Te Rauparaha Arena
Encyclopedia
Te Rauparaha Arena is a multi-purpose indoor sports and entertainment centre in Porirua
Porirua
Porirua is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand, immediately north of the city of Wellington, with their central business districts 20 km apart. A large proportion of the population commutes to Wellington, so it may be considered a satellite city. It almost completely surrounds...

, 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...

. The centre, which cost NZ$17.5 million to construct, was officially opened on 21 November 2008. The main stadium has a maximum capacity of 3,000, while a secondary stadium can hold another 500 people. The name of the venue was gifted by the Ngāti Toa
Ngati Toa
Ngāti Toa , an iwi , traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. The Ngāti Toa region extends from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson....

 iwi, acknowledging of one of their most famous leaders, Te Rauparaha
Te Rauparaha
Te Rauparaha was a Māori rangatira and war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe who took a leading part in the Musket Wars. He was influential in the original sale of conquered Rangitane land to the New Zealand Company and was a participant in the Wairau Incident in Marlborough...

.

Te Rauparaha Arena was built as a replacement for the Porirua Recreation Centre, which went into the administration of the Porirua City Council in 1998 after it was no longer able to be maintained. The council decided to replace it with a larger sports and entertainment centre in 2000. Following years of designing and community consultation, construction of the present venue began in January 2008, and celebrated its official opening on 21 November.

It hosted two ANZ Championship
ANZ Championship
The ANZ Championship is the pre-eminent netball league in the world. The competition is held annually between April and July, comprising 69 matches played over 17 weeks. It is contested by ten teams, five from Australia and five from New Zealand...

 netball
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...

 matches for the Central Pulse
Central Pulse
The Central Pulse are a New Zealand netball team based in Wellington that compete in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The Pulse represent several New Zealand regions in the North and South Islands, from East Cape in the north to Tasman and Marlborough in the south, and were formed as an...

 in June for the 2009 season
2009 ANZ Championship season
The 2009 ANZ Championship season was the second season of the ANZ Championship, commencing on 4 April 2009. The 2009 season comprised 69 matches played over 17 weeks. The format of the competition was unchanged from last year, starting with a 14-week round robinfollowed by a three-week finals series...

. The second of these matches saw the Pulse record their first victory in the ANZ Championship, with a 53–52 victory over the New South Wales Swifts
New South Wales Swifts
The New South Wales Swifts are an Australian netball team based in Sydney that compete in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The Swifts were formed in 2007 as an amalgamation of two teams from the Commonwealth Bank Trophy – the Sydney Swifts and the Hunter Jaegers...

.

It hosted the Māori Art Market
MAORI ART MARKet
Māori Art Market is biennial event inspired by the Santa Fe Indian Market. The publicly funded event features art exhibitions, art sales, live art demonstrations, such as wood carving and tattooing, as well as presentations and master classes. The focus is on Māori traditional arts and Māori...

in 2009 and will host it again in 2011.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK