Taranaki – the region named after its mountain
Taranaki takes its name from its defining feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, whose cone is visible across much of the region. Māori tribes made this their home from the thirteenth century. From about 1823 contact with European whalers and flax traders began, and in March 1828 Richard Barrett set up a trading post at Ngamotu, today's New Plymouth, where he was welcomed by the Āti Awa. After a violent encounter at Ngamotu in 1832, most of the roughly 2,000 Āti Awa living nearby migrated south. In late 1839 Barrett returned as a purchasing agent for the New Zealand Company. New Plymouth is now the main centre, alongside the Stratford and South Taranaki districts. Share your memories and photographs here.