Pāuatahanui

Pāuatahanui is a village in New Zealand's North Island. It is at the far eastern end of what was known as the Pāuatahanui Inlet (since renamed to Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour), an arm of the Porirua Harbour, northeast of Wellington. In local government terms, Pāuatahanui is part of the Northern Ward of Porirua City.

Early settlement and history
After 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 Paekākāriki to the Manawatū and Wanganui. The road from Wellington reached Pāuatahanui in September 1848, and a reliable road to the north as far as Paekākāriki was completed by November 1849. Known nowadays as the "Paekākāriki 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.

The first non-denominational Protestant chapel was built about 1856, and from 1861 Anglican services were held by a visiting clergyman once a fortnight. Congregations dwindled with an Anglican church built. It became tumbledown, and was demolished around 1910. Other churches were St Joseph's Catholic Church (1878) and St Alban's Anglican Church (1898).

The first hotel was constructed in 1847 by former whalers Edward Boulton and Thomas Wilson. Burned down in 1859, it was replaced by a fourteen-room Boultons Hotel. From 1865 other hotels were the Horokiwi Hotel, the Pauatahanui Hotel, the Empire Hotel and the Junction Hotel, largely to serve the Cobb and Co stagecoach traffic. In 1912 the area went "dry" and all the hotel bars closed. In the 1911 electoral redistribution the area was transferred from the electorate to the new  electorate, and no longer had William Field as an MP. The new electorate was "dry" as the precursor electorate had already voted "dry" in the.

A community hall was built in 1904. It was demolished in 1966 and replaced.

In World War II the US Marines had four camps in the Pāuatahanui area; at Judgeford, at the Porirua side of the foot of the Haywards Hill, at Motukaraka, and in the Moonshine Valley. The Judgedford camp accommodated 3,755 men, the Moonshine camp had a recreation hall and a vehicle servicing depot, and the Haywards camp had a large theatre for the troops. Apart from a few huts for officers, most of the marines were in bell tents.

Environmental preservation
In the early 1970s the development of sections at Whitby on the south of the Pāuatahanui Inlet caused noticeable silting and raised community concerns. This ultimately led to a detailed 3-year environmental study in 1975–1977, which was published as a book in 1980. Subsequently the Pāuatahanui Wildlife Reserve was created, in 1984, in order to preserve the only large estuarine wetland left in the lower North Island. The wetland reserve is run by the Royal Forest and Bird Society with ongoing efforts to reduce human impact on the environment and to restore damaged areas. The reserve has several hides for viewing birdlife, boardwalks, and some barbecue / picnic areas for visitors.

Demographics
Pāuatahanui statistical area covers 75.73 km2. It had an estimated population of as of  with a population density of  people per km2.

Before the 2023 census, Pāuatahanui had a larger boundary, covering 75.95 km2. Using that boundary, Pāuatahanui had a population of 966 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 42 people (4.5%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 192 people (24.8%) since the 2006 census. There were 312 households, comprising 492 males and 471 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.04 males per female. The median age was 44.3 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 195 people (20.2%) aged under 15 years, 162 (16.8%) aged 15 to 29, 507 (52.5%) aged 30 to 64, and 102 (10.6%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 95.3% European/Pākehā, 7.1% Māori, 2.2% Pasifika, 0.9% Asian, and 2.5% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.

The percentage of people born overseas was 21.4, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 56.8% had no religion, 34.8% were Christian, 0.3% were Buddhist and 0.9% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 234 (30.4%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 72 (9.3%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $52,400, compared with $31,800 nationally. 303 people (39.3%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 480 (62.3%) people were employed full-time, 120 (15.6%) were part-time, and 21 (2.7%) were unemployed.

Education
Pauatahanui School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of.

It was established in 1855, originally in an undenominational chapel on the site of Rangihaeata's pā, and later in the military barracks vacated by the troops, making it one of the oldest schools in New Zealand.

The nearest secondary schools to Pāuatahanui are Aotea College in Aotea and Porirua College in Cannons Creek, both roughly 8.5 km away.

Road links
State Highway 58 skims the southern fringe of the village and State Highway 1 (as the Transmission Gully Motorway) lies just to the east of it; the two roads intersect at a diamond interchange to the south of Pāuatahanui. SH 1 links Pāuatahanui to Wellington in the south and the Kāpiti Coast District (and beyond to the rest of the North Island) to the north, while SH 58 to the east leads to Judgeford and SH 2 in the Hutt Valley, and to the west skirts the southern edge of the Pāuatahanui Inlet to meet SH 59 at Paremata.

Other significant road links include Paekākāriki Hill Road which leaves SH 58 at a roundabout just to the west of the Transmission Gully interchange, provides the main road through the village itself, and continues to the Horokiri Valley and Paekākāriki (but is a slower route to Paekākāriki than the Transmission Gully Motorway, despite being the shortest route). Grays Road branches off from Paekākāriki Hill Road a short distance to the north of the village, and follows the northern edge of the Pāuatahanui Inlet to meet SH 59 at Plimmerton.

Notable buildings
Pāuatahanui has a group of regionally significant 19th century buildings. They include St Alban's Church, St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Thomas Hollis Stace Cottage, Barrys Place Historical Cottage and the Taylor-Stace Cottage.

Built in 1847, Taylor-Stace Cottage is the Wellington region's oldest surviving house, and is currently used as a beauty salon.

The former community hall (erected in 1967) was leased to a local company in 2003 and converted into the Light House Cinema, the only cinema in Porirua's northeastern area.