Opoutere

Opoutere is a locality and beach on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand. It lies to the east of State Highway 25, south of Pauanui and north of Whangamata. The Wharekawa Harbour lies to the south east. The name means "place of floating posts". The first known settlers of the area were the Ngāti Hei. They were supplanted by the Ngāti Hako in the mid 17th century, but Ngā Puhi raids during the Musket Wars of the early 19th century left the area without a permanent population. In the 1870s and 1880s, gold prospectors staked claims on quartz outcrops around the Wharekewa Harbour, resulting in half a dozen major gold strikes, and several mines being established in the 1890s. Kauri logging was underway in the 1890s...