One Tree Hill and Mount Eden

Well after laying around nursing a sunburn and waiting for the weather to rain like it said it would I Wednesday, I decided to call the weather's bluff on Thursday. It said rain but I headed out for a long hike anyway! It was not bluffing....

But I didn't melt and thankfully my camera case + backpack is pretty waterproof so no harm.

One Tree Hill - Maungakiekie

One of many volcanic cones in Auckland this location was for many years a Maori fortress as it overlooked the smallest part of the Auckland isthmus. All people traveling to the north part of the island had to pass through this area. Later it was purchased by the English and Sir John Logan Campbell is buried there. He had owned neighboring lands which now make up Cornwall park. In the park there are cows and sheep pastured as well as olive trees and several tea rooms near where the Sir Campbell had planned to build his home.  I found it very fascinating the way that there were sheep, cows, and even a rooster in the park. Not something you see here much!

 

Cows pastured around the hill.

 

One of the many storms moving through the city that morning.

View of Downtown from the walk up.  

 

Rooster out and about in the park, it was pretty funny watching the little sparrow like birds and pigeons walking around him. He thought he was a pretty big deal but they seemed to not care at all. Oddly he was the only chicken I saw!

 

The tree I huddled under while it was raining, worked pretty well!

 

This was the valley where the sheep had sheltered during the rain. A lot of them were still up under the trees. I am not sure why there were so many rocks but some people had gotten pretty energetic to move all of them around spelling names and what not.

 

There is in fact no tree on top of One Tree Hill, the last native tree to top it was cut down either for firewood or as an act of vandalism and the next tree that grew was cut down by the Maori as it was not a native New Zealand tree.

 



Mount Eden - Maungawhau

Another volcanic cone in Auckland, and this is actually the highest natural point in the city. It also was once a Maori fortress and has several terraced areas that remain from that use. It is also a prominent feature in the Coast to Coast walkway. Between both of these climbs (One Tree Hill and Mount Eden) as well as my Harbor and Auckland domain runs I completed all but the far west end of this walk.

 

Stairs leading into the park area.

 

Pathway towards the summit.

 

View towards the eastern harbor and beach area

 

Highest Point

 

CBD of Auckland

 

At the top there is actually still a crater. People are not allowed to go down inside of it anymore but you can tell that was once very popular to do.

Pretty great last day in the city despite the off and on rain. Ended up walking a total of 7.81 miles which was pretty great too. I still have several things I would like to do in Auckland but I have a feeling I will be back.