Walk 56, 16th Dec 2020

This walk has the best views of Auckland. There’s also a cafe in the historic tea kiosk at 250 Puhi Huia Road that dates back to 1926. The cafe contains an information centre where you can learn something about the maunga (mount) after prehistoric times.

Walk: Auckland 29

Links

Maungawhau (Mt Eden)

The platform atop this verdant volcano was built with the help of a royal elephant.

Tamaki

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki trace their descent from the Maruiwi. The son of Maruiwi, Tāmaki, went on to lead the people of Te Tini o Maruiwi to settle the land now bearing his name.

Maungawhau (the mountain of the whau plant) is one of Tamaki’s tapu places. Its impressive crater is known as Te Kapua Kai a Mataaho – the food bowl of Mataaho. It was here that ceremonies were held to placate him and prevent the renewed release of the volcanic forces he could influence.
Maungawhau was the pa- of Hua Kaiwaka, the grandfather of Kiwi Tamaki. He consolidated the descendents groups of the Isthmus as indicated by his identification as the ‘waka eater’, a metaphor
for his gathering together tribes and thus bequeathed his successor a united Waiohua alliance “as numerous as ants”. Source: BALMORAL & SANDRINGHAM HERITAGE WALKS

The Patupairahe or Turehu

Ancient History:“Maungawhau, ‘the mountain of the whau’, a shrub believed to have been growing in the area. The shrub was valued for its cork-like wood, used for floats on fishing nets…Maori legend tells of Maungawhau’s [Mt. Eden’s] first inhabitants, the Patupaiarehe or Turehu, who were skilled in the arts of fishing, hunting, weaving and warfare. It is said that this nocturnal people were destroyed as they lingered building a bridge after dawn” (see The Changing Face Of Mt. Eden, pg. 8, Mt. Eden Borough Council, 1989).

Another early explorer noted:
‘Arriving at the foot of the mountain [Mt. Eden] we assayed its ascent in the course of which my friend evinced a deep interest in traces of Maori fortifications of a past age, which were everywhere in evidence, the escarpments, trenches and what had once been covered ways and store pits though fallen in or overgrown, were yet in a wonderful state of recognition. Several of the stone walls of these fortifications could still be traced with considerable accuracy, although the oldest living Maori could not tell when, or by whom, they were erected.

The Maori race show a wonderful aptitude for field engineering in warfare, and these traces of ancient fortifications, in particular, have often called forth the highest commendation from those most capable of judging such matters. It must have taken a much larger population than was then to be found to man these fortifications effectively, so extensive were they, the whole mountain appearing to be girt by them, line after line, from bottom to top (see Sketches of Early Colonisation in New Zealand -and its Phases of Contact With the Maori Race, (circa late 1840’s), by “Te Manuwiri”, pg. 123, Whitcomb & Tombs).

A battle between two Maori tribes

A Marutuahu delegation duly attended a hui at Puketutu. While there, they also accepted an offer to visit that section of Wai o Hua at Maungawhau (Mt Eden).

On their return journey from Maungawhau, the Marutuahu delegation was ambushed in the bracken fern on the ridge now known as Meadowbank, at a spot near St Johns College. Two high ranking Ngati Maru chiefs were murdered and the a site was named Patutahi (Killed Together).

In revenge the Marutuahu raised a taua (war party) led by Rautao of Ngati Maru, a son and brother of the murdered chiefs, and departed for Tamaki Makaurau.

They sacked Waiheke Island and its surrounds before entering the Tamaki River and destroying pa on the isthmus, including Taurere (Taylor’s Hill), Maungarei (Mt Wellington), Otahuhu (Mt Richmond) and Rarotonga (Mt Smart).

Rautao used the Tauoma portage to cross to the Manukau Harbour and, finding the district almost deserted, continued on to retrieve the hidden waka Puhinui, thwarting attempts by the locals to take it for themselves.

The captured enemy, seeking leniency, confessed it was the people of Maungawhau who were responsible for the ambush and murders. The expedition then headed at pace to Maungawhau.

At Maungawhau Rautao avenged his murdered father and brother by ordering that no quarter be given and no prisoners to be taken or consigned to the hangi. Everything was destroyed and burnt to the ground.

So severe was the destruction that Maungawhau was never again occupied.

Source: NZ Herald Auckland, The people of the ocean

History of Mt Eden since 1843

Mount Eden offers a wonderful vantage point of the surrounding area. In order to protect the volcanic cone 27 hectares forming the Mt Eden Domain was set aside as crown land in the 1870s. The road to the summit was formed in 1879 utilising prison labour. During the 1920s access was improved with the laying of paths and steps to the summit. In 1927 a tea kiosk was erected on the mountain to serve the many visitors who made the trek up Mt Eden. The kiosk was surrounded by rose gardens planted during the depression of the 1930s. The mountain remains a popular tourist attraction.

Source: Maungawhau Heritage Walks, Four Mt Eden Neighbourhood Walks

Windmill Domain, Corner Mt Eden Road and Windmill Road: The Mt Eden Borough Council’s history of the area notes that when animal bones were scarce the gruesome practice of using human bones collected from prehistoric burial sites was undertaken. The windmill was demolished in 1929.

Whose bones were ground up?

Eden Mill in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga was built in 1843 to grind grain. For over a decade in the 1860’s it was used to grind up the skeletal remains of countless generations of Patupaiarehe into fertiliser. Many tens of thousands of skeletons were removed from burial caves for this purpose and sold to the mill. Maori of the time had no concerns about the fate of these ‘Tangata Whenua’ bones and openly stated to the authorities, “Do as you wish, with these bones, for these are not our people.”