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Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island, administered by the Taranaki Regional Council. It is named for its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth District has over 65% of the population of Taranaki. New Plymouth is in North Taranaki along with Inglewood and Waitara. South Taranaki towns include Hawera, Stratford and Eltham. Since 2005, Taranaki has used the promotional brand "Like no other".〔(Like No Other ). Newplymouthnz.com (2006-06-29). Retrieved on 2011-06-25.〕 ==Geography and people== Taranaki is on the west coast of the North Island, surrounding the volcanic peak. The region has an area of 7258 km². The large bays north-west and south-west of Cape Egmont are the prosaically named North Taranaki Bight and South Taranaki Bight. Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont, the second highest mountain in the North Island, is the dominant feature of the region. A Māori legend says that Taranaki previously lived with the Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu mountains of the central North Island but fled to its current location after a battle with Tongariro. A near-perfect cone, it last erupted in the mid-18th century. The mountain and its immediate surrounds form Egmont National Park. Māori had called the mountain ''Taranaki'' for many centuries, and Captain James Cook renamed it ''Egmont'' after the Earl of Egmont, the recently retired First Lord of the Admiralty who had encouraged his expedition. The mountain has two alternative official names, "Mount Taranaki" and "Mount Egmont".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=What is the difference between alternative naming and dual naming? )〕 The region has a population of and is the 10th largest region of New Zealand by population.〔 Just under half the residents live in the city of New Plymouth. Other centres include Waitara, Inglewood, Stratford, Opunake, Okato, Kaponga, Eltham, Hawera, Patea and Waverley – the southern-most town. The region has had a strong Māori presence for centuries. The local iwi (tribes) include Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Ruanui, Taranaki, Te Āti Awa, Nga Rauru, Ngāruahinerangi and Ngāti Tama. The region is exceptionally fertile, thanks to generous rainfall and the rich volcanic soil. Dairy farming predominates, with the milk factory just outside Hawera being the second largest in the Southern Hemisphere. There are also oil and gas deposits in the region, both on- and off-shore. The Maui gas field off the south-west coast has provided most of New Zealand's gas supply as well as, at one time supporting two methanol plants (one formerly a synthetic-petrol plant called the Gas-To-Gasoline plant) at Motunui. More fuel and fertiliser is produced from a well-complex at Kapuni and a number of smaller land-based oilfields. With the Maui field nearing depletion, new offshore resources have been developed: The Tui field, 50 km south of Hawera, with reserves of of oil〔(Tui oil field ). Nzog.net. Retrieved on 2011-06-25.〕 and the Pohokura gas field, 4.5 km north of Waitara. The way the land mass projects into the Tasman Sea with northerly, westerly and southerly exposures results in many excellent surfing and windsurfing locations, some of them considered world-class. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Taranaki」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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