The valley of Onepoto (meaning short beach) was a gathering place for Maori long before the first Europeans stepped ashore there. Sited on the shore of Te Whanganui-a-Orotu (the inner harbour) Onepoto formed part of a source of abundant kai moana (food from the sea) and a series of landing places and villages that proliferated round the shores of the harbour. The Ahuriri locality that became the site of Napier was attracting European settlers as early as the 1840s – making it one of the foundation areas of New Zealand's colonial history. When Scotsman, Alexander Alexander built a shed at Onepoto in 1846 and began buying pigs and dressed flax from local Maori, he was the first European settler to live and work in what would, within 10 years, become Main Street – now one of Napier's oldest streets.
Excerpt from Historic Places Aotearoa
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