About Gisborne
Climate, Farming, Transport, Gisborne History, Tairawhiti Heritage
A welcoming city with three rivers at its heart, Gisborne boasts golden surf beaches, award-winning wineries, and numerous restaurants and cafes. Home to around 30,000 people, the district enjoys long, hot summers and mild winters.
Check out www.gisbornenz.com for more of what Gisborne's all about.
Gisborne Wine & Food Festival
International Chardonnay Challenge
Gisborne, the first city in the world to see the sun each day, is located on the sunny East Coast of the North Island. As the site of the first meeting between Maori and European, Gisborne is one rich in history.
The Maori name for the district is Tairawhiti which means "The coast upon which the sun shines across the water". Kaiti Beach, near the city, was where the Maori immigrational waka, Horouta, landed; and is also the first European landing place in New Zealand.
Captain Cook first set foot here in 1769. European settlement was established in 1831 and the town which developed was named after Hon. William Gisborne, the Colonial Secretary, in 1870.
Prior to this the settlement was known as Turanga but confusion with Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, led to the name change. To the early Maori the Poverty Bay area was known as Turanganui-a-Kiwa, "The stopping place of Kiwa". Gisborne became a borough in 1877 and a city in 1955.
A spectacular route, the unspoiled East Coast region, is still one of the world's best kept secrets. From Gisborne, take the Pacific Coast Highway, SH35, from Opotiki around the East Cape or SH2 south to Napier.
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The Gisborne district (population 45,000 with about 30,000 residing in the city) generally has warm summers and mild winters. Gisborne is one of the sunniest places in New Zealand with average yearly sunshine of around 2200 hours. The region's annual rainfall varies from about 1000mm near the coast to over 2500mm in the higher inland country. Temperatures of 38°C have been recorded and an average 65 days a year have a maximum of over 24°C.
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The Poverty Bay plains contain 20,200 ha of rich, alluvial river flats which, combined with mild temperatures, make this district an ideal area for the growing of maize, grapes, kiwifruit, citrus and subtropical fruits. The district is mainly hill-country, well-suited to grazing. Sheep, cattle, deer and goats are farmed. Pinus radiata forests have been planted throughout the region with forestry now a major landuse.
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Gisborne is serviced by daily passenger and freight, air and bus connections to other main centres in the North Island. There is also a rail freight service and a busy overseas shipping and local fishing port.
Gisborne, is the most easterly city in New Zealand. It is near here that the waka Horouta landed in early Maori times and James Cook first sighted New Zealand a short distance to the south
European settlement was established in 1831 and Gisborne became a borough in 1877 and a city in 1955. Today's population is around the 33,000 mark for the city and environs and a total of 45,000 for the East Coast Region.
There is 20,200ha of land in the Gisborne Plains
Gisborne has 1850ha planted in grapevines and this region has the largest planting of citrus in the country.
The region has 150-160,000ha planted in radiata pine trees.
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Titirangi was named by the first Maori settlers in remembrance of their mountain in Hawaiki. It was the site of an extensive pa, bearing the same name, whose origins can be traced back for at least twenty-four Maori generations. The hill was also a place of whare wananga - houses of special learning.
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Welcome to the Tairawhiti Heritage Trail. It leads you through lands now within the Gisborne District. The Trail winds through the ancestral lands of the Maori who arrived here over a thousand years ago. They called the region Tairawhiti, the coast upon which the sun shines across the water. It is a region rich in historical sites and meeting houses, MARAE.
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