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The Bombay Hills are a spur of the Hunua Ranges to the south of Auckland in New Zealand's North Island. They are located 40 kilometres southeast of Auckland, close to the town of Pukekohe. State Highway 1 here reaches its highest point between Auckland and Tirau in the eastern Waikato Region, 135 kilometres to the southeast.
Though only a small and seemingly insignificant range of hills, the hills have a deep significance for New Zealanders. It is at this point that the Auckland Region ends and the Waikato Region begins.
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".
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