Te Rapa

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Te Rapa
City:	Hamilton, New Zealand
Island	North Island
Surrounded by:
To the north:	rural
To the north-east:	Pukete
To the east:	Saint Andrews, New Zealand
To the south-east:	Beerescourt
To the south/south-west:	Forest Lake
To the west:	Frankton, Waikato
To the north-west:	rural

Te Rapa is a mixed light industrial, large scale retail and semi-rural suburb to the northwest of central Hamilton.

Stretching in a long, thin north-south axis, Te Rapa is home to a large number of factories including Te Rapa Dairy Factory, one of the largest of its kind in the world. Also located in Te Rapa is Te Rapa Racecourse, Hamilton's only remaining horse racing course and the main race course for the Waikato region.

Before its return to the Tainui tribe in a Raupatu land settlement, Te Rapa was also the site of a Royal New Zealand Air Force base. The Te Rapa Airforce Base was perhaps unique among New Zealand air force bases in that it did not include a runway - being a base for helicopters.

The name lives on in 'The Base' - a large scale retail development that includes the largest 'The Warehouse' in New Zealand (at time of writing - May 2006) and a 'Dressmart' outlet mall.

The suburb is the site of a number of important railway linkages in the New Zealand railway network, mainly the North Island Main Trunk and East Coast Main Trunk. The suburb is the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk electrification, a large locomotive depot and formerly a large marshalling yard.