Bay of Plenty

The Bay of Plenty is a region of the North Island of New Zealand, surrounding the bay of the same name on the island’s northern coastline. Captain James Cook, one of New Zealand’s earliest explorers, named the bay thus when he observed the abundance of food in the Maori villages located there; he’d previously visited a bay further south and dubbed it Poverty Bay when he was unable to provision his ship there. The Bay of Plenty’s Maori name is Te Moana-a-toi, ‘the sea of Toi’, honouring early Maori ancestor Toi-te-huatahi.

With 267,741 people, the Bay of Plenty is New Zealand’s fifth-most populous region according to 2013 census figures. The largest city in the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, accounts for over 123,000 of that number, and is New Zealand’s fifth-largest city.

The Bay of Plenty stretches for some 259km of open coastline, from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to its most easterly point at Cape Runaway. The region encompasses a number of New Zealand’s most popular holiday spots, including Rotorua’s geothermal attractions and the coastal resort town Mount Maunganui. ‘The Mount,’ as it’s colloquially known, attracts large numbers of visitors year-round thanks to its beautiful beaches and great weather; New Year’s Eve in particular sees the town’s numbers swell by more than 20,000 as revellers gather to see in the New Year on the Mount’s main beach. Numerous smaller coastal villages each contribute their own unique character to the region and attract loyal summer holidaymakers.

The Bay of Plenty also receives a significant number of visitors from cruise ships docking at the Port of Tauranga. 83 ships are scheduled to visit over the 2014/15 season, bringing an estimated 200,000 passengers and crew to the region. Overall, the Bay of Plenty attracts over 600,000 unique visitors each year, and tourism has historically contributed a significant percentage of the region’s GDP. The tourism industry took a severe hit in October 2011 following the Rena oil spill disaster off the coast of Tauranga, with 70% of operators reporting a heavy impact on their business; local beaches were contaminated by tons of oil, but the efforts of 7,500 volunteers saw the clean-up move swiftly. Visitor numbers are steadily increasing to pre-disaster levels.

Apart from tourism, the Bay of Plenty’s major industries are agriculture and natural resources. The region is largely rural, and approximately a fifth of its land is used for farming. Popular crops include kiwifruit, avocadoes and apples, and the Bay of Plenty is also home to 925 herds of dairy cows on 121,202 hectares of dairying land. Natural resources in the region include forestry, coastal and geothermal.