The Peninsula runs in the north west to south east direction and is approximately 55 km long.

Many of the dunes rise over 100 m above sea level, and the highest reaches 214 m. There are also both permanent and temporary wetlands, and more than 20 freshwater lakes and swamps.

Tradition recounts that Rongomai, the captain of the waka Māhuhu, drowned when his canoe capsized near the entrance to Kaipara Harbour in the early days of Māori settlement of New Zealand.

[9] New Zealand film maker Winston Cowie investigated potential Portuguese or Spanish shipwrecks on the Pouto Peninsula and recorded the oral tradition from interviews on the Iberian discovery question in his books Conquistador Puzzle Trail and Nueva Zelanda, un puzzle histórico: tras la pista de los conquistadores españoles.

The oral tradition of Pouto elders, however, did mention a Spanish ship, helmets, armour in the sand, and buried treasure.

[10] Descendants of the Māhuhu crew settled around Pouto and the South Head of Kaipara Harbour, possibly in the 13th century CE.

In the 15th century, Taramainuku, a grandson of the Arawa captain, settled at Pouto near the North Head, killing or driving away some of the previous occupants.

According to tradition, the greater area of Kaipara is called after a hāngī Taramainuku hosted, at which the para fern (Marattia salicina) was served.

)[6] In the late 17th century, or early 18th, Ngāti Whātua occupied the Pouto Peninsula as part of their move southwards.

[11] In 1820, during the Musket Wars, Ngā Puhi laid siege to Ngāti Whātua's Tauhara pa near Pouto, but were unable to capture it.

[19] Sand from Pouto was used to build dams in the Waitākere Ranges, and was also barged around the Kaipara Harbour.

[20] The southern part of the peninsula was slow to be developed, with the road only reaching to Taingaehe in 1930, and extending another 35 km to Pouto itself in 1931.

The leaflet 'Pouto – 105 years (1879–1984)' compiled in 1985 by local historian Logan Forrest to mark 104 years of education on the Pouto Peninsula – the history of the Pouto, Waikare, Punahaere and Rangitane schools – gives an overview of education and history on the peninsula up until 1984 – the centenary.