The name also refers to the region bounded by the coast to the Kaimai and Mamaku Ranges in the west. Which includes the cities of Tauranga and Rotorua. Also the towns of Te Puke, Katikati and Whakatane are within the region.
It was named by Captain Cook some time during October and November 1769. Cook named it the Bay of Plenty after he noticed the abundant food supplies at several Maori villages he visited on the coast, in stark contrast to the observations he made earlier in Poverty Bay.