Tōtara Park

Tōtara Park is a suburb of Upper Hutt, New Zealand, located 2 km northeast of the city centre. It is accessed via the Tōtara Park Bridge which crosses the Hutt River, connecting it to State Highway 2 and the main Upper Hutt urban area. It was popular in the 1970s and 1980s for families moving into the Upper Hutt area. Most of the streets in Tōtara Park are named after states, towns and cities of the United States, with the main road running through the suburb being California Drive. Tōtara Park is built on alluvial gravel. The Wellington Fault runs through the suburb—one section of California Drive straddles the fault, and the road lanes are built on either side of the fault with a large central reservation between them. This was designed so houses would be offset at least 20 metres from the fault, hopefully limiting damage if the fault were to rupture. The Māori names for this area are Te Hau-karetu and for the Hutt River itself; Heretaunga, and Awa Kairangi. In December 2019, the official name of the suburb was gazetted as "Tōtara Park".

Park data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).