| Porirua |
|
| Population: |
(urban)
(territorial)
|
| Urban area |
| Extent: |
N to Pukerua Bay;
W to Cook Strait, Titahi Bay; E to Pauatahanui;
SW to Kenepuru |
| Territorial Authority |
| Name: |
Porirua City |
| Mayor: |
Nick Leggett Nick Leggett is the current Mayor of Porirua. He was the youngest mayor in New Zealand at the time of his election in October 2010.-Early life:...
|
| Extent: |
N to near Paekakariki;
NE to Transmission Gully; W to Tasman Sea, Titahi Bay; E to Judgeford; S to Belmont Regional Park;
SW to Kenepuru |
| Land Area: |
182.39 km² (70.42 sq mi) |
| Website: |
http://www.pcc.govt.nz/ |
| See also: |
Upper Hutt Upper Hutt is a satellite city of Wellington. It is New Zealand's smallest city by population, the second largest by land area. It is in Greater Wellington.-Geography:Upper Hutt is 30 km north-east of Wellington...
, Lower HuttLower Hutt is a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Its council has adopted the name Hutt City Council, but neither the New Zealand Geographic Board nor the Local Government Act recognise the name Hutt City. This alternative name can lead to confusion, as there are two cities in the...
, WellingtonWellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, Kapiti CoastThe Kapiti Coast is the name of the section of the coast of the south-western North Island of New Zealand that is north of Wellington and opposite Kapiti Island. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Wellington Regional Council...
|
| Regional Council |
| Name: |
Greater WellingtonThe Wellington region of New Zealand occupies the southern end of the North Island.-Governance:The official Wellington Region, as administered by the Wellington Regional Council covers the conurbation around the capital city, Wellington, and the cities of Lower Hutt, Porirua, and Upper Hutt, each...
|
| Website: |
http://www.gw.govt.nz/ |
Porirua is a city in the
Wellington RegionThe Wellington region of New Zealand occupies the southern end of the North Island.-Governance:The official Wellington Region, as administered by the Wellington Regional Council covers the conurbation around the capital city, Wellington, and the cities of Lower Hutt, Porirua, and Upper Hutt, each...
of
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, immediately north of the
city of WellingtonWellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, with their central business districts 20 km apart. A large proportion of the population commutes to Wellington, so it may be considered a satellite city. It almost completely surrounds
Porirua HarbourPorirua Harbour is a natural inlet in the south-western coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The city of Porirua, one of the four cities in the Wellington conurbation, surrounds it. The city centre is to the south of the harbour....
at the southern end of the
Kapiti CoastThe Kapiti Coast is the name of the section of the coast of the south-western North Island of New Zealand that is north of Wellington and opposite Kapiti Island. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Wellington Regional Council...
. The eastern (
PauatahanuiPauatahanui is a village in New Zealand's North Island. It is at the far eastern end of the Pauatahanui Inlet, an arm of the Porirua Harbour, northeast of Wellington....
) inlet of the harbour is notable for its world-class estuarine values. The population at the was .
History
The name "Porirua" is of Māori origin. It is possibly a variant of "Pari-rua" ("two tides"), a reference to the two arms of the Porirua Harbour. The name was given in the 19th century to a land registration district that stretched from
KaiwharawharaKaiwharawhara, formerly known as Kaiwarra, is an urban seaside suburb of Wellington in New Zealand's North Island. It is located north of the centre of the city on the western shore of Wellington Harbour, where the Kaiwharawhara Stream reaches the sea from its headwaters in Karori. It is a...
(or Kaiwarra) on the north-west shore of
Wellington HarbourWellington Harbour is the large natural harbour at the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. New Zealand's capital, Wellington, is on the western side of Wellington Harbour. The harbour was officially named Port Nicholson until it assumed its current name in the 1980s.In Māori the harbour is...
northwards to and around Porirua Harbour. The road climbing the hill from Kaiwharawhara towards
NgaioNgaio is an inner suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It is situated on the slopes of Mount Kaukau, 3500 metres north of the city's CBD. It was settled at the same time as the neighbouring suburb of Khandallah, and like its neighbour many of its streets are named after places on...
and
KhandallahKhandallah is a suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located four kilometres northeast of the city centre, on hills overlooking Wellington Harbour....
is still called Old Porirua Road.
