and Waiwakaiho River.
New Plymouth was declared a city in 1949.
New Plymouth District
In 1989, as a part of New Zealand-wide reorganisation of local government, the New Plymouth City Council was merged with the Taranaki County Council, the Inglewood Borough Council, Waitara Borough Council, and Clifton County Council to form the New Plymouth District Council.
Transport and industry
Electric power was first provided in January 1906 from the Mangorei power station alongside the Waiwakaiho River near Burgess Park.
Companies began searching for oil on the New Plymouth coast in 1865 after small deposits of thick oil were found on the shoreline. The first commercial quantities of oil were obtained in January 1866. Exploration continued sporadically and a refinery opened in 1913. Production ceased about 1972. The offshore Maui A well began production of natural gas in the late 1970s, sparking a flourishing energy and petrochemical industry. As Maui A’s resources decline, new sites in Taranaki are being developed in an effort to find more commercial petrochemical reserves.
An 18km railway link between New Plymouth and Waitara was completed in 1875. Four years later another line reached south to Stratford. Hawera joined the link in 1881 and Wellington was connected in 1886. Only in 1932, when a line was finished between Stratford and Taumarunui, could Taranaki people travel to Auckland by rail.
The breakwater at Ngamotu was completed in 1883, providing safe berthage for vessels, and the Moturoa wharf was completed in 1888.
In 1916 the city’s overhead tramway system began and petrol-powered buses began running four years later. Trams were scrapped in 1953.
The first aircraft landed at the racecourse in 1920 and commercial flights began using the airport at Bell Block in June 1937. During the war this grass airfield became RNZAF Bell Block; and was replaced in 1966 by the current tarmac aerodrome, 3km NE of the old airport site.
Among the city's major industrial companies was Ivon Watkins-Dow, an agricultural chemicals company founded in 1944 by brothers Ivon, Harry and Dan Watkins and joined as a partner 20 years later by Dow Chemicals of Michigan. The company ran a factory at Paritutu making the herbicide 2,4,5-T. A 2005 study found that people who lived close to the Ivon Watkins-Dow plant between 1962 and 1987 were likely to have dioxin levels on average four times higher than the general public. In some groups the level was as much as seven times as high. A Public Health Medicine senior adviser has claimed that based on international findings, the residents' exposure to dioxin may cause increased rates of disease, in particular cancer. In March 2007 the Ministry of Health announced it would offer a major health support programme to anyone affected.
Climate
New Plymouth has a warm, moist, temperate climate. The average summer afternoon temperature is 21-22ºC; average summer night-time temperature is 12-13ºC. In winter the average afternoon temperature is 13-14ºC and night-time temperature is 5-6ºC. The average annual rainfall is 1436mm.
Sister Cities
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