The Miranda Hot Springs are located near the western head of the Firth of Thames, and at the western margin of the Hauraki Depression. They lie on a flat area about one meter above sea level and approximately 700 m inland from the sea edge and some 3 km in a generally southerly direction from the site of the old Miranda township, in an area originally known as Pukorokoro. Miranda was named after a naval gunboat of that name which was dispatched during the Maori wars in 1863 to subdue a Maori Pa (village) located some 300 m to the south of the springs. The springs were apparently used in pre-European times; but, photographs of the region only go back to about 1910. They were also referred to as “Hauraki Hot Springs”