Opotiki Information Centre

The Information centre includes a Department of Conservation (DOC) office. A good place to visit if you are wanting to travel the road around East Cape to Gisborne (330 km on SH 35). Alternatively, and more directly you can get to Gisborne on SH 2 on its narrow route through the Waioka Gorge, (144km).
Historically the town was a centre for the administration of law and order in the eastern Bay of Plenty. TheCourthouse (1910-11) is still in use. It was designed by John Campbell. Nearby is a grand war memorial in the form of a Corinthian column of white marble Other historic buildings are Rostgards building, the De Luxe Theatre and the Opotiki Hotel.
The town of Opotiki has about 4,400 people and the district about 9,500 of whom about 54% are Maori - one of the few districts in New Zealand where Maori are in the majority. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed by seven Whakatohea rangatira (chiefs) at Opotiki on 27 and 28 May 1840.

In his book Opotiki Mai Tawhiti - Capital of Whakatohea - *The Story of Whakatohea's Struggle During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,*Maori Author Ranginui Walker has written a tribal history of his own iwi, Whakatohea of Opotiki telling about the epic events of the nineteenth century and the tribe's subsequent struggle for social justice. Whakatohea were devastated by the Musket Wars of the 1820s. In fact, the town of Opotiki was deserted for a decade. Then, in the 1840s and 1850s the tribe enjoyed great economic prosperity, growing crops and owning coastal ships. The Land Wars, however, were a disaster for Whakatohea following the famous Rev. Volkner affair. A large column of imperial troops invaded their territory. Property was looted and destroyed, their land confiscated. As Ranginui Walker himself says, 'the history of Whakatohea is a microcosm of the history of New Zealand'.

The Crown and Whakatohea moved towards a Treaty of Waitangi settlement by signing an Agreement in Principle on 18 August 2017.The settlement has a value of 100 million dollars. Whakatohea had been attempting to settle its raupatu (land confiscation) claims against the Crown for many years.