Pakiri

Pakiri is a locality in Auckland, in the former Rodney District of New Zealand. Leigh is about nine km to the south-east. The Pakiri River flows through the area and into the Hauraki Gulf to the north-east. The area is named for the Ngāti Wai chief, Te Kiri. Pakiri Beach is a 14 kilometre long white sandy beach to the north. The Auckland Regional Council purchased two blocks of land in 2005 totalling 178 hectares, with three kilometres of beach frontage, and is developing the whole amount as a regional park. Suction dredging has been used to mine sand from the sea floor off the coast since the 1950s. This had caused some controversy in 1994 when 170,000 cubic metres of sand was to be extracted to bolster the popular Mission Bay in...