The Northern Motorway, part of State Highway 1, passes just inland of Orewa and extends through the twin Johnston Hill tunnels to near Puhoi.

Tāmaki Māori settled in the Orewa area since at least the 13th century, utilising the resources of the Ōrewa River and Whangaparāoa Bay, where an important shark fishery was located.

After the Kawerau warrior Maki unified many of the Tāmaki Māori people of the northern and western Auckland Region, his younger son Maraeariki settled along the Ōrewa River.

Orewa is a coastal town on the Hibiscus Coast, located on the northern shores of the Ōrewa River.

[13] The name Orewa was originally used to describe the Ōrewa River and estuary, and was later applied to the beach during European times.

[4] References to the Ōrewa River in English date from at least the 1840s,[14] The Hibiscus Coast area has been settled since at least the 13th century, with many of the first Māori occupants identifying as Ngā Oho.

[16] The Ōrewa River estuary features some of the most densely found archaeological sites in the area, and was an important sheltered harbour, which offered marine resources such as shellfish and flounder, and connections to inland walking routes.

[15] Portages, where waka could be hauled overland between waterways, connected the Hibiscus Coast area to the Kaipara Harbour in the west.

[17][12] Likely in the 17th century, the warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region.

[24] His hapū Ngāti Maraeariki grew to occupy lands between Whangaparāoa and Ōmaha, while continuing to focus settlement at Orewa.

[21] By the mid-1700s, Marutūāhu tribes from the Hauraki Gulf, especially Ngāti Pāoa, sought to control the Whangaparāoa Bay shark fishery, and waged war against Ngāti Kahu, a hapū formed from Maki's granddaughter Kahu, who were primarily based on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula.

[32][25] Naval officer Byron Drury recorded a settlement at the mouth of the Ōrewa River in 1853 called Poaheke, where the residents had been influenced by Wesleyan missionaries.

[35] Following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840,[36] the Crown made the first purchases of the Mahurangi and Omaha blocks on 13 April 1841, which included Orewa.

[20] The earliest permanent European resident in Orewa is likely sawyer and boatbuilder John Ryan, who bought land in 1854 but had lived in the area since the 1840s.

[12] In the early 1850s, the Brunton family purchased land adjacent to the Orewa waterfall, establishing a home and jetty.

[40] In the latter 19th century as kauri gum deposits became rarer, land at Orewa was developed into orchards, where apples, pears, grapes and citrus fruit were grown for the Auckland market.

[42] In 1918, Francis Hitchins purchased the de Grut farm, selling Orewa House to Alice and Edward Eaves in 1919.

[12] By the 1930s, coastal steamers were no longer the major form of transportation due to improved roading infrastructure,[44] and in the 1940s Orewa Hall was constructed, where films were shown to the community.

[46] The square is named after Sir Edmund Hillary, whose family owned a holiday bach at Orewa, where he stayed in summers in the 1930s.

The rink developed into an entertainment precinct for the Hibiscus Coast in the 1960s, including a minigolf range and concert space.

[50] Orewa experienced a building and population boom in the 1960s, due to the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge,[51] rapidly urbanising between 1964 and 1975.

[40] In 1968, Alan Horobin opened Orewa Marineland, a home for rescue animals including chimpanzees, llamas, seals, dolphins and "Sid the Sea elephant".

[59] Orewa made political headlines on 27 January 2004, when New Zealand National Party leader Don Brash, then the leader of the opposition in Parliament, gave what became known as the Orewa Speech in front of the local Rotary club on a theme of race relations in New Zealand and, in particular, the special status of Māori.