Ōtāhuhu is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand – to the southeast of the CBD, on a narrow isthmus between an arm of the Manukau Harbour to the west and the Tamaki River estuary to the east. The isthmus is the narrowest connection between the North Auckland Peninsula and the rest of the North Island, being only some wide at its narrowest point, between the Otahuhu Creek and the Mangere Inlet. As the southernmost suburb of the former Auckland City, it is considered part of South Auckland. The suburb's name is taken from the Māori-language name of the volcanic cone known as Ōtāhuhu / Mount Richmond. The name refers to "the place of Tāhuhu" — an ancestor, Tāhuhu-nui-a-Rangi, who settled the area. In colloquial speech, locals sometimes shorten the name to "Otahu".
History
The suburb was established in 1847 as a fencible settlement, where soldiers were given land with the implied understanding that in wartime, they would be raised as units to defend it. Most early features from this time have disappeared, however, such as a stone bridge built by the fencibles that had to make way to a widening of Great South Road. Otahuhu was home to the country's first supermarket, and Otahuhu College, to which several famous personalities went, including heavyweight boxing champion David Tua, former prime minister David Lange, and ex-Manukau City Mayor, Sir Barry Curtis.
Local government
Otahuhu had a local government just like other suburbs of Auckland at that time. The local government was called Otahuhu Borough Council, which started in 1912 and merged into Auckland City Council in 1985, eventually amalgamated into Auckland Council in November 2010.
Otahuhu, in its position on a narrow section of the Auckland isthmus, is an important part of Auckland's southern transportation approaches for both road and rail, containing a combined bus interchange and Otahuhu railway station. The new bus-train interchange opened on 29 October 2016 as a joint Auckland Transport and New Zealand Transport Agency initiative costing NZ$28M. "The station is at the heart of the Southern New Network", said Auckland Transport’s Chief AT Metro Officer, Mark Lambert. “Auckland is moving towards a more connected network of local feeder services connecting with frequent bus and train services. Bus and train transport hubs like Otahuhu are at the heart of this transformation." The old bus interchange, which was badly neglected, and had received increased attention from early 2011 on for vandalism/graffiti prevention measures is now closed and a smaller bus stop has been installed on the main road near the town centre. The importance for transportation extended to pre-European times. The aptly named Portage Road runs across the isthmus in Otahuhu and was used by Māori to move their waka between the Manukau and Waitemata harbours for raids and trading. In fact, the area, also known as Te Tō Waka, was considered the most important portage of all of New Zealand.
Present day
Otahuhu nowadays is synonymous with industry and along with its neighbouring suburbs Favona, Mangere East, Mt Wellington, Penrose and Westfield forms an industrial conglomerate zone that spans much of the Mangere Inlet. The community and town centre flourishes as the crossroad to Central and South Auckland and is home to a sizable Pacific Island populace.
