Pauatahanui 4.51

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. In local government terms, Pauatahanui is part of the Northern Ward of Porirua City.At the 2001 New Zealand census, its population (including nearby wholly rural areas) was 831: 429 males and 402 females, a 23.1% increase in population since the previous census in 1996. At the 2006 census the population was 1,080 in 360 households. At the 2013 census, 1080 people lived in the Pauatahanui area.HistoryEarly settlement and historyAfter Te Rangihaeata was beaten in the 1846 Hutt Valley Campaign the area became safer as a route from the Hutt Valley via Belmont and Judgeford and on to the north, via Paekakariki to the Manawatu and Wanganui. The road from Wellington reached Pauatahanui in September 1848, and a reliable road to the north as far as Paekakariki was completed by November 1849. Known nowadays as the "Paekakariki Hill Road", it continued to be the main road north until the road bridge was built at Paremata in 1939. Access from the Hutt Valley was also upgraded to a road in 1873, and the road that was to become State Highway 58 from Haywards was established in the 1870s.