In the 19th century a small European settlement grew up, partly because of the need for a ferry across the harbour. At the time a small Māori settlement already existed.
The
Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company opened the railway line to Porirua in 1885, linking the city with Wellington. The railway reached Longburn, south of Palmerston North, in 1886, to connect with the Government's lines to Taranaki and Napier. With the acquisition of the company by the government in 1908, the line to Porirua formed part of the North Island Main Trunk railway. The railway contributed much to the growth of
PlimmertonThe township of Plimmerton is adjacent to one of the more congenial beaches in the northwest part of the Wellington urban area of Porirua in New Zealand...
and Paremata by making day-trips to the beaches from Wellington's northern suburbs relatively easy. The line through to Porirua was electrified in 1940 following the construction of the
Tawa Flat deviationThe Tawa Flat deviation is a double-track section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway just north of Wellington, New Zealand. It includes two tunnels, Tawa No. 1 and Tawa No. 2 , separated by the Ngauranga Gorge. No. 2 tunnel passes under Newlands and comes out at Glenside, on the way to Tawa...
.
In the 1880s and 1890s the Porirua Lunatic Asylum was established on the hill south-west of the village. Following the Mental Defectives Act of 1911, the Asylum became Porirua Mental Hospital.
Originally planned in the late 1940s to become a satellite city of Wellington with
state housingState housing is the system of public housing offered to New Zealand residents on low to moderate incomes. Some 66,000 houses are managed by Housing New Zealand Corporation, most of which are owned by the government.-The Liberal Government:...
, Porirua has grown to a city population approaching 51,000, with state housing no longer in the majority. Major territorial additions to the city were made in 1973 and 1988 as part of the reduction and eventual abolition of Hutt County.
Substantial industrial areas generally west of the city centre were established in the 1960s and 1970s, dominated by the Todd Motors building (later Mitsubishi), prominent in the panorama below.
On 7 June 1976, New Zealand's first
McDonald'sMcDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
restaurant opened in Porirua, on the corner of Cobham Court and Hagley Street. The original restaurant closed on 24 April 2009, and the store relocated to Kenepuru Drive.
Notable people
Notable councillors of Porirua have included
Whitford BrownWhitford James Brown OBE, CBE, was the foundation mayor of Porirua City, a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand, for 21 years from 1962 to 1983. Porirua, when "Brownie" and "Francie" moved there, was part of what was then called the Makara County Council. In 1961, the Local Government...
(first Mayor);
Ken DouglasKen Douglas, ONZ is New Zealand's best known contemporary trade union leader.As President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions until 1999 Douglas led the union movement in New Zealand for over fifteen years. His union career started in the Driver's Union...
(trade unionist); Ken Gray (former
All BlackThe New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....
);
Gary McCormickGary McCormick is a notable New Zealand poet, radio and television personality, debater and raconteur.McCormick began writing poetry in 1968. His published volumes are Gypsies , Naked and Nameless , Poems for the Red Engine , Poems by Request , Scarlet Letters , Zephyr and Lost at Sea...
(media personality); Helen Smith (the first member of the
Values PartyThe Values Party, considered the world's first national-level environmentalist party that pre-dated any fashionable Green terminology, was established in 1972 at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, one of its initial leaders being Tony Brunt...
to be elected to local government); and Tutu Wineera (a
kaumatuaKaumātua are respected tribal elders of either gender in a Māori community who have been involved with their whānau for a number of years. They are appointed by their people who believe the chosen elders have the capacity to teach and guide both current and future generations...
of the
Ngāti ToaNgāti Toa , an iwi , traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. The Ngāti Toa region extends from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson....
iwiIn New Zealand society, iwi form the largest everyday social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe" , or confederation of tribes,...
).
Other prominent residents have included:-
- Rob Arnold
Robert Allan Arnold , commonly known as Rob Arnold, is a postie from Wellington, New Zealand, who achieved fame in a New Zealand boy band, Boyband, as the gay boy...
(Singer)
- Alistair Campbell (Poet)
Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, ONZM was a New Zealand poet, playwright, and novelist. His father was a New Zealand Scot and his mother a Cook Island Maori from Penrhyn Island.-Biography:...
