Waharoa is a rural community in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island.

State Highway 27 runs through the town,[3] which is serviced by several shops and cafes and by a petrol station.

Also to the north, near the airport, are the community of Tamihana (where the Raungaiti marae is located) [5] and remnants of the original Matamata pā.

Prior to colonisation, the area surrounding and including present-day Waharoa was held by Ngāti Hauā.

In 1830, the Ngāti Hauā chief Te Waharoa established the Matamata pā a few kilometres north of the current settlement.

Reverend Alfred Nesbit Brown first visited the area in 1833, and founded the nearby Matamata Mission Station in 1835.

[7] In 1865, Josiah Firth began buying up land in the surrounding area from Te Waharoa's son, Wiremu Tamihana.

He established a church, a school, and a dairy factory and divided the land into ¼-acre sections.

[12] Waharoa had a flag station[13] opposite Pitt St[14] on the Kinleith Branch from 8 March 1886, opened from Morrinsville to Tīrau (then called Oxford) on Monday 8 March 1886[15] by the Thames Valley & Rotorua Railway Co. New Zealand Railways Department took over the line on 1 April 1886.

[16] In 1890 the daily train took about 2 hours to cover the 33 mi 38 ch (53.9 km) between Waharoa and Frankton (Hamilton).

By 1896 a platform, cart approach, loading bank, sheep yards and a passing loop for 33 wagons had been added.

[16] The station was rebuilt in 1923,[18] had a verandah added in 1924[19] and closed to passengers on 12 November 1968 and to freight, other than private siding traffic, on 29 March 1981.

[39] Te Kura o Waharoa is the township's state primary school, teaching Year 1 to 6 students in the Māori language.