History

Puketapu 3A is a Māori Incorporation governed by Part XIII of the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993.

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An order for incorporation of the Puketapu 3A Block was made on the 25 September 1944. At that time, the milling of the land’s native timber between Taumarunui and Turangi was in progress and was a major contributor to business in the local Taumarunui community. Puketapu 3A were key participants in the sawmilling industry with mills located at Taumarunui and in Taranaki (Eltham and Hawera) for further processing and distribution.

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Puketapu 3A has 6,600 hectares of Māori freehold land. From the 1950’s part of the profits from the native timber were put into the development of the farm now known as Moerangi Station. The initial strategy was to develop 3,600 hectares, which, to this day, remains fully boundary fenced, but only 2,400 hectares was converted into pasture by the end of the 1970’s and remained the effective farmed area through to 2010.

In the 1960’s an investment farm property of 600 hectares (Te Matai Station) was purchased at Aria and farmed until 1994 then on-sold to make provision for the purchase of tribal land at Ngapuke. This property, 208 hectares of freehold land, along with 900 hectares of Maori leases is today farmed as Manunui Station. Minor diversification into tourism (Waipari Safaris) and a mini-hydroelectric power scheme were implemented in the 1990’s.

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In January 2010, Puketapu 3A and Oraukura 3 Incorporations signed an agreement with the Lake Taupo Protection Trust for the sale of nitrogen as part of the Lake Taupo Protection Strategy. Nitrogen payments will be paid to the Incorporation over a 9 year period. The agreement also requires Puketapu 3A to convert 550 hectares of pastoral land to forestry. Puketapu 3A has entered in to an Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) with Mighty River Power (MRP) that requires Puketapu 3A to sell the carbon sequestered by the new forest to MRP.

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In February 2010, Tuatahi Farming Partnership was established. This is a limited partnership between Puketapu 3A and Oraukura 3 Incorporations and unites the farming businesses of both Incorporations.