Horotiu is a small township on the west bank of the

Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...

in the

Waikato District Waikato District is a territorial authority of New Zealand, in the northern part of Waikato region, North Island. Waikato District is administered by the Waikato District Council, with headquarters in Ngāruawāhia. The district is centred t ...

of New Zealand. It is on the

Waikato Plains The Waikato Plains form a large area of low-lying land in the northwest of the North Island of New Zealand. They are the alluvial plains of the ancient Waikato River, the country's longest river that over the last 1800 years has changed course ma ...

north of Hamilton and south of Ngāruawāhia. From early in the 20th century it developed around a freezing works and other industries. The

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

railway runs through the town, as did

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered S ...

until opening of part of the

Waikato Expressway The Waikato Expressway is a dual carriageway section of (SH 1) in New Zealand's Waikato region. Constructed in stages, it forms part of the link between Auckland and Hamilton. Currently stretching from Auckland to south of Cambridge, the high ...

in 2013. An hourly bus runs between

Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settleme ...

and Hamilton.

Name

The name, Horotiu, seems to have been used interchangeably with Waikato River, or Pukete. Its first use for the current township seems to occur in 1864, shortly after the

invasion of the Waikato The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation ...

. Until then, Horotiu was the name of the upper Waikato river, where its current became faster and of Horotiu pā, on its banks, near

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

. An 1858 map only shows the name as Horotiu Plains in the area near the pā. The name, Horotiu, for the Waikato River, upstream from Ngāruawāhia, seems to have remained in use until the 1920s, though the 1859 map named it as Waikato. Horotiu and Pukete

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

es existed from at least 1867, but, until the 1900s, Horotiu was often referred to as Pukete, a name now used for the Hamilton suburb upstream. The railway station changed its name on 23 June 1907, when the proposed post office was referred to as Horotiu (Pukete), and the name of the school was changed from Pukete to Horotiu in 1911. The post office closed in 1988.

Demographics

Horotiu covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Horotiu had a population of 624 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sh ...

, an increase of 126 people (25.3%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 111 people (21.6%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 198 households, comprising 324 males and 300 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.08 males per female. The median age was 34.8 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 150 people (24.0%) aged under 15 years, 114 (18.3%) aged 15 to 29, 306 (49.0%) aged 30 to 64, and 54 (8.7%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 78.4% European/

Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non- Māori New ...

, 34.1%

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

, 3.8% Pacific peoples, 6.2%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, and 1.9% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas was 8.2, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 64.9% had no religion, 23.1% were

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

, 0.5% had

Māori religious beliefs Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

, 1.4% were

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and 1.4% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 66 (13.9%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 108 (22.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $40,900, compared with $31,800 nationally. 78 people (16.5%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 291 (61.4%) people were employed full-time, 51 (10.8%) were part-time, and 9 (1.9%) were unemployed. In 2018 the census unit was reduced to about half its previous area, losing most to the west of the railway to Te Kowhai area unit. Growth to 1,390 is planned by 2040.

Geology

Taupō Taupō (), sometimes written Taupo, is a town on the north-eastern shore of Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake, in the central North Island. It is the largest urban area of the Taupō District, and the second-largest urban area in the Wai ...

Pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular v ...

Alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

(Q1a) was deposited on the Hinuera Formation (Q2a) until about 15,000 years ago. Some of the alluvium has been dug for

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a soil texture, textur ...

and

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classif ...

. The Hinuera formation is also sand and gravel, interbedded with silt and some peat. In the last 14,000 years the Waikato River has cut into these formations, forming a low

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

and then cutting deeper. The low ridge between the Waikato and Waipā rivers is made of Walton Subgroup (eQa – pumiceous fine-grained sand and

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel wh ...

with

interbedded In geology, interbedding occurs when beds (layers of rock) of a particular lithology lie between or alternate with beds of a different lithology. For example, sedimentary rocks may be interbedded if there were sea level variations in their sedimen ...

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

, pumiceous gravelly sand,

diatomaceous Diatomaceous earth (), diatomite (), or kieselgur/kieselguhr is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous rock, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine shades of white, white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging ...

mud, and non-welded

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surro ...

and

tephra Tephra is fragmental material produced by a volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism. Volcanologists also refer to airborne fragments as pyroclasts. Once clasts have fallen to the ground, they re ...

), covered in places by Piako Subgroup (1Qa –

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within ...

, mainly locally derived, stream and coastal alluvium, and minor

fans Fan commonly refers to: * Fan (machine), a machine for producing airflow, often used for cooling ** Hand fan, an implement held and waved by hand to move air for cooling * Fan (person), short for fanatic; an enthusiast or supporter, especially wit ...

, with up to of unconsolidated to very soft, thinly to thickly bedded, yellow-grey to orange-brown, pumiceous mud, silt, sandy mud and gravel, with muddy peat in some valleys).

History

Ngāti Hauā Ngāti Hauā is a Māori iwi of the eastern Waikato of New Zealand. It is part of the Tainui confederation. Its traditional area includes Matamata, Cambridge, Maungakawa, the Horotiu district along the Waikato River and the Maungatautari ...

had a

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites ...

named Horotiu near

and they also had land in this area. The 1858 census put the Ngāti Hauā population at 1,399. By then they had seeded this area with European grasses. Their land was

confiscated Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, o ...

in 1864.

