Woodville, previously known as The Junction^[2] is a small town in the southern North Island of New Zealand, 75 km north of Masterton and 25 km east of Palmerston North. The 2013 census showed that 1401 people reside in Woodville.^[3]

The town is in the Tararua District and the Manawatū-Whanganui region, although it has strong ties with the Hawke’s Bay region, of which it was once a part, but is often considered to be the northern boundary of Wairarapa. It is within the catchment area of the Manawatu River.

History

 

Woodville is at the northern end of the Tararua Range and the southern end of the Ruahines. In Māori history, it appears to have been a traveller’s rest spot and a place for hunters to rest after they had walked from one side of the Manawatu Gorge to the other. The local iwi were Rangitane, descended from Whatonga of the Kurahaupo canoe. They maintained strong and positive relations with other tribes for the most part.

One local landmark is Whariti, one of the main peaks in the Ruahine Ranges, a mountain range that runs northeast for 110 km from the Manawatu Gorge to the Kawekas, inland from Napier. The name for the 920m/3017 foot high mountain appears to be a corruption of the original name Wharetiti (Whare – house, titi – muttonbird (the Sooty Shearwater)). According to an interview on Radio Woodville in 2009, the peak gained its name when migrating muttonbird nested on top of the ridges of the Ruahine mountain range.

The birds arrived at Wharetiti from Bare Island, Waimarama and continued northwards to Tongariro. Local Māori would construct temporary housing when the titi began to arrive and would harvest the birds from their burrows, preserving them inside pouches made from bull kelp which they carried up from the coast. It is some years since muttonbirds were last seen in this part of the Ruahines.