Pukewīwī Puketāpapa Mount Roskill

For great views of Tāmaki Makarau / Auckland’s inner city and Manukau Harbour, why not visit the beautiful Tūpuna Maunga (ancestral mountain) Pukewīwī / Puketāpapa / Mt Roskill which was formed through eruption around 20,000 years ago.  

The name Puketāpapa in te reo Māori means “flat topped hill” and Pukewīwī “hill means covered in rushes” (rushes are perennial herbs).  

This Maunga was a site of a Māori pā (fortified village settlement), with kūmara pits (underground storage pits for storing kūmara during winter and for planting the next spring) and extensive terracing. Most of the pits and much of the terracing were lost due to the installation of a water reservoir into the excavated crater in 1961. You can still find hollows in the ground, where these pits once lay and there are still signs of terracing along the western and southern slopes of this Tūpuna Maunga. 

You’ll find the walk to the tihi (summit) a short, steep climb, but well worth the views of the local landscape, the Sky Tower, and Manukau Harbour to the Heads. With a number of park benches available at the tihi, why not stay a while and soak up the scenery, above the sounds of traffic. Try and spot the other Tūpuna Maunga while you are up there!