It is located north of the centre of the city on the western shore of Wellington Harbour, where the Kaiwharawhara Stream reaches the sea from its headwaters in Karori.

Both State Highway 1 and the North Island Main Trunk railway pass through Kaiwharawhara on their routes from central Wellington northwards.

Factories in the area included John Newton's Caledonian soap works from the 1880s to the 1960s, Charles Schultze's flourmill and Hirst's tannery.

The NEECO factory in the 20th century produced electric stoves for state houses and thousands of Army items like steel water bottles in World War II.

[4] From the 1927 the Gorge area had large tanks for Atlantic Oil's bulk petrol storage,[5] in a former quarry, which had been the source of fill for harbour reclamation in the 1870s.

Hutt County ran from Cook Strait to Waikanae and the Rimutakas and the money was spent on road improvements that gave little or no benefit to Wellington residents.