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Taihape is at the centre of a large farming community and much of its economic activity is in serving that community. It is situtated on State Highway 1 and on the main trunk railway line between Auckland and Wellington. Despite these transport links, it is considered to be isolated by most New Zealanders because there are no towns of a comparable size for a considerable distance. The road south winds through hill country farmland down onto the Manawatu plain, some 100km south. North of Taihape the road and railway must first cross the wide volcanic plateau (with the volcanos Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngarauhoe and Mount Tongariro) before reaching Lake Taupo and the more hospitable country beyond Taupo at the north end of the Lake. There are no transport links west (rugged hill country is in the way) and only one rough road east, over a mountain range to the port city of Napier. Before State Highway 1 and the railway were built the latter road was the main route in or out of what was then an extremely isolated community.
Taihape has a population of around 3000 people. It has a primary school (motto: Nulla Vestiga Restrorum [never look back]) and a secondary school (motto: step forward together). The secondary school is reputed to be the second smallest in the country.
For the average New Zealander, Taihape is a place through which they pass on their way north or south, perhaps stopping for a snack or meal. They will also have heard of Gumboot Day, the Tuesday after Easter. This was cleverly devised by local business people who realised that they could never rid the town of its rural backwater image, so they would instead capitalise on it. It seems to have worked. How many other towns, of similar size, are known country-wide?