Waitakere Ranges

Waitakere Ranges Regional Park includes more than 16,000ha of native rainforest and coastline. Its 250km of walking and tramping tracks provide access to beaches, breathtaking vistas, spectacular rocky outcrops, streams, waterfalls and farms overlooking the wild west coast.

Popular coastal destinations include the black sand, surf beaches of Whatipu , Karekare , Anawhata , Piha and Te Henga/Bethells on the west coast and Cornwallis and Huia on the Manukau Harbour. The park offers an abundance of recreational opportunities - swimming, surfing, tramping, fishing boat launching, horse riding, running, walking, picnicking, camping, sightseeing, or just relaxing.

The Waitakere Ranges area is known to local iwi, Te Kawerau a Maki, as Te Wao-nui-aTiriwa ('the great forest of Tiriwa'), after one of the tribe's earliest ancestors. The name Waitakere comes from a rock located in the small bay just to the north of the mouth of the river that flows out from Te Henga/Bethells Beach.

Award-winning movies like 'the Piano' and popular TV shows 'Xena' and 'Hercules', all filmed here, give the park an international profile.

History

Local iwi Te Kawerau a Maki's ancestral association with this area goes back 700-800 years. They lived on land between the Manukau Harbour in the south and Muriwai to the north. The sea supplied fish and shellfish while the forest provided birds, succulent berries and other delicacies.

Te Kawerau a Maki still holds strong spiritual ties to the land and has inherited the role of kaitiaki ('guardians') from their tupuna ('ancestors'). Their history and present day relationships are represented through carved pou whenua around the park. Look out for these at the Arataki Visitor centre, Cornwallis, Whatipu, Karekare, Piha and Cascade Kauri.

The arrival of the Europeans in the 1830s led to the most visible change in the area. The logging industry, and later farm clearance, saw native trees (including most accessible kauri) felled and thousands of hectares of forest destroyed. Bushmen dammed streams to float logs to the coast. They built several tramlines, including a 14km tramline down the coast from Anawhata to Whatipu, which was used to transport kauri logs to a wharf at Paratutai Island. Remains of the tramline can be seen on the coast between Karekare and Whatipu.

The park is home to numerous historic sites from Maori pa sites to remnants of the logging industry. Historic buildings in the park include Whatipu Lodge, Huia Lodge (formerly Huia School), Hinge House (a former mill manager's house), Rose Hillary House (Scenic Drive) and Kettle House (Anawhata).

Water was, and still is, a valuable resource in the area. Five major reservoirs were built between 1910 and 1970 and these continue to supply metropolitan Auckland with water today.

Waitakere Ranges Regional Park was formed over many years dating from 1900, when Auckland City Council began purchasing land for water supply and because of its scenic qualities. Originally named Auckland Centennial Memorial Park, it was established in 1940 to mark 100 years since the city's founding. This was enlarged through the gifts of land by many generous donors, including Earle Vaile, the McLachan family, Spragg family, Sir William Goodfellow, Sir Algenon Thomas and Lady Rose Hellaby.

The Auckland Regional Authority (now the ARC) took over the management in 1964, and the water catchment land in 1990.

Wildlife

The forests of the Waitakere Ranges have rather a poor range of native avifauna compared with the area of forest. The morepork, kingfisher, shining cuckoo, tui, kereru and pied tit are also widespread and quite common.

Many introduced birds species and less than quarter are native endemic species. Many introduced birds, especially the myna, blackbird, chaffinch and eatern rosella penetrate forest and scrub habitats.

A largest of the resident native birds are waders and coastal species with samller proportions being wetland and forest and scrub species.

Native Bush

Approximately one-quarter of NZ's native flowering plants (some 420 species) and two-thirds of all ferns and fern allies (over 110 species) are found within the ranges, including a wealth of mosses and lichens.

The Ranges provide a refuge for 86 scarce species, including one endangered plant species, two vulnerable species, three rare species and one locally rare species. Mature Kauri forest is located at the head of the Piha Catchment, in the Fairy Falls-Scenic Drive area and in the Cascade Kauri Park area.

Young kauris are restricted to small ridge top areas in the lowlands of the ranges. Approximately one-third of the ranges is covered in rata, rimu, totara, miro and kahikatia. Puriri, karaka, kohekohe, nikau and treeferns cover approximately one thrid of the Ranges. Taraire occurs mainly around Pararaha and Karekare. Manuka forest is the third major component of the ranges. Pohutukawa dominates the cliff fringes.

Sand-fields along the west coast are colonised by pingao at Whatipu, and spinifex/marram grass north of the Pararaha Valley. Several small flax fields occur at the base of the Whatipu cliffs.