Live cameras in Porirua, New Zealand

Porirua is a harbor city in the Wellington Region, about twenty-five kilometers north of central Wellington at the southern end of the Kāpiti Coast. It almost surrounds Porirua Harbour and its quieter arm, the Pāuatahanui Inlet, so its suburbs sit in a ring of coves and hills: Titahi Bay with its boatsheds, the old seaside village of Plimmerton, Whitby across the inlet and the city center by the harbor's southern shore. About 61,500 people live here. Ngāti Toa have been the mana whenua of the area since the 1820s, and the city today is one of the most diverse in New Zealand, with large Māori and Pasifika communities. Pātaka Art and Museum and Te Rauparaha Arena are the main civic venues.

What the cameras watch

The cameras grouped under Porirua belong to NZTA Waka Kotahi, which runs New Zealand's state highways. The pictures are swapped for new ones every few minutes. Around Porirua that means two main routes. State Highway 59, the old coastal highway, runs through the city center and along the harbor edge. The Transmission Gully Motorway now carries State Highway 1 through the hills to the east, bypassing the city on its way between Wellington and the Kāpiti Coast. The motorway climbs through steep country, so its camera views are a good check on wind, rain and low cloud.

Local time is the national one, which in New Zealand's summer puts Porirua thirteen hours ahead of London. Weekday mornings bring a steady flow south toward Wellington, and late afternoons bring it back. The Wellington region is famous for wind, and gales can make high, exposed roads tricky, while heavy rain occasionally causes slips on the hillsides. On calm summer evenings the harbor light lingers until about nine.

Nearby, the Pāuatahanui wildlife reserve protects salt marsh on the inlet, and the beaches of Paekākāriki and the Kāpiti Coast lie a short drive north.

Sources: Porirua - Wikipedia · Transmission Gully - Wikipedia · NZTA Waka Kotahi traffic and travel.