It often gets a bad rap for crime, unemployment and poverty but Te Kaikohekohe is fighting back. The small town is becoming a fitness hub of the North, with locals promoting health and wellbeing as the new face of their kāinga.
At 7am trainer Jay Hepi is hard at work getting "the boys" fit and ready to go. His motto:"Win the morning, win the day."
Hepi also believes the little town could be the fittest in the mid-North.
Workouts at Hau Ora Hub boxing gym at the top of town really pack a punch and their members are fighting fit.
"It runs in our DNA. Ngāpuhi, natural-born fighters," Hepi says.
Wellbeing hub
The 4,500 population town is quickly becoming a hub of wellbeing.
Sisters and co-owners of Hawaiki, Kohi Woodman and Rehutai Manukau, are impressed with the confidence they see growing in their members.
"Seeing them walk around town, confident in their walk," they say. "That's why we do it."
And in Kaikohe it seems everyone is "doing it". A stroll up the main road of the small Northland town found eight gyms along the way, each offering fitness in a way that fits Kaikohe both physically and socially.
Hepi said the gym was offering rangatahi a positive start to the day and opening opportunities to them that would benefit themselves and their whānau.
"We found eight of our young fellows jobs two weeks ago."
Pub town gone
Woodman described her functional fitness gym as a stage "to show the good side of themselves, the good side of town."
"Functional fitness for our people, to our people," she says.
But it wasn't always this way. "This used to be an old pub," Hepi said. "There used to be a lot of pubs. Down the road there was another pub with fights there. Now we're down to one pub in Kaikohe." Hepi said.
Back in those days he got into bar fights and the town was a different kind of rowdy then.
Woodman says the town has always been active in sports and recreational activities but now locals have a plethora of choice.
"There's a buffet of gyms in Kaikohe," Hepi said.
When it comes to fitness, this town is "getting it done".