Pōhutukawa Coast

Former pā site at Ōmana Regional Park

The Pōhutukawa Coast was visited by the Tainui migratory waka around the year 1300. The waka landed at Tūranga Creek, tethered to a volcanic rock in the shape of a man. This gave rise to the name of the creek, which means "Anchorage".[17] Tainui followers of Manawatere, who identified as Ngā Oho, decided to settle the area between the Pōhutukawa Coast and Tūwakamana (Cockle Bay). Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, the mana whenua of the area, descend from these early settlers.[16][18] Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki traditional stories talk about the land already being occupied by the supernatural Tūrehu people, and many place names in the area reference Tūrehu figures, such as Hinerangi and Manawatere.[16]

The name Maraetai is a traditional name for the Tāmaki Strait, meaning "Marae Enclosed by the Tides", referring to how the sheltered ocean of the strait acted like a flat marae ātea (marae entrance courtyard).[10][19] The name traditionally referred to the wider area between Motukaraka Island and the Wairoa River.[20] Tūranga is the traditional name for the wider area around Whitford and the Tūranga Creek.[21] Ngāi Tai people lived in seasonal encampments between the Tāmaki River and Wairoa River, collecting seafood resources, cultivating crops such as kūmara and taro, snaring birds and processing karaka berries.[17]

By the 1600s, Whakakaiwhara Pā and Te Oue Pā to the south of the Whakakaiwhara Peninsula were focal points of Ngāi Tai life, where the rangatira of the iwi were based.[16] By the 1800s, after European contact, the rangatira of Ngāi Tai were based at Umupuia (Duders Beach).[16] During the 1820s, most members of Ngāi Tai fled to the Waikato due to the threats of the Musket Wars, however by the 1830s many had returned.[16]

Pencil sketch of Umupuia in 1882

English Missionary William Thomas Fairburn first visited the area in 1833.[16][22] In 1836, Fairburn brokered a land sale between Tāmaki Māori chiefs, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Turia of Ngāti Te Rau, covering the majority of modern-day South Auckland, East Auckland and the Pōhutukawa Coast.[23] The sale was envisioned as a way to end hostilities in the area, but it is unclear what the chiefs understood or consented to. Māori continued to live in the area, unchanged by this sale.[24]

Fairburn established a mission at Maraetai in 1837, where he taught reading, writing and spread Christianity among Ngāi Tai and Ngāti Pāoa.[25] Fairburn resigned from the mission in 1841, and the mission continued on Wiremu Hoete, until late 1843.[26] Many Ngāi Tai and Ngāti Pāoa lived at the mission, and the farm surrounding the mission became one of the first farms in Auckland.[27] Fairburn's Purchase was investigated by the New Zealand Land Commission in 1841 and 1842 and found to be excessive and reduced in size. The disallowed parts of his purchase were not returned to Ngāi Tai, however in 1854 a reserve was created for Ngāi Tai between the eastern shores of the Wairoa River and Umupuia.[22] As a part of this arrangement, Ngāi Tai agreed not to settle elsewhere in the region, which meant that Ngāi Tai's tradition of seasonal settlement could not be continued.[16]

The first European settlers arrived in the area in the 1840s and 1850s.[28] In 1842, Ngeungeu, daughter of the Ngāi Tai chief Tara Te Irirangi, moved back to Umupuia with her family, after her husband, Scottish mariner Thomas Maxwell in the Bay of Islands, died.[16] In September 1863 during the Invasion of the Waikato, the Ngāi Tai village of Ōtau near Clevedon was attacked by the British army, and the village was evacuated, living in communities at the river's mouth. For the remainder of the war, Ngāi Tai were designated as a "friendly" people by the Crown, and remained neutral in the fighting.[18] After the Native Lands Act of 1865, the Native Land Court confiscated many Ngāi Tai lands. The remaining land was individuated, slowly sold on to European farmers.[18][17]

The first local government in the area was the Turanga Highway District, which began operating in 1866 around Whitford,[29] followed by the Maraetai Highway District in 1875.[30] From 1869 until the 1920s, the Nathan family at Whitford operated a large ostrich farm.[31] Other farms grew oats, hay, wheat, potatoes for the Auckland market,[32] and other industries developed, including brickworks and mines.[31]

Ngāi Tai focused life at Umupuia for the 19th Century, where a flax mill existed. In the early 20th century, a fire burnt down the mill and the meeting house, Hārata Kīngi.[18]

A family enjoying a day at Maraetai Beach in the 1920s

By the early 20th Century, the Pōhutukawa Coast had become a popular spot for picnics and camping.[33] Beachlands and Maraetai were subdivided in the 1920s,[34][35] growing into holiday communities.[36] In 1929, the first bus service began, linking Maraetai, Beachlands and Whitford to Auckland.[36] From the 1950s to the early 1970s, Beachlands and Maraetai grew significantly, transitioning from seasonal holiday towns to permanent residential communities.[27][37]

The Pine Harbour marina was constructed in 1988,[38] becoming a major transport hub for the area, linking the Pōhutukawa Coast to Auckland by ferry.[10] The Umupuia Marae was officially reopened in November 1990,[18] and in 1997 the Formosa Golf Club opened.[38]

Between 2017 and the 2030s, the Pōhutukawa Coast Trail, a series of walking tracks linking the communities of the Pōhutukawa Coast, will be constructed.[39] In 2022, residents of the Pōhutukawa Coast petitioned the government to build a high school for the area.[40]