HISTORY OF KAIKOHE...

Kaikohe was peopled by Ngapuhi moving eastward from Hokianga Harbour along an old Maori track linking east and west. It is the home land of Hone Heke Pokai, the chief involved in the wars in the north.

Originally a Maori village called Opango, Kaikohe has been called the very centre of the great Ngapuhi Tribe. In the 19th century, the village was raided by a rival tribe and fugitives subsisted among the Kohekohe groves on Tokareireia (Kaikohe Hill). After the incident, the village became known as Kaikohekohe which was later shortened to Kaikohe.

Following the flagstaff incident at Russell,Hone Heke retired inland to Lake Omapere where he built a Pa called Te Kahika, as he was anticipating an attack by British troops. This was the site of the first battle in May 1845, from which the British troops retired unsuccessful, as they also did from the second battle at Ohaeawai.

The district was the scene of fighting during the New Zealand Land Wars and some battle sites can be seen nearby. St Michael's Church was built on the pa site where the Battle of Ohaeawai was fought. Fallen English solders are buried in the grounds of this historic Church in Ohaeawai on the State Highway approach to Kaikohe.

To the north of Kaikohe towards Lake Omapere, on the left of the road, is the dome-shaped hill Mount Putahi, a sacred burial place .

The war chief, Hone Heke settled in Kaikohe after fighting ceased, and died here in 1850. His nephew Hone Heke, MP for Northern Maori, also lived in Kaikohe. In April 1911 a monument to him was unveiled on Kaikohe Hill by Sir Turi Carroll, then acting Prime Minister, and at a dawn ceremony on the 1st January 2000 a Time Capsule was buried on this hill for the descendants of the Kaikohe People.

In the 1840's Rawiri Taiwhanga, who is credited with being the first Maori commercial farmer, ran a dairy herd on the outskirts of the present Kaikohe and regularly sold butter to ships and settlers in the Bay of Islands.

To the west of Kaikohe is the Aperahama Church which was built in 1837, and was visited by Samuel Marsden on his last voyage to New Zealand. The present building was erected in 1884.In 1845 the Reverend Richard Davis, the first European settler, was sent to establish a mission in Kaikohe.Much later Presbyterian, Catholic, Baptist, Ratana, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventists, Brethren and other religious groups followed.

In the 1880s Europeans lured by the trade in Kauri gum soon established the town of Kaikohe in the centre of the mid-north gum fields. By 1890 eight European families were living in Kaikohe. Businesses were established and by 1892 there was a blacksmith's shop, wheelwright, storekeeper, saddler, photographer, auctioneer and boot and shoe maker. Kaikohe soon became the commercial centre for the gum trade. GF Dickeson and George Patterson had gum stores trading goods for gum, and the latter in 1894 built the Kaikohe Hotel.

The Rev. Richard Davis established a school at Kaikohe in the 1840s; a native school existed from 1872. In 1894 the first European school was established. When more land was opened up for settlement after 1911 the town grew rapidly. The railway from the south was extended to Kaikohe in 1914 which led to further development of surrounding farm lands. Electric power arrived in 1939.

In 1914 Kaikohe became a riding of the Bay of Islands County Council. It was g azetted a town district in 1919 and remained dependent on the Bay of Islands County Council. In 1927 Kaikohe became an independent town district. In 1947 Kaikohe became a Borough and in 1990 local government amalgamation took place with the headquarters for the Far North District being sited in Kaikohe.

The Airport was opened in 1947, the year Kaikohe was gazetted a Borough

Hirini Taiwhanga of Kaikohe and Hone Heke were both members of Parliament for Northern Maori. It was Hone Heke, MP, who organised meetings with Maori to discuss the opening up of the central Kaikohe lands for settlement. This was the beginning of farming in the area and the growth of Kaikohe as a service centre and later a Government Departments centre for the mid north.

Northland College, the first Agricultural and Technical School in NZ, opened in 1947. It was established in the American Army Hospital buildings which had been erected during the war and remained unused. The Intermediate School was opened in 1969. Kindergartens, Kohanga Reo, Kura Kaupapa, Christian Schools and many training establishments are presently operating

On the western side of Lake Omapere is the town of Okaihau (the wind eater) which was established as a European township in 1862 when a group of Canadian settlers arrived and began clearing the land for farming.

Two kilometres to the west lies Pakinga Pa, the home Pa of the Ngapuhi tribe's warrior chief, Hongi Hika.