The Bombay Hills are a range of hills to the south of Auckland, New Zealand. Though only a small and seemingly insignificant range of hills, they lie at the southern boundary of the Auckland region, and serve as a divide between Auckland and the Waikato region. There is a 19th-century settlement, Bombay, on the old main road south of Auckland, the Great South Road.
Aucklanders and other New Zealanders have a mostly light-hearted "love-hate" relationship. Stereotypically, Aucklanders view parts of the country "south of the Bombay Hills" as provincial and unsophisticated, while the rest of the country sees Aucklanders as brash and arrogant. For this reason, the boundary between Auckland and its southern neighbours bears great significance. People on both sides of the boundary are as likely to use the phrase "New Zealand stops at the Bombay Hills". The term was adopted by the 1990s New Zealand reggae band Southside of Bombay.
Location
The hills are located southeast of Auckland, close to the town of Pukekohe. State Highway 1 here reaches its highest point between Auckland and Tīrau in the eastern Waikato Region, to the southeast. Bombay is the nearest settlement to the southern fringe of the Auckland metropolitan area.
Name
The settlement of Bombay and hence the Bombay Hills are directly named after the ship Bombay, which landed in Auckland and brought settlers to the area, originally called Williamson's Clearing, in 1865. The ship itself was named after the Indian city of Bombay (now Mumbai).
Geology
The Bombay Hills are a remnant of a shield volcano from the South Auckland volcanic field, which erupted an estimated 600,000 years ago. The hills are overlain by Hamilton Ash tephra which has weathered to create some of the best soils for market gardening in New Zealand.
The Bombay Hills are the barrier that halts the northward progression of the Waikato River. The hills cause it to turn west towards the coast where it empties into the Tasman Sea near Port Waikato.
Demographics
Bombay Hills statistical area covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km<sup>2</sup>.