Travel Guide Te Puke

Located 22 km from Tauranga, Te Puke was born in 1880, when George Vesey Stewart bought 6,500 acres of land and brought in a contingent of settlers from Northern Ireland. Aided by the climate, agricultural activity is developing strongly. At the end of the 1960s, some local horticulturists began to experiment with Chinese Gooseberry, the "Chinese gooseberry". An international market then developed from this product which, for marketing reasons, was renamed "kiwi". At the entrance to the city, it is difficult to miss the wide sign proclaiming Te Puke the world capital of kiwi, as well as the huge slice of kiwi planted in the landscape. Almost all of Te Puke's life is punctuated by that of orchards that provide work ten to eleven months a year.