Pukawa
locality in New Zealand
Pukawa or Pukawa Bay (Māori: Pūkawa) is a bay and a small township on the southern shores of Lake Taupō on New Zealand's North Island. It is off State Highway 41 between Turangi and Taumarunui, in the Taupō District and Waikato region.
Marae
It is home of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa hapū of Ngāti Manunui, who established the Pūkawa Marae and Manunui a Ruakapanga meeting house in November 2006. The opening ceremony was attended by Tūheitia Paki, the Māori King.
Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was formally selected as king by a conference of chiefs of the Māori tribes held at Pukawa in April 1857 and was crowned during elaborate ceremonies held at his marae in Ngāruawāhia in April 1858.
In 1906 Ngāti Tūwharetoa and the Tongariro Timber Company struck an agreement for the construction of a 40-mile railway line from Kakahi (on the main trunk line) to Pukawa. This line was never completed.
Demographics
Statistics New Zealand describes Pukawa as a rural settlement, which includes Oreti and covers 0.78 km2 (0.30 sq mi). It had an estimated population of 60 as of June 2025, with a population density of 77 people per km2. The settlement is part of the larger Lake Taupo Bays statistical area.
The public source identifies “Pukawa” as locality in New Zealand. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pukawa, locality and Zealand.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q25660927. The first chronological checks are 2006, 1857, 1858 and 1906.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pukawa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.