The Raukūmara Range runs from the north-eastern end of the

Huiarau Range The Huiarau Range is a range of mountains in Te Urewera in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Part of the spine of mountains that run roughly parallel with the island's east coast, it is a southwestern extension of the Raukumara Range, ...

north-eastward to

Wharekahika / Hicks Bay Hicks Bay or Wharekahika (officially Wharekahika / Hicks Bay) is a bay and coastal area in the Gisborne District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is situated 150 km east of Ōpōtiki and 186 km north of Gisborne city, along S ...

, between

Cape Runaway Cape Runaway () is the eastern extremity of the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand's North Island. It is located 157 kilometres northeast off Whakatāne and 65 kilometres west of East Cape. It is a predominantly Māori region, with 85.7% of the popula ...

and

East Cape East Cape is the easternmost point of the main islands of New Zealand. It is at the northern end of the Gisborne District of the North Island. East Cape was originally named "Cape East" by British explorer James Cook during his 1769–1779 voy ...

, at the northern end of the

Gisborne District Gisborne District or the Gisborne Region (Māori language, Māori: ''Te Tairāwhiti'' or ''Te Tai Rāwhiti'') is a local government area of northeastern New Zealand. It is governed by Gisborne District Council, a unitary authority (with the co ...

, on the

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 ...

of New Zealand. It is the north-northeastern end segment of the North Island's main mountain chain, which runs from

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

in the south to the Gisborne District. The western side of the range is in the

Ōpōtiki District Ōpōtiki District is a Districts of New Zealand, territorial authority district in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region on the North Island of New Zealand. It stretches from Kutarere and the eastern shore of Ōhiwa Harbour in the west to Cape Runaw ...

of the eastern

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty () is a large bight (geography), bight along the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east. Called ''Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi'' (the Ocean ...

and the eastern side in the East Coast region of the Gisborne District. State Highway 2 runs between the Raukūmara Range and the Huiarau Range on its route between the town of

Ōpōtiki Ōpōtiki (; from ''Ōpōtiki-Mai-Tawhiti'') is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Ōpōtiki District Council, the mayor of Ōpōtiki and comes under the Bay of Plenty Region ...

and the city of Gisborne. The mountain range is composed primarily of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke ( ) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness (6–7 on Mohs scale), dark color, and Sorting (sediment), poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or sand-size Lith ...

argillite Argillite () is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of Friability, indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and Pelagic sediment, oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. T ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...

s and

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

s. The Raukumara Epoch, an

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

of the

New Zealand geologic time scale While also using the international geologic time scale, many nations–especially those with isolated and therefore non-standard prehistories–use their own systems of dividing geologic time into epochs and faunal stages. In New Zealand, the ...

lasting from 95.2 to 86.5 Mya, is named after the range. The North Island's highest non-volcanic peak, Mount Hikurangi (), is part of the range. Other prominent peaks include Maungahaumi (),

Mount Arowhana Mount Arowhana is a mountain that is part of the backbone of the Raukumara Range in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. The range forms part of a line of mountains extending along the eastern side of the North Island between the Gisb ...

(), and Mount Raukūmara ().

References

Mountain ranges of New Zealand Landforms of the Bay of Plenty Region Landforms of the Gisborne District {{Gisborne-geo-stub

See also

References