Ōtaki is a town in the Kāpiti Coast District of the North Island of New Zealand, situated halfway between the capital city Wellington, 70 km (43 mi) to the southwest, and Palmerston North, 70 km (43 mi) to the northeast.
Ōtaki is located on New Zealand State Highway 1 and the North Island Main Trunk railway between Wellington and Auckland and marks the northernmost point of the Wellington Region.
Te Rauparaha (c. 1760s – 27 November 1849) was a Māori rangatira, warlord, and chief of the Ngāti Toa iwi. One of the most powerful military leaders of the Musket Wars, Te Rauparaha fought a war of conquest that greatly expanded Ngāti Toa southwards, receiving the epithet "the Napoleon of the South". He remains one of the most prominent and celebrated New Zealand historical figures.
Born probably in the 1760s, Te Rauparaha's conquests eventually extended Ngāti Toa authority from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson. He participated in land sale and negotiations with the New Zealand Company at the beginning of the colonisation of New Zealand. An early signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi, Te Rauparaha was later central to the Wairau Affray in the Marlborough district, considered by many to be the first of the conflicts in the New Zealand Wars. Shortly before he died he led the building of Rangiātea Church in Ōtaki.
Horowhenua District is a territorial authority district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, administered by Horowhenua District Council. Located north of Wellington and Kāpiti, it stretches from slightly north of the town of Ōtaki in the south to just south of Himatangi in the north, and from the coast to the top of the Tararua Range. It is in the Manawatū-Whanganui local government region. The name Horowhenua is Māori for landslide.
Levin is the main town and the seat of the district council. Other towns include Foxton, Shannon and Tokomaru. The population of the district is 38,400 (June 2025).
The Kāpiti Coast District (officially the Kapiti Coast District) is a local government district of the Wellington Region in the lower North Island of New Zealand, 50 km (31 mi) north of Wellington City. The district is named after Kapiti Island, a prominent island 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) offshore.
The population of the district is concentrated in a chain of coastal settlements along State Highway One: Ōtaki, Te Horo, Waikanae, Paraparaumu, Raumati Beach, Raumati South, and Paekākāriki. Paraparaumu is the most populous of these towns and the commercial and administrative centre. Much of the rural land is given over to horticulture; market gardens are common along the highway between the settlements. The area available for agriculture and settlement is narrow and coastal. Much of the eastern part of the district is within the Tararua Forest Park, which covers the rugged Tararua Range, with peaks rising to over 1,500 m (4,900 ft).
Rangiātea Church is a Māori Anglican church located in Ōtaki, in the Kāpiti Coast District on the North Island of New Zealand. The original church was completed in 1851. On 7 October 1995 the church was destroyed by arson. At the time of its destruction, the church was the oldest Māori Anglican church in New Zealand.
A replica of the destroyed building was completed in 2003; however, historic carvings were lost.