Concrete Laying Wellington

About Te Aro

Te Aro (formerly also known as Te Aro Flat) is an inner-city suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It comprises the southern part of the central business district including the majority of the city's entertainment district and covers the mostly flat area of city between The Terrace and Cambridge Terrace at the base of Mount Victoria. == Geography and history == Waimapihi Stream is now mostly culverted, but formerly ran from the area around Zealandia and down Aro Valley then past what is now the western end of Te Aro Park and on to the sea. The name means "the stream (or bathing place) of Mapihi, a chieftainess of those iwi". Te Aro Pā was east of the stream near what is now lower Taranaki Street. Waitangi stream flowed from Newtown, past the Basin Reserve and down to the shore at the eastern side of Te Aro, forming a large swamp that was used by Māori for food (eels and shellfish) and flax gathering. The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake uplifted Te Aro and drained the swamp. The area around the former swampy foreshore was redeveloped and opened in 2006 as Waitangi Park. The Te Aro Reclamation Act of 1879 made possible reclamation of 40 acres of land on the foreshore as far as what is now Cable Street. Early European settlement in Te Aro was centred on commerce and working-class people, as opposed to Thorndon which was the centre of official business.: 32  By the 1880s Te Aro was packed with working-class houses and businesses catering to the workers, and the area had gained a reputation for being poorly-drained, dirty and disease-ridden.: 67  Typhoid was prevalent in the city in the early 1890s and most deaths from the disease occurred in the slums of Te Aro.: 73  Almost half of Wellington's deaths in the 1918 influenza pandemic occurred in Te Aro.: 128  The situation gradually improved as new suburbs such as Newtown, Miramar and Karori opened up and city infrastructure was developed.