Part of the traditional rohe of Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki, the area developed into a coastal holiday community in the early 20th Century.

Maraetai is located adjacent to the Tāmaki Strait, in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, 24 kilometres east of the Auckland City Centre.

Tainui followers of Manawatere, who identified as Ngā Oho, decided to settle the area between the Pōhutukawa Coast and Tūwakamana (Cockle Bay).

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, the mana whenua of the area, descend from these early settlers.

[9][11] Maraetai was a customary food gathering area,[8] and around 200 people lives at the Papawhitu Pā, established in the 16th century.

[11] When William Thomas Fairburn visited the area in 1833, it was mostly unoccupied due to the events of the Musket Wars, as most members of Ngāi Tai had fled to temporary refuge in the Waikato.

[6][12] In 1836, Fairburn purchased 40,000 acres between Ōtāhuhu and Umupuia (Duders Beach), including much of the catchment of the Wairoa River.

[12] Fairburn established a mission at Maraetai in 1837, where he taught reading, writing and spread Christianity among Ngāi Tai and Ngāti Pāoa.

[15] In 1851, Welsh farmer Thomas Eckford bought 368 acres from Fairburn around Maraetai as farmland, and the area was a site for kauri logging.

[10] In 1854, a portion of Fairburn's purchase between Maraetai Beach and Umupuia was designated as a reserve for Ngāi Tai.

For the remainder of the war, Ngāi Tai were designated as a "friendly" people by the Crown, and remained neutral in the fighting.

Residents of Maraetai also elect the Franklin ward councillor, who sits on the Auckland Council.