- Michael Campbell
Michael Shane Campbell, CNZM is a New Zealand golfer who is best known for having won the 2005 U.S. Open and the richest prize in golf, the £1,000,000 HSBC World Match Play Championship, in the same year. He is a member of the European Tour.Ethnically, he is predominantly Māori, from the Ngati...
(Major winning golfer)
- Jerry Collins
Jerry Collins is a New Zealand rugby union footballer who formerly played for the national team, the All Blacks in which he was capped 48 times. He now plays for Yamaha Jubilo, in Japanese Top league rugby.-Early career:...
(All Black)
- Craig Garner
Craig Donald Garner is a former New Zealand cricketer who played ten first-class matches for the Central Districts Stags in the 1990s and he also played for Nelson in the Hawke Cup. He was born in Porirua.-References:...
(cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er)
- Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
(Film-maker)
- Emmett Skilton
Emmett Skilton, also credited as is a New Zealand based actor.His professional career began in 2004 with a role in the comedy television series Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby as Willem Van der Muren, with his most...
(Film and Television actor)
- Vince Mellars
Vincent Mellars is a New Zealand Rugby League player who currently plays for the Crusaders in the European Super League. He has previously played in the National Rugby League and Air New Zealand Cup. His position is in the Centres...
(Professional rugby league player)
- Frank Moore
-Political Activity:Born in Porirua, New Zealand in 1867, Moore was Secretary of the Meat Trade Workers' Federation that was destroyed in the 1890 strike. He was appointed manager of the Wellington Meat Export Company at Ngahauranga in 1892 and was an active supporter of the Liberal Party during...
(politician)
- Paul Rauhihi
Paul Rauhihi is a retired professional rugby league footballer who represented his country. Rauhihi played in both the National Rugby League and Super League at prop forward.-New Zealand Career:...
(Ex professional rugby league player)
- Mike Riddell
Michael Riddell is a Dunedin, New Zealand-based writer.-Early life:Riddell was born in Porirua East , and began schooling at Porirua East Primary School. He was the youngest of a family of four, with two sisters and a brother...
(Writer)
- PJ Solomon
Pehi James 'PJ' Solomon from Porirua, New Zealand, is a former international rugby player. With eligibility via his grandmother from Kirkcaldy, he represented Scotland at rugby league...
(Ex rugby internationalist for ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
)
- Rodney So'oialo
Rodney So'oialo is a New Zealand rugby union player currently playing in Japan for the Honda Heat. Previously, he had been a stalwart for the Hurricanes in the Super Rugby competition, making 101 appearances for the franchise. He also made 62 test appearances for the All Blacks between 2002 and 2009...
(All Black)
- Ramon Te Wake
Ramon Te Wake is a transgender television presenter from New Zealand, and singer-songwriter.Te Wake was born in Dargaville to Māori parents Ray and Tilly Te Wake. She grew up in Ascot Park, a suburb in Porirua...
(Transgender presenter and singer / song writer)
- Aaradhna
Aaradhna Jayantilal Patel , better known by her stage name Aaradhna, is a New Zealand-award winning, R&B/pop recording artist, writer and record producer, signed under the music label Dawn Raid Entertainment...
(R&B Singer)
- Tamati Ellison
Tamati Ellison is a New Zealand rugby union footballer who plays for the Ricoh Black Rams in the Japanese Top League competition. His position is utility back. He previously played for Wellington in the Air New Zealand Cup and Super Rugby for the Hurricanes...
(Rugby Player, Ex All Black)
City Administration
The area is administered by Porirua City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council.
The name Porirua was first applied to a council in 1961 when Makara County, to the west of
WellingtonWellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, was abolished, the mostly rural western part becoming the Makara Ward of
Hutt CountyHutt County was one of the former counties of New Zealand. It occupied the south-western corner of the North Island, extending south from the Waikanae River and lying to the west of the summits of the Rimutaka Ranges...
and the rapidly growing eastern urban portion (including Titahi Bay) becoming the Borough of Porirua. Four years later the population was officially estimated at over the 20,000 threshold then necessary for Porirua to be declared a city.
