Rural service township 24 kilometres south-west of Te Kūiti. Piopio was laid out around 1902 and served a dairy-farming hinterland. In the early 1920s the government decided to consolidate small rural schools. Piopio became the first consolidated school in New Zealand in 1924. The first school bus service in the country also started at Piopio that year.
Meaning of place name
Native thrush.
