 'Otara' is in turn the shortened form of Te Puke o Tara (literally; ‘The Hill of Tara’); known also for a time as Smales Mount.Te Puke o Tara was one of Otara's prominent volcanic cones, and prior to European settlement in the area was the site of a scoria cone "pā".Like most of Auckland, the Otara landscape is volcanic in origin and forms a part of what is known as the East Tamaki volcanic field, with Te Puke o Tara and Mātanginui (Greenmount) having been the dominant cones of Otara.