New Plymouth

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. It is also the region’s financial centre as the home of the TSB Bank (formerly the Taranaki Savings Bank), the largest of the remaining non-government New Zealand-owned banks.

Notable features are the botanic gardens (e.g. Pukekura Park), the 12.7 km Coastal Walkway alongside the Tasman Sea, the Len Lye-designed 45-metre-tall artwork known as the Wind Wand, Paritutu Rock, and views of Mount Taranaki/Egmont.

New Plymouth won multiple awards in 2008. The city was in 2010 chosen as one of two walking & cycling “Model Communities” by the government. Based on New Plymouth’s already positive attitude towards cyclists and pedestrians, the city received $3.71m to invest into infrastructure and community programs to boost walking and cycling.

It is also noted for being a coastal city with a mountain within a 30 minute drive, where residents and visitors to New Plymouth can snowboard, ski, water ski and surf all in the same day.

History: New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki Region, it is named after Plymouth, Devon, England, from where the first English settlers migrated.

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 Māori and helped negotiate the purchase of land from them on behalf of the New Zealand Company. Settlers were selected by the Plymouth Company, which was set up to attract emigrants from the West Country of England, and which took over land initially purchased by the New Zealand Company. The first of the town’s settlers arrived on the William Bryan, which anchored off the coast on 31 March 1841. A series of disputes over ownership and settlement of land developed between Māori and settlers soon after and New Plymouth became a fortified garrison town in 1860–1861 as more than 3500 Imperial soldiers, as well as local volunteers and militia, fought Māori in the First Taranaki War.