The Pākiri River flows through the area and into the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana to the north-east.

[3][4] The area is named for the Ngāti Wai chief, Te Kiri.

[7] The Auckland Regional Council purchased two blocks of land in 2005, totalling 178 hectares (440 acres), with three kilometres (2 mi) of beach frontage,[8][9] and is developed this into the Pākiri Regional Park.

[6] Suction dredging has been used to mine sand from the sea floor off the coast since the 1950s.

[11][12] This caused controversy in 1994, when 170,000 cubic metres (222,000 cu yd) of sand was to be extracted to bolster the popular Mission Bay in Auckland, and was brought to the Planning Tribunal in the case Haddon v Auckland Regional Council for violation of the Resource Management Act 1991, and its provisions for kaitiakitanga.