Te Ore Ore Road

Te Ore Ore Road takes its name from the district it leads to, although in the past it has had a number of other names - Taueru Road and Castlepoint Road being just two of them.

Te Ore Ore is said to have obtained its name when a visiting chief stepped out of the bush on the hills above the Te Ore Ore plains and saw the flat fertile valley spread out below him. He was said to have been so pleasantly surprised that he gave a deep chortle, “ore ore” meaning to shake.

Another version of the story says the laughing came later, after he met a particularly attractive young female member of the local iwi.

Pic: The kowhaiwhai patterns inside the original meeting house at Te Ore were spectacular.