New Zealand - Auckland - Papatoetoe West School - Room 16 - 1963 Photo Courtesy of Trisha Williams Do you have more information about the school or the people in this photo? Please use the comment section below to share. To search for other photos from this school, please type the schools name in to our search engine. Papatoetoe West School - Opened in 1949 Papatoetoe - A suburb in Auckland - One of the larger suburbs of the area commonly known as South Auckland - Located to the northwest of Manukau Central - 18 kilometres southeast of Auckland CBD - Papatoetoe is a Māori name, which can be loosely translated as 'undulating area where the toetoe is the predominant feature', making it named after the 'Prince of Wales's feather', which grew abundantly in the swampy parts of the region. - Owing to some confusion over the spelling, the area was known as Papatoitoi for many years (Reference: Wikipedia)