Ngatea is a small town on the Hauraki Plains

Hauraki Plains

The Hauraki Plains are a geographical feature and non-administrative area located in the northern North Island of New Zealand, at the lower end of the Thames Valley...

 in the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

 of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It is located 18 kilometres southwest of Thames

Thames, New Zealand

Thames is a town at the southwestern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. It is located on the Firth of Thames close to the mouth of the Waihou River. The town is the seat of the Thames-Coromandel District Council....

 and 70 kilometres southeast of Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

. Ngatea lies on the Piako River

Piako River

The Piako River is a lowland river system that drains into the Firth of Thames on the North Island of New Zealand. Together with the Waihou River, it is one of the two main rivers systems which drains the Hauraki Plains...

, eight kilometres south of its outflow into the Firth of Thames

Firth of Thames

The Firth of Thames is a large bay located in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the firth of the rivers Waihou and Piako, the former of which was formerly named the Thames River, and the town of Thames lies on its southeastern coast....

.

Ngatea is the 'service centre' for the farming area of the Hauraki Plains. It was established in the 1900s as a result of a unique series of canals and stop banks which drained the land and produced rich farmlands for dairy production.

The town also acts as a service town for motorists travelling from Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula

Coromandel Peninsula

The Coromandel Peninsula lies in the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Waikato Region and Thames-Coromandel District and extends 85 kilometres north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier to protect the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the west...

 and Bay of Plenty

Bay of Plenty

The Bay of Plenty , often abbreviated to BOP, is a region in the North Island of New Zealand situated around the body of water of the same name...

 via State Highway 2

New Zealand State Highway network

The New Zealand State Highway network is the major national highway network in New Zealand. Just under 100 roads in both the North and South Islands are State Highways...

. Its population in 2006 was 1167.

Ngatea has various tourist attractions around the area, both historical and new, such as the Ngatea Water Gardens, peat

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...

dome, the Millennium Bridge and the now-defunct gem stone factory (Wilderness Gems), whose building used to be the Ngatea Dairy Factory.

Ngatea has two schools, Hauraki Plains College (with around 650 students), and Ngatea Primary School (with around 310 students as of 2009).