Kaimai Range

The Kaimai Range is the result of a fault that uplifted primarily andesitic rocks from long-extinct volcanoes. This fault has not been active for about 140,000 years and started more than a million years ago. In pre-European times, the area was densely forested by trees such as kauri, mataī and tawa, and was a home for birds such as kererū, tūī, kākā and kiwi. ==Demographics==

Kaimai statistical area, which does not include the entire range, covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km2. Kaimai had a population of 2,148 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 120 people (5.9%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 396 people (22.6%) since the 2013 census. There were 1,101 males, 1,038 females, and 6 people of other genders in 705 dwellings. 1.7% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. The median age was 41.8 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 414 people (19.3%) aged under 15 years, 351 (16.3%) aged 15 to 29, 1,077 (50.1%) aged 30 to 64, and 306 (14.2%) aged 65 or older. ==Kaimai Tunnel==

The Kaimai Railway Tunnel runs for nearly nine kilometres under the range, making it the longest tunnel in New Zealand. Construction of the tunnel started from both sides of the range in 1969: the headings met in 1976 and the tunnel opened on 12 September 1978. The Kaimai Range and this tunnel led to a Silver Fern railcar service between Auckland and Tauranga being named the Kaimai Express. This service operated from 1991 until 2001. The tunnel is still used by about 20 freight trains a day. A peak of the Kaimai directly above the tunnel, previously unnamed, was named Stokes Peak in 2010 in honour of geographer Evelyn Stokes. ==Flight 441 disaster==

At approximately 9:09 am on 3 July 1963 the DC-3 Skyliner ZK-AYZ Hastings operating New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 from Whenuapai Airport, Auckland to Tauranga crashed into the range. All 23 aboard died, making it the worst air disaster in mainland New Zealand. ==Communications==

The New Zealand Post Office engineering division (radio) built and maintained a microwave communications facility near the top of Kaimai range, close to the Hamilton–Tauranga highway saddle. In the 1960s it was a Lenkurt relay as part of the national network, linking Sanitorium Hill near Cambridge to Rotorua, with a spur to Tauranga. It now has cell phone and various other radio communications facilities, and is owned and operated by Telecom New Zealand. Land Parcel: Part Section 126 Block II Tapapa SD The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) commissioned a television broadcast relay station atop Mount Te Aroha in 1963, relaying Auckland's AKTV2 channel (now part of TVNZ 1) to Hamilton and Tauranga. Today, Mount Te Aroha is the main television transmitter and one of two main FM radio transmitters (along with Ruru) serving the Waikato. Airways New Zealand maintains a secondary surveillance radar and ADS-B installation on Te Weraiti, a peak on the Kaimai range, north of State Highway 29 saddle. This is used to facilitate air traffic control. ==See also==