Pukematekeo is a hill in the

Waitākere Ranges The Waitākere Ranges is a mountain range in New Zealand. Located in West Auckland between metropolitan Auckland and the Tasman Sea, the ranges and its foothills and coasts comprise some of public and private land. The area, traditionally kno ...

of the

Auckland Region Auckland () is one of the sixteen regions of New Zealand, which takes its name from the eponymous urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland Metropolitan Area, smaller towns, rural areas, and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Containing ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. It is located west of

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada *He ...

, and is the northernmost hill in the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park.

Description

The hill is a 336-metre peak in the

, and is the northern-most hill in the ranges. The hill is the source for two river systems: the

Kumeū River The Kumeu River drains the northern Waitākere Ranges near Auckland, New Zealand, running past the town of Kumeū before merging into the Kaipara River. Description The river begins on the northern slopes of Pukematekeo, the northernmost pe ...

, which flows north to meet the

Kaipara River The Kaipara River drains the area to the northwest of Auckland, New Zealand. It flows north from the northern foothills of the Waitākere Ranges, meandering past the town of Helensville. It is joined by the Kaukapakapa River in its lower tidal re ...

and eventually flows into the

Kaipara Harbour Kaipara Harbour is a large enclosed harbour estuary complex on the north western side of the North Island of New Zealand. The northern part of the harbour is administered by the Kaipara District and the southern part is administered by the Auckl ...

, and the Cassel Stream, which flows eastwards to join the

Swanson Stream The Swanson Stream is a stream of the Auckland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows north-east from its source the Waitākere Ranges through rural West Auckland towards the suburb of Swanson, into the Huruhuru Creek which exits into T ...

, which flows into

Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek The Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek is an estuarine river of the Auckland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows north from its sources in the Henderson Valley and Titirangi, before reaching the western Waitematā Harbour. Geography ...

and the

Waitematā Harbour Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. For this reason it is often referred to as Auckland Harbour, despite the fact that it is one of two harbours adjoining the city. The harbour forms the northern and easter ...

. The hill is accessible by Scenic Drive, and is a starting point for the Pukematekeo Track, a walking track linking the peak and the Waitākere Golf Club to the west.

Geology

Pukematekeo is the remnant of one of the eastern vents of the

Waitākere Volcano Waitākere is a locality name in West Auckland, New Zealand. It most commonly refers to: *Waitākere, Auckland, a rural town north-west of Auckland *Waitakere City, a former territorial authority which existed from 1989 to 2010 *Waitākere Ranges, ...

, a

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

era volcanic crater complex which was uplifted from the seafloor between 3 and 5 million years ago. Pukematekeo consists of tilted

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

flows and volcanic litharenites. The 100 metre thick sequence is composed of at least 11 thin

flows, interspersed with pyroclastic deposits and

lapilli Lapilli is a size classification of tephra, which is material that falls out of the air during a volcanic eruption or during some meteorite impacts. ''Lapilli'' (singular: ''lapillus'') is Latin for "little stones". By definition lapilli range f ...

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

History

Pukematekeo is within the traditional

rohe The Māori people of New Zealand use the word ''rohe'' to describe the territory or boundaries of ''iwi'' (tribes), although some divide their rohe into several ''takiwā''. The areas shown on the map (right) are indicative only, and some iwi ...

of the

Te Kawerau ā Maki Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Kawerau a Maki, or Te Kawerau-a-Maki is a Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) of the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It had 251 registered adult members as of June 2017. Auckland Council gave it land for a marae at Te Henga (Bethells Be ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

, and holds significant cultural and spiritual significance. The name Pukematekeo in

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

is a geographical description, referring to how it is the final hill of the Waitākere Ranges. Pukematakeo was the site of a Te Kawerau ā Maki

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites o ...

, one of only a few known in the inland Waitākere Ranges. Pukematekeo was the location of Ebenezer Gibbons'

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now largely res ...

sawmill tramline, connecting the base of the hill to Swanson railway station. The sawmill and tramline operated between 1885 and 1888. The path of the tramline was later repurposed as Tram Valley Road in Swanson. Pioneering farmer Thomas George established a sheep farm with his family settled near Pukematekeo in the 1860s, however by the 1920s most of the pasture had been reforested by native bush. The land around Pukematekeo was purchased from settlers by the

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected b ...

in 1926 through the Public Works Act, in order to create a scenic kauri forest reserve, which later formed a section of the greater Waitākere Ranges Regional Park. In 1928, a significant scrub fire damaged native forest on the eastern slopes of Pukematekeo. On 10 June 1939, road access to Pukematekeo was first made possible, when an extension of Scenic Drive was opened between

Waiatarua Waiatarua is a small settlement near the top of the Waitākere Ranges in West Auckland, close to the junction of Scenic Drive, West Coast Road and Piha Road to Piha and runs east until the junction of Scenic Drive and Mountain Road. Surroun ...

and

Swanson Swanson is a brand of TV dinners, broths, and canned poultry made for the North American and Hong Kong markets. The former "Swanson Company" was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, where it developed improvements of the frozen dinner. The TV dinner bu ...

Gallery

File:Pukematekeo Summit.jpg,

Trig station A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they ...

at the summit of Pukematekeo File:Bridge To No Where at Pukematekeo Look Out (11443948566).jpg, Isolated bridge and native flora at Pukematekeo File:Auckland from Pukematekeo.jpg, View of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

from Pukematekeo

References

{{Waitākere Ranges Local Board Area Lookouts in Auckland Hills of the Auckland Region Volcanoes of the Auckland Region Waitākere Ranges Waitākere Ranges Local Board Area West Auckland, New Zealand