Pukerua Bay

Pukerua Bay
Pukerua Bay, looking west.
Basic information
Local authority	Porirua
Population	1,722 (2006)
Facilities
Train station(s)	Pukerua Bay Railway Station (Muri Railway Station closed in 2011)
Surrounds
North	Kapiti Island
Northeast	Paekakariki
South	Plimmerton
West	Cook Strait
Northwest	Tasman Sea

Pukerua Bay Railway Station

Pukerua Bay is a small seaside community at the southern end of the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand. In local government terms it is the northernmost suburb of Porirua City. It is 12 km north of the Porirua City Centre on State Highway 1 (SH1), and 30 km north of central Wellington.

In Māori, the words puke rua literally mean two hills but it is not clear to which hills the name refers.

The community's population was 1,722 people in 2006, and there were 89 businesses. Pukerua Bay has a kindergarten, a pre-school, and the Pukerua Bay School, which caters for ages 5–12. There is a branch of Porirua Library, a Returned Servicemen's Association, tennis club, scout hall, sports field, and several nature reserves and trails. Retail facilities include a convenience store, hairdresser and second-hand bookstore.

Pukerua Bay has one train station, Pukerua Bay, on the North Island Main Trunk Railway, with suburban services provided by Tranz Metro. The train journey to Wellington takes about 35 minutes, to Paraparaumu 20 minutes. A second train station, Muri station, 1.2 km by road north of Pukerua Bay station, opened in 1954, was closed on 30 April 2011.

Pukerua Bay's skatepark was rebuilt in 2009 in a collaborative venture between the Porirua City Council, the Residents Association, and PKBSK8 Inc. Funding was also provided by the Caversham Foundation and the Mana Community Grants Foundation. The park is adjacent to the Pukerua Bay railway station, and replaces an old asphalt bowl which the City Council claims was the only purpose-built skatepark in the Southern Hemisphere when it opened in 1976.

The earliest people known to have lived in the area around Pukerua Bay were the Ngati Iri Māori tribe and later the Muaupoko, who built Waimapihi Pā near today's seaward end of Rawhiti Road. Pukerua Bay was on the main road for Māori travellers going north or south. About 1822, it was invaded from Kapiti Island by Te Rauparaha and his Ngati Toa people. According to oral tradition, the Muaupoko people fled up the gorge of the Waimapihi stream (on the Ohariu Fault line), abandoning their treasures on the way.