Ōmāio is a coastal township in the

Ōpōtiki District Ōpōtiki District is a territorial authority district in the North Island of New Zealand. The Ōpōtiki District Council is headquartered in the largest town, Ōpōtiki. The district falls within the Bay of Plenty region. Lyn Riesterer has be ...

and

Bay of Plenty Region The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway ...

of New Zealand's

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. During the 20th century, families collectively farmed the area for

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

and

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...

. More recently, they have been considering a shift to

kiwifruit Kiwifruit (often shortened to kiwi in North American, British and continental European English) or Chinese gooseberry is the edible berry of several species of woody vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' ...

farming. Funding was granted for a pilot kiwifruit farm in April 2017. During 2018 and 2019, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research tested climate-resilient crops in Ōmāio. Due to the

impact of climate change The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea level ...

, Ōmāio has had fewer frosts, shorter winters, drier summers, more

extreme weather Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...

, and greater pressure on its water supplies. In June 2019, Ōmāio hosted an historic signing of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement agreement between

Te Whānau-ā-Apanui Te Whānau-ā-Apanui is a Māori iwi (Iwi is the Maori word for tribe) located in the eastern Bay of Plenty and East Coast regions of New Zealand's North Island. In 2006, the iwi registered 11,808 members, representing 13 hapū. History Early ...

and

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

Marae

The settlement has three marae of

. Ōmāio Marae and Rongomaihuatahi meeting house is a meeting place for the

hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...

of Te Whānau a Nuku. In October 2020, the Government committed $1,646,820 from the Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade the marae and five others, creating 10 jobs. Ōtūwhare Marae and Te Poho o Rūtāia meeting house belongs to the hapū of Te Whānau a Rutaia. Whitianga Marae and Tūtawake meeting house belongs to the hapū of Te Whānau a Tutawake.

Education

Te Kura o Te Whānau-a-Apanui is a co-educational Māori language immersion state area school for Year 1 to 13 students, with a roll of as of . It was established in January 2016, through the merger of Raukokore School, Te Kura o Ōmāio and Te Whānau-a-Apanui Area School. Rugby player Ruahei Demant lived in Ōmāio until the age of 12. She described the township as a "tiny place" in "the wops".

References

{{Ōpōtiki District Ōpōtiki District Populated places in the Bay of Plenty Region