On 1 April 1973 large areas to the north-east (and a few elsewhere) were transferred to the city from Hutt County by popular vote.
Mana IslandMana Island is the smaller of two islands that lie off the southwest coast of the North Island of New Zealand . The island’s name is an abbreviation of Te Mana o Kupe, "the mana of Kupe"....
was added to the city at the same time. In 1988 a further addition was the Horokiri riding of the about-to-be-abolished county, containing most of the new Whitby suburb and substantial rural areas.
The city and its council have remained (with changes of personnel and ward boundaries) into the 21st century despite proposals to change the name to "Mana" and several small movements for amalgamation with Wellington.
Suburbs
Porirua is largely formed around the arms of the
Porirua HarbourPorirua Harbour is a natural inlet in the south-western coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The city of Porirua, one of the four cities in the Wellington conurbation, surrounds it. The city centre is to the south of the harbour....
and the coastline facing out to Cook Strait and the north-eastern parts of the
South IslandThe South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
. Most of the populated areas of Porirua are coastal: Camborne, Karehana Bay, Mana, Onepoto, Papakowhai, Paremata, Pauatahanui, Plimmerton, Pukerua Bay, Takapuwahia, Titahi Bay and Whitby all have direct access to coastal parks and recreation reserves. Several suburbs without direct coastal access, including Aotea, Ascot Park, Elsdon and Ranui Heights, have substantial portions with good views over the harbour.
Suburbs include:
- Aotea
Aotea is the newest suburb of Porirua. The oldest house was granted its consent in November 2005. It has two children's playgrounds and a retirement home. It is within very easy reach of the Porirua transit hub....
- Ascot Park
Ascot Park is a suburb of Porirua City approximately 22km north of Wellington in New Zealand.- External links :* at Statistics NZ...
- Camborne
Camborne, New Zealand, is a hilltop and seaside suburb of Porirua City developed over a 35-year period from the 1960s, initially by an investment company headed by a Mr Arthur Cornish...
- Cannons Creek
Cannons Creek is a suburb of Porirua City approximately 22km north of Wellington in New Zealand.- External links :* at Statistics NZ* at Statistics NZ* at Statistics NZ...
- Elsdon - named after writer Elsdon Best
Elsdon Best was an ethnographer who made important contributions to the study of the Māori of New Zealand.-Early life and career:...
- Golden Gate - a local name for the eastern part of Paremata
- Hongoeka Bay - a Ngāti Toa
Ngāti Toa , an iwi , traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. The Ngāti Toa region extends from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson....
settlement
- Karehana Bay
Karehana Bay is a northern coastal suburb of Porirua located near the entrance to the Porirua Harbour, to the west of Plimmerton. It is about 5 minutes drive to Karehana Bay from the State Highway 1 turnoff to Plimmerton...
- Kenepuru
Kenepuru is a primarily industrial suburb of the city of Porirua in New Zealand. It lies immediately southwest of the Porirua city centre.Kenepuru Hospital, the main hospital complex for Porirua is located here.-Education:...
- industrial area south-west of the centre, adjoining Linden
- Mana
Mana is a suburb of Porirua City in New Zealand. It is a narrow isthmus bounded to the west by the entrance to Porirua Harbour, and to the east by the Pauatahanui inlet of the Porirua Harbour. Mana Island lies about three kilometres west of the isthmus....
- Onepoto
- Papakowhai
Papakowhai is a suburb of Porirua City approximately 22 km north of Wellington in New Zealand.The name "Papakowhai" is of Māori origin, meaning "land covered by kowhai trees". As well as being the name of the suburb it is the name of the main road connecting the suburb to the south...
- a locality where kowhai trees are prominent on headlands
- Paremata
Paremata is a suburb of Porirua, on the Tasman Sea coast to the north of Wellington, New Zealand.-Early history:The modern suburb, just south of Plimmerton, derives its name from the "Parramatta Barracks", erected on the north shore of Porirua Harbour in about 1846 when the infant government was...
- probably named after Sydney's Parramatta
- Pauatahanui
Pauatahanui is a village in New Zealand's North Island. It is at the far eastern end of the Pauatahanui Inlet, an arm of the Porirua Harbour, northeast of Wellington....
