Ohakune

Ohakune Ōhākune (Māori)
Minor urban area
Main street of Ohakune
Ohakune
Coordinates: 39°25′07″S 175°23′58″E / 39.41861°S 175.39944°E / -39.41861; 175.39944Coordinates: 39°25′07″S 175°23′58″E / 39.41861°S 175.39944°E / -39.41861; 175.39944
Country	New Zealand
Region	Manawatu-Wanganui Region
Territorial authority	Ruapehu District
Ward	Waimarino-Waiouru
Electorate	Rangitīkei
Government
• Mayor	Don Cameron
Elevation	590 m (1,940 ft)
Population (June 2016)
• Total	1,100
Time zone	NZST (UTC+12)
• Summer (DST)	NZDT (UTC+13)
Postcode	4625
Telephone	06

Ohakune is a small town in the North Island of New Zealand, situated 215 kilometres north of Wellington and 292 kilometres south of Auckland. It is located at the southern end of the Tongariro National Park, close to the southwestern slopes of the active volcano Mount Ruapehu. Located within the Manawatu-Wanganui region, the town is 70 kilometres northeast of Wanganui and 25 kilometres west of Waiouru.

A rural service town known as New Zealand's Carrot Capital, Ohakune is a popular base in winter for skiers using the ski fields (particularly Turoa) of nearby Mount Ruapehu and in summer for trampers hiking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

Historically, the lands to the south and west of Mount Ruapehu were inhabited by the Māori of the Ngāti Rangi iwi. Around the middle of the seventeenth century a marae (village) at Rangataua, a small town about 3 miles south-east of Ohakune, was attacked and the inhabitants were driven from their homes by raiders from the Ngāti Raukawa, an iwi from farther east in Manawatu. Around 75 of the village's population were slain and the dozen or so survivors fled to Mangaorongo and established a pā on the present site of the town of Ohakune.

In 1883 the first engineering reconnaissance commenced for the Marton – Te Awamutu section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway and a base was established upon the present site of Ohakune, and soon became a permanent camp for railway and road construction workers. Settlement of the town is considered to have commenced in the early 1890s and by March 1908 the railway line had reached Ohakune. The period of railway construction activities was followed quickly by intensive timber milling; as the forest was cleared, cattle and sheep were introduced and farming progressed. Ohakune was constituted a town district in August 1908 and in November 1911 attained borough status.