He was born in Wairoa and was educated at Wairoa District High School. He went into forestry as a technical trainee and rose to the position of management of four forests. In 1962 he married Lavinia Kepara Ellen Parish from Ngāi Tahu and had three children and five grandchildren. In 1978 he was appointed the vice principal of the Forestry Training Centre at Rotorua for two years, following which he was principal for two years. In 1982 he went to the Philippines to develop training for ASEAN (Australasia and South East Asian Nations) foresters and to set up training packages throughout Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Te Aho, Murray Hosking and two others organised a workshop on nursery and plantation practices in Indonesia in October 1983. Te Aho coordinated the workshop seminars and presented three papers at the workshop. On his return to New Zealand, he became District Ranger at Tapanui in West Otago for three years. He was then posted to Thames where he was the District Conservator for DOC in the Coromandel region. Since 1991 he has been employed in private consultancy work. He has worked for Hauraki Māori Trust Board in issues relating to social work, training work and employment work in the Hauraki region. He has written various non-fiction training papers.
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation with Tokotokerangi Te Aho on 14 Sept. 1998.
Fiction
- Workshop on nursery and plantation practices in the ASEAN, Manggala Wanabakti, Jakarta, Indonesia, 3-7 October, 1983. Comp. T. Te Aho, and M. R. Hosking. Wellington, N.Z.: New Zealand Forest Service, 1985.
- Compilation of 23 papers, some of which were written by Te Aho.