Pakuranga is an eastern suburb of Auckland, in northern New Zealand. Pakuranga covers a series of low ridges and previously swampy flats, now drained, that lie between the Pakuranga Creek and Tamaki River, two estuarial arms of the Hauraki Gulf. It is located to the north of Manukau and 15 kilometres southeast of the Auckland CBD. History The suburb's name comes from the Māori , meaning battle of the sunlight or battle of the sun's rays. The name refers to a fierce battle at Ōhuiarangi / Pigeon Mountain over forbidden love raged between two - fairy people of the forest - until a priest caused the sun to rise and the earth to explode. Caught by the rays of the sun and volcanic eruptions, many patupaiarehe perished. Pakuranga is traditionally home to the Ngāi Tai Iwi also known as Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. The prominent pā were at Ohuiarangi / Pigeon Mountain and Mokoia Pā of Ngāti Paoa at Panmure on a cliff, at the intersection of the Te Wai Ō Taiki / Tamaki River and the inlet to the Panmure Basin. During the attacks by Ngapuhi in the Musket wars in late September 1820, most of the population were killed, taken prisoner or fled south to the Waikato. In early European times, it was a sparsely settled dairy farming area between the townships of Panmure and Howick. The area became more accessible after the opening of the Panmure Bridge, connecting Pakuranga to Panmure across the Tāmaki River, in 1865. In the 1920s and 30s it was served by a bus that ran from Bucklands Beach known as the "". In the 1930s a concrete road was built between these townships that improved transport times for people and milk. After the opening of the new Panmure Bridge in 1959, demand for more settlement land led to the development of Pakuranga. The increasing levels of car ownership in New Zealand led to Pakuranga becoming more suburban. In the 1970s it was considered the typical New Zealand middle class suburb, 'Vim Valley', after 'a typical Pakuranga housewife' was featured in a famous cleaning product ad. Many of the American style houses of the 1950s and 1960s are still noticeable but much of the appeal of the early suburb lay in the proximity of untouched countryside. Since the 1970s Pakuranga has been surrounded and engulfed by suburban developments on a much larger scale