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The earliest known settlers were Māori who arrived at Tauranga in the Takitimu and the Mataatua waka in the 13th century. Europeans trading in flax were active in the Bay of Plenty during the 1830s; some were transient, others married local women and settled permanently.

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The first permanent trader was James Farrow, who travelled to Tauranga in 1829, obtaining flax fibre for Australian merchants in exchange for muskets and gunpowder. Farrow acquired a land area of 0.5 acres (2,000 m2) on 10 January 1838 at Otumoetai Pā from the chiefs Tupaea, Tangimoana and Te Omanu, the earliest authenticated land purchase in the Bay of Plenty.

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During the 1820s, Henry Williams travelled to Tauranga from the Bay of Islands to obtain supplies of potatoes, pigs and flax. In 1835 a Church Missionary Society mission station was established at Tauranga by William Wade; Rev. Alfred N. Brown arrived at the CMS mission station in 1838.

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In 1840, a Catholic mission station was established. Bishop Pompallier was given land within the palisades of Otumoetai Pā for a church and a presbytery. The mission station closed in 1863 due to land wars in the Waikato district.

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Mount Maunganui is the name of the extinct volcanic cone that rises above the town, which is now officially known by its Māori name Mauao, but is colloquially known in New Zealand simply as The Mount.

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