Taylors Hill (also Te Taurere), is a volcano in the
Auckland volcanic field
The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse a ...
. It erupted about 33,000 years ago. Its
scoria
Scoria is a pyroclastic, highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock that was ejected from a volcano as a molten blob and cooled in the air to form discrete grains or clasts.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) ''G ...
cone reaches 56 m high.
It was the site of a
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 ...
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 ...
(fortification), and retains earthworks from that era such as kumara (
sweet potato
The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...
) pits and terracing. It was most likely first occupied in 1400s, and was an area where ōnewa (
greywacke
Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...
) was quarried to make toki (
stone adzes).
Waiorohe (Karaka Bay) was a mooring site of
Tainui
Tainui is a tribal waka confederation of New Zealand Māori iwi. The Tainui confederation comprises four principal related Māori iwi of the central North Island of New Zealand: Hauraki, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa and Waikato.
There are oth ...
waka inside the west heads of the Tāmaki. From here Horoiwi left the waka and settled with the Tangata whenua at Te Pane o Horoiwi. Te Keteanataua and Taihaua disembarked and made their way to Taurere, whilst Taikehu and others went on by foot to explore the upper reaches of the river and the shores of the Manukau Harbour. The Karaka trees of the bay descend from the sacred Karaka grove Te Uru-Karaka a Parehuia of Taurere Pa.
Until the 18th century the area around Taylors Hill was the traditional eastern boundary for
Waiohua
Te Waiohua or Te Wai-o-Hua is a Māori iwi (tribe) confederation that thrived in the early 18th century. The iwi's rohe (tribal area) was primarily the central Tāmaki Makaurau area (the Auckland isthmus) and the Māngere peninsula, until the 17 ...
lands,
After the pā was attacked by
Ngāti Whātua
Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi (tribe) of the lower Northland Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island. It comprises a confederation of four hapū (subtribes) interconnected both by ancestry and by association over time: Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te ...
around the year 1750, Waiohua retreated to
South Auckland
South Auckland is an imprecisely defined urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, with a young population, a relatively large Polynesian and Māori demographic, and lower incomes than other parts of Auckland. The name ''South Auckland'', though not ...
.
Ngāti Whātua gifted the land to
Ngāti Pāoa
Ngāti Pāoa is a Māori people, Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) that has extensive links to the Hauraki and Waikato tribes of New Zealand. Its traditional lands stretch from the western side of the Hauraki Plains to Auckland. They also settled on Hauraki ...
in the late 1700s.
The volcano is named for William Taylor, who purchased the land in 1845.
The volcano's lower slopes and scoria mounds to the east and south were quarried away following European settlement, with only the north-west section of the volcanic area remaining.
The area around the volcanic cone became a public reserve in the 1920s.
References
*''City of Volcanoes: A geology of Auckland'' - Searle, Ernest J.; revised by Mayhill, R.D.; Longman Paul, 1981. First published 1964. .
*''Volcanoes of Auckland: The Essential Guide''. Hayward, B.W., Murdoch, G., Maitland, G.; Auckland University Press, 2011.
*''Volcanoes of Auckland: A Field Guide''. Hayward, B.W.; Auckland University Press, 2019, 335 pp. .
External links
Photograph of Te Taurereheld in
Auckland Libraries' heritage collections.
Origin story of Taurere- Ethnologist and author
David Simmons tells the tragic love story of Parehuia, daughter of the great
Ngāti Awa
Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi (tribe) centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. It is made of 22 hapū (subtribes), with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns ...
chief Titahi, and Turangimua of the Aotea canoe. The story culminates with a once famous lament composed by the couple's daughter Ruahine from which the name Taurere (now called Taylors Hill) takes its origin.
Auckland volcanic field
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