Tamaki River

The Tamaki River or Tamaki Estuary is mostly an estuarial arm and harbour of the Hauraki Gulf, within the city of Auckland in New Zealand. It extends south for 15 kilometres (9 mi) from its mouth between the suburb of Saint Heliers and the long thin peninsula of Bucklands Beach, which reaches its end at Musick Point. The inlet extends past the suburbs of Glendowie, Wai o Taiki Bay, Point England, Glen Innes, Tamaki, Panmure, and Otahuhu to the west, and Bucklands Beach, Halfmoon Bay, Farm Cove, Sunnyhills and Pakuranga to the east.

It has several smaller "tributary arms" which extend from it: the Pakuranga Creek and Otara Creek in the east, and the Otahuhu Creek and Panmure Basin in the west. The Otahuhu Creek forms the eastern shore of the narrowest point on the Auckland isthmus: here it is less than 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the waters of the Manukau Harbour, an arm of the Tasman Sea.

It was originally called Te Wai o Taiki, meaning "The Waters of Taiki". The name Taiki is a shortened form of Taikehu, the name of an ancestor of Ngāi Tai.

Portage Road is the location of one of the historical portage overland routes between the two coasts. Here the Maori would beach their waka (canoes) and drag them overland to the other coast, thus avoiding having to paddle around North Cape. A second portage was named Karetu and went between the extreme north-east corner of the Manukau harbour to a bay close to the site of the newest bridge across the Tamaki, about 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) south of the Panmure basin. The portages made the area of immense strategic importance in both pre-European times and during the early years of European occupation.

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