The port city of Tauranga is one of the country's fastest growing towns, the fifth largest centre of population in New Zealand. Year-on-year, it is the sunniest of the main centres. Life revolves around the coast, the harbour and freight, cruise ships, beaches and leisure services. Rotorua is probably New Zealand's best known tourist destination, a gateway to NZ's volcanic heartland now with direct flights to and from Auckland, Hamilton, the South Island, and Australia. Te Puke is best known for kiwifruit production, probably our most lucrative export crop.

The completion of what is now Oropi Road in 1873 enabled travel from Tauranga to Napier, and opened up the interior. About halfway between Tauranga and Rotorua a small 'service centre' began to be pieced together at what came to be Ngawaro, not far from the southern end of Mangatoi Road. By the early 1930s Ngawaro, and most of the early settlers, were a memory and it would be another twenty years before the district began to prosper, this time at the other end of the road, from Te Puke. In 1976 Mountain Road from Oropi was finally extended through the forest to join the Te Puke-Ngawaro Road and Mangatoi's connection to the city was secured. Today the area is effectively equidistant between Tauranga, Te Puke, and Rotorua, and residents have a quiet 30 minute journey to any of the centres.

Local primary schooling is situated at Oropi or Pyes Pa, children travel to secondary schools in Te Puke or Tauranga. School buses travel along Mountain Road, Pyes Pa (Tauranga Direct) Road, and down No2 Road from Shaw Road. The closest commercial centres for groceries, health and dentistry, banking and so on, are in Te Puke and the Greerton suburb of Tauranga, which can be reached within 25 minutes.