- Plimmerton
The township of Plimmerton is adjacent to one of the more congenial beaches in the northwest part of the Wellington urban area of Porirua in New Zealand...
- named for a director of the railway company
- Porirua East
- Pukerua Bay
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...
- where film-maker Peter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
grew up
- Ranui Heights
- Takapuwahia - a Ngāti Toa
Ngāti Toa , an iwi , traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. The Ngāti Toa region extends from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson....
settlement
- Titahi Bay
Titahi Bay is a suburb of Porirua in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located at the foot of a short peninsula along the west coast of the Porirua Harbour, to the north of Porirua city centre. The suburb's population in 2006 was 7,527...
- where pro golfer Michael CampbellMichael Shane Campbell, CNZM is a New Zealand golfer who is best known for having won the 2005 U.S. Open and the richest prize in golf, the £1,000,000 HSBC World Match Play Championship, in the same year. He is a member of the European Tour.Ethnically, he is predominantly Māori, from the Ngati...
grew up
- Waitangirua
Waitangirua is a suburb of Porirua City approximately 22km north of Wellington in New Zealand.Waitangirua was established during the 1960s, almost exclusively as a Government housing development for New Zealand's burgeoning working class immigrant population...
- Whitby
Whitby, a large suburb of Porirua City, New Zealand, located along much of the southern shore of the Pauatahanui Inlet of Porirua Harbour was comprehensively planned in the 1960s and it has been continuously developed since, with current landscaping and expansion in the hills behind the eastern...
- street names commemorate James Cook
Rural localities include Judgeford and Horokiri.
Police training
Porirua is the home of the
Royal New Zealand Police CollegeThe Royal New Zealand Police College is the central training institution for police recruits and police officers in New Zealand. It is located at Papakowhai, approximately 2 km north of Porirua City....
, where all police recruits receive some 19 weeks' training.
Education
Just up the road from
Aotea LagoonAotea Lagoon is an artificial lagoon surrounded by a 7 ha public parkin the Papakowhai suburb of Porirua, North Island, New Zealand. Aotea and two nearby lagoons were created as transport links were realigned...
is
Aotea CollegeAotea College is a co-ed state secondary school in Porirua, Wellington New Zealand.Aotea College was founded in 1978.The school does not have a full time principal after Tim Davies-Collies' resignation in late June 2011. John Huston is the current acting principal while the board seek a replacement...
, the secondary school closest to the northern suburbs. Other colleges include
Mana CollegeMana College is a decile two secondary school in Porirua, Wellington, New Zealand. Mana College celebrates its Golden Jubilee in 2007.In recent years, the college has introduced Pathways a system to help students achieve in areas they need for either trade courses or further tertiary...
and
Bishop Viard CollegeBishop Viard College, Also known as Viard College or BVC is a coeducational secondary school located in Porirua, New Zealand...
near the city centre and to the East, Porirua College. Tertiary education is provided by Whitireia Polytechnic, which has its main campus north of the city centre.
Sport and recreation
Porirua is home to the powerful Northern United RFC the current Wellington regional champions, and the smaller Paremata-Plimmerton RFC, both clubs play in the
Wellington Rugby Football UnionThe Wellington Rugby Football Union is the official governing body of rugby union in the city of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand...
club rugby competition.
Watersports, fishing and other boating activities are popular in the area, well served by a large
marinaA marina is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters....
in Mana and Sea Scouts, yachting, power-boating, rowing, and water-skiing clubs. The harbour entrance from Plimmerton or Mana is popular with experienced
windsurfersWindsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a...
and
kitesurfersKitesurfing or Kiteboarding is an adventure surface water sport that has been described as combining wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport. Kitesurfing harnesses the power of the wind to propel a rider across the water on a small surfboard or a...
while beginners find the shallow enclosed waters of the Pauatahanui arm of the harbour a forgiving environment in which to develop their skills.
Aotea LagoonAotea Lagoon is an artificial lagoon surrounded by a 7 ha public parkin the Papakowhai suburb of Porirua, North Island, New Zealand. Aotea and two nearby lagoons were created as transport links were realigned...
is a popular recreational area on the south-eastern shore of the Porirua Inlet.