Education

Horotiu School is a co-educational state primary school covering years 1 to 8 with a roll of as of The 2012 report on the school said, "the vast majority of students are achieving at or above National Standards" and noted it was in a

Decile In descriptive statistics, a decile is any of the nine values that divide the sorted data into ten equal parts, so that each part represents 1/10 of the sample or population. A decile is one possible form of a quantile; others include the quartil ...

3 area. The school dates back to 1879, following a government grant of the land in 1878. Horotiu also has a playcentre.

Freezing works and dairy

Auckland Farmers Cooperative (later Allied Farmers – AFFCO) bought in 1914 and a riverside gravel pit in 1915. Horotiu

Freezing Works A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is not ...

opened on 17 January 1916. Horotiu still has AFFCO’s head office and its largest beef processing plant. The parent company, Talley's, opened a Waikato Dairy Co

dried milk Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...

plant on the same site in August 2018. The area has long been associated with dairying, a casein factory having opened in 1919. AFFCO has long been involved with

strikes Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

and pollution.

Business park

Northgate

business park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typicall ...

, between Horotiu and Te Rapa, covers and opened in 2013.

Ports of Auckland Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL), the successor to the Auckland Harbour Board, is the Auckland Council-owned company administering Auckland's commercial freight and cruise ship harbour facilities. As the company operates all of the associated fa ...

have 33ha in Northgate for a freight hub.

Gravel, landfill and power station

By 1904 the area was recognised as a source of gravel and pits were established by 1907, especially on the east bank, and continue to produce aggregates and take in

clean fill Fill dirt (also called cleanfill, or just fill) is earthy material which is used to ''fill in'' a depression or hole in the ground or create mounds or otherwise artificially change the grade or elevation of real property.consent Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions as used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual relationships. Consent as und ...

for a

Hamilton City Council Hamilton City Council is the governing body of the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Since 21 November 1960, Council has met at Hamilton City Hall at 71 Main Street (Hamilton, Ontario), Main Street West. The current council consists of the mayor ...

landfill expired. It had been started in October 1985 on a sand pit (worked from about 1970 to 2000) and was replaced by

Hampton Downs The Hampton Downs Motorsport Park is situated in rural northern Waikato (about halfway between Auckland and Hamilton on the Waikato Expressway), New Zealand near the Meremere drag strip and the dirt track club. History The motorsport park is a ...

. It was closed earlier than originally planned, due to

leachate A leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed. Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences wher ...

problems. The 1999 consent required use of a vacuum to extract gas from the bores and leachate. Therefore, from November 2004 until 2012, when the emissions declined,

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ear ...

from the landfill ran a 900 kWe Waukesha VHP5904LTD Enginator

gas engine A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a gaseous fuel, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas or natural gas. In the United Kingdom, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of ...

generator set. 1963_Horotiu_Bridge

Cycleway

The Horotiu-Pukete section of Te Awa River Ride opened in 2013 and an extension to Ngāruawāhia opened on 2 November 2017. Horotiu_bridge_2001

Bridges

Near Horotiu the Waikato is bridged by 2 roads and Te Awa cycleway. The next bridge upstream is Pukete sewer bridge and downstream, Ngāruawāhia road bridge.

1921 Horotiu Bridge Rd

Construction started about 1920 of a reinforced concrete bridge, with a high

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

, a main span of , plus six approach spans of , carrying a wide road. It was designed by Toogood and Jones, of Auckland, for £7900, paid by Waikato and Waipa County Councils, though government contributed £1,728. The bridge was completed in 1921, though the approaches took longer. Te_Rehu_O_Waikato_Bridge

2001 Horotiu Bridge Rd

The Category II listed bridge was deemed unsafe and replaced in 2001.

Annual average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for ...

flows were 3,565 in 2010, 4,432 in 2016 and 5,969 in 2018, of which about 12% were heavy vehicles.

2013 Waikato Expressway bridge

The need for the 2001 bridge was reduced by the long 2013

Te Rehu O Waikato Bridge, built upstream. As part of the $200m road section, it used 800 tonnes of steel, including 56 tonne girders, resting on 4 x 'V'-shaped piers, which allowed the main span to be reduced about 20m to . Concrete

pre-cast Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples include precast bea ...

panels were added to them to carry the concrete deck and barriers. Perry_Bridge,_Horotiu

Annual average daily traffic flows 3.46 km south of Gordonton Rd Overbridge were -

2017 cycleway

The Te Awa cycle bridge is a 140m long, 2.5m wide, $1.3m

cable network Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, op ...

arch bridge, opened on Thursday 2 November 2017. The bridge is lit from a 9kWh battery, powered by 2 x 100 watt

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. W ...

s and 2 x 250 watt

solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a pho ...

s on 7-metre high masts at the base of the bridge. Since opening the average weekly use by cyclists rose from 133 to 711 and by walkers from 348 to 391. Te_Rehu_O_Waikato,_Horotiu_and_Te_Awa_bridges

Te_Rehu_O_Waikato,_Horotiu_and_Te_Awa_bridges

References

External links

Horotiu on 1:50,000 map

Horotiu on Google Street View

Horotiu school

Waikato River swimming water quality
an
LAWA water quality
* National Library aerial photo
1930 (works)1955 (bridge, town, station, works)1959 (town, station and works)1963 (bridge, town, works)1979 (works)

Facebook video of placing of cycle bridge
{{Waikato District Populated places in Waikato Waikato District Populated places on the Waikato River