Mount Smart ( Māori: ''Rarotonga''; officially Rarotonga / Mount Smart and also known as Te Ipu kura a Maki) is one of the volcanoes and Tūpuna Maunga (ancestral mountain) in the Auckland volcanic field. A century of quarrying removed almost all the 87 meter scoria cone along with extensive terracing excavated by Māori. The former quarry is now the site of

Mount Smart Stadium Mount Smart Stadium (formerly known as Ericsson Stadium) is a multipurpose stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the main home ground of the New Zealand Warriors of the National Rugby League, and occasionally hosts rugby union and internati ...

Geography and history

The volcano erupted around 20,000 years ago. The scoria cone was formerly 87 metres high with a small crater (around 57 m higher than the surrounding land). Lava flowed about 300 hectares from the eruption, reaching the

Manukau Harbour The Manukau Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in New Zealand by area. It is located to the southwest of the Auckland isthmus, and opens out into the Tasman Sea. Geography The harbour mouth is between the northern head ("Burne ...

Māngere Māngere () or Mangere is one of the largest suburbs in Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on mainly flat land on the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of Manukau City Centre and 15 kilometres south ...

. It was the site of defensive Māori

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 ...

built on extensive excavated terracing. The name Rarotonga means "the lower south" and was brought from

Hawaiki In Polynesian mythology, (also rendered as in Cook Islands Māori, in Samoan, in Tahitian, in Hawaiian) is the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories. ...

. Rarotonga is where Rakataura, a tohunga of the ''

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 ...

'' waka, first settled in Aotearoa. After a period of time, Rakataura decided to travel south with his wife Kahukeke, who died during the journey. Te Ipu kura a Maki means "the red bowl of Maki". Rarotonga was renamed Mount Smart by European settlers after Henry Dalton Smart, a lieutenant in the mounted police in the 1840s. During 1865 to the 1960s Mount Smart was mostly quarried away. Lower southern and eastern slopes remain and were planted in pōhutukawa during the 1940s. At the same time, the quarry was reserved, and

Mt Smart Stadium Mount Smart Stadium (formerly known as Ericsson Stadium) is a multipurpose stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the main home ground of the New Zealand Warriors of the National Rugby League, and occasionally hosts rugby union and internatio ...

was built in the 1960s. In the 2014

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...

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, partic ...

and the ''Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau'' collective of 13 Auckland

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

and hapu (also known as the Tāmaki Collective), ownership of the 14 Tūpuna Maunga of ''Tāmaki Makaurau'' / Auckland, was vested to the collective, including the volcano officially named Rarotonga / Mount Smart. 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 Tūpuna Maunga under the direction of the TMA.

References

*''Volcanoes of Auckland: A Field Guide''. Hayward, B.W.; Auckland University Press, 2019, 335 pp. .

External links

Early view of unquarried Mount Smart Pa, showing Maori terracing (page 11, at top)

* [http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=SEE_ALSO&QF0=Subjects&QI0

%22Mount+Smart%22&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aucklandcity.govt.nz%2Fdbtw-wpd%2Fheritageimages%2Findex.htm&TN=heritageimages&SN=AUTO16616&SE=1633&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=1&XP=&RF=HIOReport&EF=&DF=HIORecord&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=2&ID=&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=62015&NR=1&NB=0&SV=0&SS=1&BG=&FG=&QS=index&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 Photographs of Mount Smart] held in Auckland Libraries, Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. Auckland volcanic field Urban forests in New Zealand {{Auckland-geo-stub