Taumarunui is a small town in the King Country of the central North Island of New Zealand.

The war party that succeeded in capturing the principal pa and taking prisoner the chief of the district was headed by "Ki Maru".

On State Highway 4 south of Taumarunui are the villages of Manunui, Piriaka, Kakahi, Ōwhango, Raurimu and then National Park.

Some places, notably the valley of the Pungapunga Stream, which joins the upper Whanganui near Manunui, were celebrated for the size and quality of totara, and large canoes were built there.

[5] Late in December 1843 Bishop Selwyn travelled from the district south of Taupō to a point on the Whanganui River about six miles downstream from Taumarunui and thence continued his journey to the coast by canoe.

Towards the end of 1869 Te Kooti was at Taumarunui before his march through the western Taupō district to Tapapa.

During the New Zealand Wars a resident named William Moffatt manufactured and supplied Māori with a coarse kind of gunpowder.

Taumarunui Landing (Image) was the last stop on Alexander Hatrick's steam boat service from Wanganui.

Later, Taumarunui gained importance with the completion of the North Island Main Trunk line in 1908–09 (celebrated in the 1957 ballad "Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line" by Peter Cape, about the station refreshment room).

The line south of Taumarunui caused considerable problems due to the terrain, and has several high viaducts and the famous Raurimu Spiral.

It has gained in importance as a tourism centre, especially as an entry point for voyagers down the scenic Wanganui River and as the possessor of a high-quality golf course.

1800s 1900–1914 1914–1939 1939–1999 Town Mayors immediately prior to 1988 include: Charles Binzegger, Les Byars and Terry Podmore.

This Lodge of the Buffaloes was established sometime in the mid-late 1920s and thus predates the introduction of the Mighty NZR KA class steam locomotives that became the hallmark of NIMT Rail Transport of the forties, fifties and sixties.