Transport
State Highway 1State Highway 1 is the longest and most significant road in the New Zealand roading network, running the length of both main islands. It appears on road maps as SH 1 and on road signs as a white number 1 on a red shield, but it has the official designations SH 1N in the North Island, SH 1S in the...
passes north-south through the middle of the city, linking Porirua southwards to
WellingtonWellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
and northwards to the Kapiti Coast and the bulk of the
North IslandThe North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
. Porirua is the northern terminus of the
JohnsonvilleJohnsonville is a large suburb in northern Wellington, New Zealand. It is seven kilometres north of the city centre, at the top of the Ngauranga Gorge, on the main route to Porirua . The population of "J'ville" was about 6,500 at the 2001 census.- Public transport :Johnsonville is a reasonably...
-Porirua motorway (opened progressively from 1950), which forms part of State Highway 1. State Highway 58 links Paremata via Whitby and
PauatahanuiPauatahanui is a village in New Zealand's North Island. It is at the far eastern end of the Pauatahanui Inlet, an arm of the Porirua Harbour, northeast of Wellington....
with
HaywardsHaywards is the location in Wellington, New Zealand, where the North Island's static inverter plant of the HVDC Inter-Island transmission line is located. Suburbs and towns near Haywards include Belmont, Judgeford, Silverstream, Trentham and Taita....
in the Hutt Valley to the east.
The Ara Harakeke is a pathway that runs alongside SH1 and the
Taupo SwampTaupo Swamp is an approximately 25-hectare lowland freshwater swamp, classified as a topogeneous mire, located three kilometres north of Plimmerton and 20 kilometres north-northeast of Wellington City, New Zealand. Taupo Swamp is home to largely indigenous vegetation including sedges, flax,...
, north of Plimmerton. The first section was opened in 2002. Porirua City Council won a
Cycle Friendly AwardThe New Zealand Cycle Friendly Awards were devised by the Cycling Advocates' Network in 2003. The purpose of the awards is to acknowledge and celebrate some of the most notable achievements in the country that are helping to promote cycling and to create a cycle-friendly environment.- History and...
for this project from the
Cycling Advocates' NetworkCycling Advocates' Network is a national cycling advocacy group founded in November 1996 in Wellington, New Zealand. It aims to achieve a better cycling environment for cycling as transport and tourism...
in 2003.
The North Island Main Trunk railway line passes through Porirua, mostly close to State Highway 1, with six stations including the main
Porirua Railway StationPorirua Railway Station is an important intermediate station in New Zealand on the Kapiti Line from Wellington and is part of Wellington's Metlink suburban rail network operated by Tranz Metro....
inside the city and one on the Wellington City border. Kapiti Line suburban passenger trains run between Wellington and
WaikanaeWaikanae is a small town on New Zealand's Kapiti Coast. The name is a Māori word meaning "The waters of the yellow eyed mullet". Another settlement called Waikanae Beach exists near Gisborne on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand....
(generally half-hourly except at peak periods), and the Overlander long-distance train between Auckland and Wellington calls southbound but not northbound.
The nearest airports are
Wellington AirportWellington International Airport is an international airport located in the suburb of Rongotai in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It is a secondary hub and focus city for Air New Zealand and its subsidiaries...
to the south (the closest), and
Paraparaumu AirportKapiti Coast Airport , earlier called Paraparaumu Airport, is on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand's North Island, between the Wellington dormitory suburbs of Paraparaumu Beach , Paraparaumu to the east, and Raumati Beach to the south...
to the north.
Ferry services ran between Paremata and Picton for short periods but appeared unable to compete with Wellington-based services despite the shorter distance.
Sister-city relationships
BlacktownThe City of Blacktown is a Local Government Area in the heart of Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately 35 km from Sydney CBD. It is bounded by the Local Government Areas of Penrith, Parramatta, Fairfield, Holroyd, Hawkesbury and The Hills Shire. It occupies an area...
, Australia
YangzhouYangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou to the east, and Zhenjiang across...
, China
WhitbyWhitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
, United Kingdom
Nishio, Aichiis a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As of February 2011, the city has an estimated population of 165,443 and a population density of 1,030 persons per km². The total area is 160.34 km².-Geography:...
, Japan
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