Blockhouse Bay is a residential suburb of Auckland City

Auckland City

Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...

, in New Zealand

New Zealand

New 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...

's North Island

North Island

The 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...

. It is sited on the northern coast of the Manukau Harbour

Manukau Harbour

Manukau Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in New Zealand by area. It is located to the southwest of the Auckland isthmus, and is an arm of the Tasman Sea.-Geography:...

, and is also close to the administrative boundary between the cities of Auckland and Waitakere

Waitakere

Waitakere City was the name of a city which existed from 1989 until 2010 in the Auckland region. It was New Zealand's fifth largest city, with an annual growth of about 2%...

, two of the four cities of the Auckland conurbation

Conurbation

A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area...

.

The suburb is located 11 kilometres to the southwest of the city centre, and is surrounded by the suburbs of Lynfield and New Windsor, and the Waitakere suburbs of New Lynn

New Lynn, New Zealand

New Lynn is a residential suburb, located in the former Waitakere City, one of the four main urbanised regions that have since become the city of Auckland, in northern New Zealand.The population was 15,510 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 1,446 from 2001....

 and Green Bay

Green Bay, New Zealand

Green Bay is an Auckland suburb. It is under the local governance of the Waitakere City Council.The population was 3,936 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 321 from 2001....

.

According to the 2006 census, Blockhouse Bay has a population of 5862.

History

Portage Road is the location of one of the overland routes between the two harbours (and thus the Pacific ocean and the Tasman Sea), where the Maori would beach their waka (canoes)

Waka (canoe)

Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long...

 and drag them overland to the other coast, thus avoiding having to paddle around North Cape. This made the area of immense strategic importance in both pre-European times and during the early years of European occupation.

The earliest European known to have trekked through, and followed the coastline of the Manukau Harbour

Manukau Harbour

Manukau Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in New Zealand by area. It is located to the southwest of the Auckland isthmus, and is an arm of the Tasman Sea.-Geography:...

 in an endeavour to find if there was a waterway connecting the two harbours, was the Rev. Samuel Marsden

Samuel Marsden

Samuel Marsden was an English born Anglican cleric and a prominent member of the Church Missionary Society, believed to have introduced Christianity to New Zealand...

 in 1820.

Two missionaries who had arrived in New Zealand on the 30th December 1834, William Colenso

William Colenso

William Colenso was a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician.-Life:Born in Penzance, Cornwall, he was the cousin of John William Colenso, Bishop of Natal...

 and R. Wade, walked through the Whau

Whau River

The Whau River is an estuarial arm of the southwestern Waitemata Harbour within the Auckland metropolitan area in New Zealand. It flows north for 5.7 kilometres from its origin at the confluence of the Avondale Stream and Whau Stream to its mouth between the Te Atatu peninsula and the long, thin...

 South area in 1838 hoping to find a Māori settlement, but the Pa

Pa (Maori)

The word pā can refer to any Māori village or settlement, but in traditional use it referred to hillforts fortified with palisades and defensive terraces and also to fortified villages. They first came into being about 1450. They are located mainly in the North Island north of lake Taupo...

 site on Te Whau point had been abandoned some time before. They remarked that the area was "open and barren heaths, dreary, sterile and wild."

The area was a popular holiday resort in the 1920s for Aucklanders, with city families making the long journey over rough roads to spend the summer in their holiday cottages or camping on the beach.

The earliest industry, in 1884, was the Gittos Tannery

Tanning

Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...

. The early 1900s saw other industries such as poultry

Poultry

Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...

, orchard

Orchard

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...

s, potteries

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

, strawberries

Strawberry

Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...

, flowers

Floristry

Floristry is the general term used to describe production, commerce and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design or flower arranging, merchandising, and display and flower delivery. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related supplies to professionals in the trade...

, loganberries

Loganberry

The loganberry is an hexaploid hybrid produced from crossing an octaploid blackberry and a diploid red raspberry. The plant and the fruit resemble the blackberry more than the raspberry, but the fruit colour is a dark red, rather than black...

 and small farm holdings.

A blockhouse

Blockhouse

In military science, a blockhouse is a small, isolated fort in the form of a single building. It serves as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery...

 site at the Whau South was chosen for two reasons:

• The elevated cleared 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) site provided an unobstructed view towards the Manukau Heads, the source of possible attack from southern Māori tribes.
• It was close to the Whau Portage which was the route favoured by northern Māori tribes.

Education

Local Primary Students attend Blockhouse Bay Primary, Chaucer Primary, St. Dominics Primary and Marshall Laing Primary School. Until December 2009, a private school named Hilltop School also existed in Blockhouse Bay.

Local Intermediate Students attend Blockhouse Bay Intermediate School

Local secondary students attend Lynfield College

Lynfield College

Lynfield College is a secondary education provider in Lynfield, Auckland, New Zealand. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008.The Principal of Lynfield College and head of the 130 teachers is Mr Steve Bovaird....

, Mount Roskill Grammar School

Mount Roskill Grammar School

Mount Roskill Grammar is a secondary school in the suburb of Mount Roskill, Auckland, officially opened in 1954. The school has students of over 70 different nationalities including approximately 200 International students...

, Green Bay High School, Marcellin College

Marcellin College, Auckland

Marcellin College is an integrated, co-educational college in Royal Oak, Auckland, New Zealand for students in Year 7 to Year 13. Marcellin College was founded by the Marist Brothers in 1958 as a secondary school for boys only. The school is located on spacious grounds which were formerly part of...

, Marist College

Marist College, New Zealand

Marist College is a Catholic girls high-school located in Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand. It teaches from year 7 through to Year 13 with a curriculum based on Roman Catholicism...

 or St Peter's College

St Peter's College, Auckland

St Peter's College is a Catholic college for year 7 to 13 boys . The school, located in Auckland, is one of the largest Catholic schools in New Zealand and is an integrated school under an integration agreement entered into by the Catholic Bishop of Auckland and the Government of New Zealand in...

.