The central bay has deep water, but there are wide intertidal zones around the coast.

Motukiore Island is just inside Manganese Point and joined to it by a causeway at low tide, although the only practical access is by water.

[5] Raro-ngaua was a pā on the eastern side of the Parua Bay entrance in the early 19th century.

In 1821 or 1822, this pā was attacked by a group of Ngāti Paoa and Waikato warriors, as part of the Musket Wars.

[6] In 1838, Thomas Stewart Scott and two partners bought land on the western side of the bay and set up a shipbuilding yard.

[7] In 1849, a hydrographic survey was made of Whangārei Harbour by Captain Lort Stokes in the paddle-steamer HMS Acheron.

[8] By the mid-1850s, there were four European families living in a small settlement on the western side of the bay.

[10] An Irish surveyor called James Irwin Wilson settled in the Nook in 1858, and fell in love with Joanna Munro, the daughter of a Nova Scotian settler from Munro Bay.

Her father, John Munro, was unhappy that Wilson had bought land that he wanted, and opposed their union.

John Munro eventually accepted the marriage, and one of James' brothers later married Joanna's sister.

The results were 93.9% European (Pākehā); 11.3% Māori; 0.5% Pasifika; 3.8% Asian; 0.5% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 1.4% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander".

The results were 90.8% European (Pākehā); 16.2% Māori; 2.3% Pasifika; 2.8% Asian; 0.3% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 2.8% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander".

[19][20] The school was established on Owhiwa Road in 1871 and moved to its present location the following year.