6A Stuckey Street, Levin, Horowhenua

Levin Visitor Information Office

Levin is the principal town for the horticultural region of Horowhenua. A popular retirement place 'up the coast' from Wellington, it is also a centre for clothes manufacturing, however the number of factory shops is dwindling. Along State Highway One roadside stalls sell produce from the local market gardens. To the east are the Tararua ranges which can be impressive when snow-covered. After nearby Foxton started improving it's aesthetic, a renewed call for a 'tidy up' of Levin's townscape was acknowledged by Council in 2018 with a round of consultation. Some described Levin's main identity as defined by State Highway One and State Highway 57. This sentiment is not without basis as Levin has always been a junction, a crossroads, and a landmark on the travellers route. Before Pakeha, the Muaupoko Iwi lived here in harmony with Ngati Raukawa, beside Lake Horowhenua and along the coastline. The coach road gave way to the railway and Pakeha settlement, including mass felling of native bush in the 1880s, when Muaupoko chief Keepa Te Rangihiwinui sold the land for the town. Promises that the town would be named Taitoko, after his father, and that the lake and every 10th town section would be kept for his people, were soon broken.
The fortunes of the Pakeha settlers here were made first in timber and flax, then in state boosted farming, later on in manufacturing and the location of government service departments here. Most of this has gone and Levin survives on serving the farmers and some market gardening, while Muaupoko are still looking for the revival of their now polluted lake.

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