Kihikihi

Kihikihi

Kihikihi, a small town located in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand, serves as a satellite community of Te Awamutu, five kilometres to the north, and lies 35 kilometres south of Hamilton. The 2006 census recorded a population of 1,959 people, an increase of 18 since 2001.^[1]

Kihikihi Town Hall (c.1904)

Kihikihi Star Hotel (c.1883)

The town's outer rim has merged with the expanding rim of Te Awamutu, rendering the boundary between the two towns difficult to perceive.

Kihikihi means "cicada" in the Māori language: the name imitates the sound made by the insect.^[2] A large statue of a cicada stands at the northern entrance to the town.

The Kihikihi cicada statue

Kihikihi's multi-purpose sports domain hosts national and international equestrian events such as the FEI Eventing World Cup.

The town is also home to the historic Kihikihi Polo Club, founded in 1892 by the Kay family.^[3]

People

John Rochford (1832–1893)^[4] died in the Star Hotel and is buried in the Kihikihi Cemetery near the Kihikihi Primary school. He was one of the first to survey the routes of today's railways in both the North and South Islands. A reserve in Kihikhi commemorates the name of John Rochford.

Rewi Maniapoto (1807–1894) lived in Kihikihi, on the site of the Rewi Maniapoto Reserve and the memorial. Kihikihi stood at the core of the productive farm-lands that Maori developed in the 1850s with the help of CMS missionaries. The district supplied food to new settlers in Auckland for a brief period. The area became the heartland of anti-government Maori in 1863, during the New Zealand Wars.

References

1. Quickstats about Kihikihi
2. Reed, A. W. (1975). The Reed Dictionary of New Zealand Place Names. Max Cryer. Auckland: Reed (published 2002). p. 250. ISBN 0790007614. Lit. cicada or tree-locust (Amphisalta cingulata), a name that imitates its strident song.
3. Kihikihi Polo Club: About us
4. Exploring New Zealand's interior

Coordinates: 38°02′S 175°21′E / 38.033°S 175.350°E