New Plymouth (Māori: Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.

Notable features are the botanic garden (i.e. Pukekura Park), the critically acclaimed Len Lye Centre and Art Gallery, the 13 km (8.1 mi) New Plymouth Coastal Walkway alongside the Tasman Sea, the Len Lye-designed 45-metre-tall (148 ft) artwork known as the Wind Wand, Paritutu Rock, and views of Mount Taranaki.

Based on New Plymouth's already positive attitude towards cyclists and pedestrians, the city received $3.71m to invest into infrastructure and community programmes to boost walking and cycling.

From about 1823, the Māori began having contact with European whalers as well as traders who arrived by schooner to buy flax.

Barrett traded with the local Māori and helped negotiate the purchase of land from them on behalf of the New Zealand Company.

[8] The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 created the New Plymouth Province, with a Provincial Council given jurisdiction over an area of 400,000ha.

I find a great liking for this 'slow, old hole' ... it is a quiet, unassuming place and has not done so much to attract immigrants and settlers by exaggerating reports, as some districts have done.

"[12] The Fitzroy Town District was merged with New Plymouth borough in August 1911; Vogeltown, Frankleigh Park and Westown were added a year later, followed by St Aubyn-Moturoa.

Every three years, the mayor, 14 councillors and 16 community board members are elected by the New Plymouth District's enrolled voters.

The Chief Executive and approximately 460 full-time equivalent staff provide advice and information to the elected members and the public, implement council decisions and manage the district's day-to-day operations.

This includes everything from maintaining more than 280 parks and reserves, waste water management and issuing consents and permits, through to providing libraries and other recreational services and ensuring the district's eateries meet health standards.

[15] In the 1960s, the New Plymouth Power Station was initially designed to run on coal but constructed to be fuelled by natural gas or fuel oil.

[17] The offshore Maui A well began production of natural gas in the late 1970s, sparking a flourishing energy and petrochemical industry.

As Maui A's resources decline, new sites in Taranaki are being developed in an effort to find more commercial petrochemical reserves.

The company ran a factory at Paritutu making the herbicide 2,4,5-T. A 2005 study found that people who lived close to the Ivon Watkins-Dow plant between 1962 and 1987 were likely to have dioxin levels on average four times higher than the general public.

A Public Health Medicine senior adviser has claimed that based on international findings, the residents' exposure to dioxin may cause increased rates of disease, in particular cancer.

[20][21][22] In April 2008, the Ministry clarified that the programme's main feature would be a free annual medical check up for those who had lived, worked or studied close to the factory.

[23] New Plymouth District has a reputation as an events centre, with major festivals (the annual TSB Bank Festival of Lights, Taranaki Powerco Garden Spectacular, WOMAD and the biennial Taranaki Arts Festival), sports fixtures (including international rugby, surfing, cricket and tennis matches, and the annual ITU World Cup Triathlon) and concerts (from Sir Elton John, Jack Johnson, REM, John Farnham and Fleetwood Mac).

Pukekura Park is also the home of the TSB Bank Festival of Lights, which runs for free every year from mid-December to early February.

It has daytime and night-time programmes of events for people of all ages, and the festival itself transforms the park into an illuminated wonderland every evening.

Next to the foreshore in the central city is Puke Ariki – the world's first purpose-built, fully integrated museum, library and information centre.

[25] The Coastal Walkway is a 13 km path that forms an expansive sea-edge promenade stretching almost the entire length of the city, from the Bell Block mouth in the east to Port Taranaki in the west.

[28] New Plymouth won the Top Town award from North and South Magazine in 2008 (judged "the best place in New Zealand to live, love, work and raise a family").

In 1926, it was augmented by the Taranaki Flyer for the run between New Plymouth and Wanganui, A direct railway route to Auckland was not established until 1932, when the Stratford–Okahukura Line was completed; the next year, when the line was handed over from the Public Works Department to the New Zealand Railways Department, the New Plymouth Night Express began operating to Auckland.

[clarification needed] There are schools in Fitzroy, Frankleigh Park, Hurdon, Lynmouth, Mangorei, Marfell, Merrilands, Moturoa, Spotswood, Strandon, Vogeltown, Welbourn, Westown and Brooklands.