Te Awamutu Visitor Information Centre

General Cameron selected Te Awamutu, site of the Church Mission Society's Otawhao mission camp, as his frontier headquarters. At its peak in 1864 some 4,000 military personnel lived here. The Te Awamutu heritage trail features the site of the 57th Regiment's redoubt. (Get a brochure from the information centre). Today the population is about 13,000. Te Awamutu prides itself on its rose gardens across the road from the the information centre. Also across the road, in a different direction, is the church originally constructed for the Mission in 1853 which during the land wars was a military chapel.