Bay
of Plenty is the broad curve of coastline between the base of Coromandel
in the north and Cape Runaway to the south-east,
and the name refers also
to the region east of the Kaimai and Mamaku Ranges and including the
central plateau area. Within the region are the lower Thames-Coromandel
area and Ohinemuri, Matamata, Taupo, Waikohu, Wairoa and Waiapu.
The
main towns and cities are Rotorua, Tauranga and its port of Mt Maunganui,
Te Puke, Kawerau and Whakatane. It was named by Captain Cook as he sailed
up the coast during October and November 1769, noticing abundant food at
numerous Maori villages on the coast, which enabled him to replenish his
own supplies — all in contrast to the kind of observations he had made
earlier off Poverty Bay.
Today
the region remains one of the richest and most plentiful in NZ, supporting
tourism (centred on Rotorua), dairying and sheep raising, a forestry
industry based on huge plantation pine forests, and a horticultural
industry centring on kiwifruit orchards near Te Puke, the self-styled
‘Kiwifruit Capital of the World’.
