Te Puia Springs is a village on the east coast of the
North Island
The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...
of
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, located 103 km north of
Gisborne.
Its population is estimated to be between 300 and 400 people. The village has a hospital and one shop.
It has natural springs flowing throughout it, from hills in the
Ngāti Porou
Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. It has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi, behind Ngāpuhi, with an estimated 102,480 people according to the ...
area. The local people like to bathe in these springs, claiming that they have healing properties.
[''Low Enthalpy Geothermal Energy Resources for Rural Māori Communities–Te Puia Springs: A Rae GNS 2010]
/ref>
Much of the land around this area has not been developed and still remains bush land. As a result of this there remains a lot of native wildlife in this area, such as Fantail, tirairaka or fantail, kererū
The kererū (''Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae''), also known as kūkupa (Māori language#Northern dialects, northern Māori dialects), New Zealand pigeon or wood pigeon, is a species of pigeon native to New Zealand. Johann Friedrich Gmelin describ ...
, tūī
The tūī (''Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae'') is a medium-sized bird native to New Zealand. It is blue, green, and bronze coloured with a distinctive white throat tuft (poi). It is an endemism, endemic passerine bird of New Zealand, and the on ...
, and many others.
References
Populated places in the Gisborne District
Springs of New Zealand
Landforms of the Gisborne District
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