Gate Pa

You can hear the cars going by here in Gate Pa, a suburb of Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty Region. This area covers 1.76 square kilometers and has an estimated population of 4,100 as of June 2025. Back in 2023, the census counted 3,843 people here, which was an increase of 147 people since 2018.

Most people here, 64%, identify as European, but 31.5% are Māori. About 14.1% are Asian, and 8.9% are Pasifika. English is spoken by 95.6% of residents, with 7.2% speaking Māori. The median age here is 32.4 years.

If you look around, you'll see places like the Gate Pa Shopping Centre, which opened in 2006. It's a big place, covering 10,000 square meters, with 21 shops and 450 carparks. There's a Mitre 10 Mega and a Spotlight here.

There are also schools. Gate Pā School, for example, is a primary school for Year 1 to 6 students. It was actually opened in May 1951 as Tauranga South School and changed its name to Gate Pā School in 2001. As of March 2026, it has 357 students. There's also Tauranga Girls' College, a state secondary school that was established in 1958. It has a roll of 1,495 students.

This place is also known for something significant that happened in 1864: the Battle of Gate Pā, which was part of the Tauranga campaign of the New Zealand Wars.