This is know as one of the scenic drives around this area, also driving though the centre of the Pauatahanui Reserve Walkway, Motukaraka Point and the Eastern entrance to the Camborne Walkway.
The earliest people known to have lived in the area around Pukerua Bay were the Ngati Iri Ma-ori tribe and later the Muaupoko, who built Waimapihi Pa- near today's seaward end of Rawhiti Road. Pukerua Bay was on the main road for Ma-ori travellers going north or south. About 1822, it was invaded from Kapiti Island by Te Rauparaha and his Ngati Toa people. According to local legend, the Muaupoko people fled up the gorge of the Waimapihi stream (on the Ohariu Fault line), abandoning their treasures on the way.
The land blocks originally surveyed (Wairaka in the west, Waimapihi and Pukerua in the east) were sold to settlers from Europe for farming in the late 19th century. Charles Gray was the first resident to subdivide and sell residential sections in Pukerua Bay, in the early 20th century.
Pukerua Bay's development history is curious because the railway went through it (1886) for years before there was good road access (1940), so it grew at first on the waterfront as a weekend destination. The original railway station was named "Pukerua" until it was changed briefly to Waimapihi in the 1920s and then to "Pukerua Bay" to avoid confusion with "Pukerau" in the South Island.
By the end of the 1920s, Pukerua Bay numbered 100 houses, a small school on land donated by Charles Gray, and a few small stores. Electricity was put through from Plimmerton to Pukerua Bay in 1927 and in 1928 the track between Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay was formed into a narrow road. The beach remained the main attraction for weekend visitors from Wellington (by steam train) as there was still no highway and no bridge at Paremata.
Most of the clifftop development dates from after World War II. Pukerua Bay experienced significant growth in the 1950s and 1960s, being connected to Wellington via the (by then double-tracked) railway line and accessible from north and south via SH1. In 1973, Pukerua Bay joined Porirua City Council to get the issues of water and sewerage connection addressed.
From the published GZ you will be able to view some of the progress that has happened and get a great view of the surrounding landscape.
The cache is a camoed eclipse container containing a logbook only
Please bring your own writing instrument
Please replace it back to the exact position that you found it as we don't want it to be muggled as this location is a VERY high muggle location.
Please NOTE that if you must sign the logbook for each individual cachers or proof of a photo for group logs to be emailed to the owner otherwise you log may be deleted.