Puketāpapa, also known as Pukewīwī and Mount Roskill, is a volcanic peak and Tūpuna Maunga (ancestral mountain) in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand. It is located in the suburb that shares its English name, Mount Roskill.

Description

The mountain formed as a result of

volcanic activity Volcanism, vulcanism, volcanicity, or volcanic activity is the phenomenon where solids, liquids, gases, and their mixtures erupt to the surface of a solid-surface astronomical body such as a planet or a moon. It is caused by the presence of a he ...

approximately 20,000 years ago. The scoria cone was built by fire-fountaining from two craters. Its peak, located in present-day Winstone Park ( donated by George Winstone in 1925, when 1,600 sections were created around it) towards the southwest end of the suburb. It is one of the many extinct cones that dot the isthmus of Auckland, all part of 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 divers ...

. Lava flowed from the base of the cone to the north and to the northwest. 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 Co ...

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori people, Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive :wikt:terrace, terraces – and also to fo ...

(fortified village), and was known as ''Pukewīwī'' (hill covered in rushes) and ''Puketāpapa'' (flat-topped hill). Many historic cooking pits and terracing sites were destroyed when the main southern crater was excavated in 1961 and filled with a water-supply reservoir. None of its three names are official. In 2014, the ''Tāmaki Collective'' agreed that both Puketāpapa and Pukewīwī reflect the historical association of local Māori with this site.

Motorway and cycleway

Since 2009 State Highway 20 has passed close to the mountain. The effects of the new motorway on the mountain had been the subject of significant discussion, and a major mitigation package had been proposed to reduce the impact of the motorway (and the continuation of the Waikaraka Cycleway that runs parallel to it). The funding of this mitigation and the missing cycleway section was briefly in doubt in 2009, when a cost blowout to $2 million was criticised by local residents after Auckland Council had set aside $1.6 million. Cycling advocates from Cycle Action Auckland, the Mount Roskill Community Board Chairman Richard Barter and Councillor John Lister however noted various elements unrelated to the cycleway that had driven up the cost, such as a toilet block,

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...

walls, extensive landscaping and artwork, much of it related to Winstone Park itself, or the effects of the motorway. The cycle-path section itself was priced at only $300,000. The path section was finished after six months of construction work and it (and the park facilities) opened to the public on 25 July 2010.

Treaty settlement

In the 2014

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

settlement between the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

and the Tāmaki Collective, ownership of the 14 Tūpuna Maunga of ''Tāmaki Makaurau'' / Auckland, was vested to the collective. The legislation specified that the land be held in trust "for the common benefit of Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau and the other people of Auckland". The ''Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority'' or Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA) is the co-governance organisation established to administer the 14 Tūpuna Maunga. Auckland Council manages the mountain under the direction of the TMA. Due to its cultural and archaeological significance, the upper part of the summit was grassed in 2018, and is permanently closed to private motor vehicles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puketāpapa Auckland volcanic field Mountains of the Auckland Region