Pukematekeo is a hill in the

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

of the

Auckland Region Auckland () is one of the 16 regions of New Zealand, which takes its name from the eponymous urban areas of New Zealand, urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland, Auckland metropolitan area, smaller towns, rural areas, and the islands o ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. It is located west of Henderson, 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 Kumeū 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 north of the Te Henga Road ridge, north of the Waitākere ...

, 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 ...

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 Auck ...

, and the Cassel Stream, which flows eastwards to join the Swanson Stream, which flows into Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek and the

Waitematā Harbour The Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. The harbour forms the northern and eastern coasts of the Auckland isthmus and is crossed by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It is matched on the southern side of the city ...

. 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 The Waitākere volcano, also known as the Manukau volcano, was a Miocene era volcano that formed off the west coast of the modern Auckland Region of New Zealand's North Island. Erupting intermittently between 23 million and 15 million years ago, ...

, a

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...

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 predomina ...

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

flows, interspersed with pyroclastic deposits and

lapilli Lapilli (: lapillus) 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'' is Latin for "little stones". By definition lapilli range from in dia ...

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 co ...

History

Pukematekeo is within the traditional

rohe The Māori people of New Zealand use the word ' to describe the territory or boundaries of tribes (, although some divide their into several . Background In 1793, chief Tuki Te Terenui Whare Pirau who had been brought to Norfolk Island drew ...

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. Predominantly based in West Auckland (Hikurangi also known as Waitākere), it had 251 registered adult members as of J ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

, 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 Co ...

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 people, Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive :wikt:terrace, terraces – and also to fo ...

, 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 evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside '' Wollemia'' and ''Araucaria'' (being ...

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 1989 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 elec ...

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 busi ...

Gallery

20230102 143221 Pukematekeo.jpg, Trig station at the summit of Pukematekeo Bridge To No Where at Pukematekeo Look Out (11443948566).jpg, Isolated bridge and native flora at Pukematekeo Auckland from Pukematekeo.jpg, View of

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 ...

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