Pihama, Taranaki Map

About Pihama, Taranaki

Pihama is a locality in the Taranaki Region of New Zealand. It sits at an elevation of around 56 m above sea level. It lies approximately 50 km south-southwest of New Plymouth, the regional capital. Pihama is located at 39.5000°S, 173.9333°E. It observes New Zealand Time (NZST/NZDT).

Pihama lies in the rolling green folds of Taranaki's western flank, where the land dips and swells towards the distant murmur of the Tasman Sea. It lies 49.9 km south-south-west of New Plymouth (from New Plymouth: bearing 195°T), and is situated 8.1 km south-east of Opunake. The air here carries a clean, damp scent, a perpetual whisper of the ocean carried inland on the prevailing westerly winds, even though the closest reach of the tide is some seven kilometres away. Fields of emerald pasture, meticulously fenced and divided, stretch across the landscape, broken only by the dark, sturdy lines of shelter belts and the occasional clump of native bush clinging to a steeper slope. The Waiaua River, a silver thread in the afternoon sun, carves its patient course through the country, its banks often softened by the verdant growth of ferns and mosses.

This is a place where the rhythm of the seasons is dictated by the needs of the land and the animals that inhabit it, a place built on the bedrock of dairy farming. For generations, families have worked these fertile soils, their lives interwoven with the cycles of milking and calving. The rich volcanic loam, a legacy of the region's powerful geological past, provides an almost inexhaustible bounty for the dairy herds that graze contentedly across the hills. While the sea is a presence, a constant backdrop to the coastal plains, it is the land itself that has shaped the enduring character and economy of Pihama, fostering a quiet resilience and a deep connection to the earth. Nearby, the historic site of Whakatukorau hints at older stories, a silent sentinel watching over the contemporary pulse of agricultural life.

About This Pihama Map Page

This page provides an embedded street and satellite map of Pihama, Taranaki, New Zealand at coordinates -39.5, 173.93333. Use the Map and Satellite buttons to switch views, the plus and minus buttons to zoom, and Fullscreen to fill the screen.

Search Maps opens a second, independent map with four things the embedded map cannot do. It searches OpenStreetMap for any New Zealand town, suburb or landmark by name. It offers LINZ topographic maps as a base layer — the official Topo250 and Topo50 sheets, switching scale automatically as you zoom, and the standard reference for tramping, hunting and back-country travel. It offers LINZ aerial imagery down to 5cm resolution in urban areas. And it can take a single GPS fix from your device and report your position as both an NZTM2000 grid reference and plain latitude and longitude — the grid reference being what New Zealand search and rescue services work from. Map tiles require mobile coverage, but a GPS position does not, so the coordinates remain correct even where the map itself cannot load.

My Location & Navigate starts the vector-tile navigator: live turn-by-turn driving directions from your current position to any destination, with spoken guidance, lane hints and automatic re-routing.

Live weather conditions with current observations and a 7-day forecast are powered by Open-Meteo. Real-time New Zealand and world news feeds keep the page current, while an editorial description provides background on Pihama.

Pihama sits within the Taranaki Region. Location data is drawn from the GeoNames geographical database and verified by coordinates, ensuring the correct Pihama is identified even where the name is shared across multiple New Zealand localities.