Takapuna
Takapuna is a suburb located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb is an isthmus between Shoal Bay, arm of the Waitematā Harbour, and the Hauraki Gulf. Lake Pupuke, a volcanic maar and one of the oldest features of the Auckland volcanic field, is a freshwater lake located in the suburb.
Takapuna was settled by Tāmaki Māori in the 13th or 14th centuries, who utilised the resources of Lake Pupuke, and a pōhutukawa grove called Te Uru Tapu. The grove still exists to this day and was an important location for funeral ceremonies. In 1847, the first European farmers settled at Takapuna, and the Crown gifted land at Takapuna to Ngāpuhi chief Eruera Maihi Patuone in order to create a protective barrier for Auckland. Jean-Baptiste Pompallier established St Mary's College at Takapuna in 1849.
The area became a popular tourist destination for wealthy families of Auckland in the 1880s, when many large summer residences were being constructed on the shores of Lake Pupuke. By the early 20th century, Takapuna Beach had grown in importance for tourists. The suburb developed in the 1910s due to a private tramway, and by the 1930s gradually became a commercial centre for the North Shore. Takapuna grew in importance after the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959, becoming the administrative centre for the North Shore.
Etymology
The name Takapuna refers to a spring at Maungauika / North Head, located north of Torpedo Bay Navy Museum in Devonport. The name was given by Hoturoa of the Tainui migratory waka. When the waka stopped at Torpedo Bay, Hoturoa and the crew of the Tainui met the residents of the area and drank from the spring. Hoturoa named the spring in remembrance of a spring in his homeland of Hawaiki. While the word puna in Māori refers to natural springs, the meaning of taka in this context is unknown, and the name has variously been interpreted to mean "Knoll Spring", "Rock Spring", "Cliff Spring" or "Falling Spring".Over time, Tāmaki Māori began to refer to the wider area around Maungauika / North Head and the North Shore as Takapuna. Jules Dumont d'Urville, an early explorer, was the first European to adopt the name to describe the area north of North Head in 1833. During the early colonial era of Auckland, the name was used for the Parish of Takapuna, and modern Lake Pupuke was referred to as Lake Takapuna from the 1860s until the 1940s.
The area was known as the Lake District from 1866 until 1882, when the name Takapuna was formally adopted. The name Takapuna was gradually adopted to mean the settlement focused on the southern shores of Lake Pupuke over the 19th century. The areas to the south were known as Devonport, meaning Takapuna had become geographically separated from its namesake.
Geology
The North Shore is primarily uplifted Waitemata Group sandstone, that was deposited on the sea floor during the Early Miocene, between 22 and 16 million years ago. The Takapuna area is home to Lake Pupuke, a volcanic maar which is one of the oldest known features of the Auckland volcanic field, erupting an estimated 193,200 years ago. A small scoria cone existed to the west of Lake Pupuke, which was quarried during European settlement.During the eruption of Lake Pupuke, two lava flows travelled eastwards through the area, burning vegetation and encasing the lower 1–2 metres of the tree trunks in lava. The lava solidified into basalt rock, creating the Takapuna Fossil Forest, which was exposed an estimated 7,000 years ago due to coastal erosion.
Prior to human settlement, pōhutukawa trees dominated the coastal margins of the North Shore. The inland North Shore was a mixed podocarp-broadleaf forest dominated by kauri. To the west of Takapuna is Smiths Bush in the Onewa Domain, a remnant native forest, dominated by kahikatea and taraire trees. By the 1850s, Takapuna was primarily a mānuka scrubland, with significant coastal areas dominated by harakeke.
Geography
Takapuna is an isthmus between the Hauraki Gulf and Shoal Bay, a long narrow bay of the Waitematā Harbour. Takapuna is surrounded by the suburbs of Hauraki to the south-east, Northcote to the south-west, Hillcrest and Wairau Valley to the west, and Milford north of Lake Pupuke. The highest point in the suburb is above sea-level, located at the Killarney Street and the Terrace.Two beaches are located in the eastern parts of the suburb. Takapuna Beach is found to the south, which faces toward Rangitoto Island across the Rangitoto Channel. Further north along the coast is Thorne Bay, which features a rock formation called Black Rock, at the northern point of the bay.
Barrys Point is a headland in Takapuna south of Esmonde Road that extends into Shoal Bay.
History
Māori history
Māori settlement of the Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries. The Devonport-Takapuna area was one of the earliest settled in the region, known to be settled by the Tāmaki Māori ancestor Peretū. Toi-te-huatahi and his followers settled and interwed with these early peoples.Around the year 1350, the Tainui migratory canoe visited the Takapuna area, stopping at the freshwater spring southwest of Maungauika / North Head. Some members of the crew decided to settle permanently in the area, including Taikehu, and intermarried with the people of the North Shore. Kāinga were found throughout the wider Takapuna area, protected by pā at Castor Bay to the north, with Takarunga / Mount Victoria and Maungauika / North Head to the south. Over time, the descendants of these people began to identify as Ngā Oho and Ngāi Tai.
The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century. Maki conquered and unified many the Tāmaki Māori tribes as Te Kawerau ā Maki, including those of the North Shore. After Maki's death, his sons settled different areas of his lands, creating new hapū. His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River. Maraeariki's daughter Kahu succeeded him, and she is the namesake of the North Shore, Te Whenua Roa o Kahu. Many of the iwi of the North Shore, including Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maraeariki, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Poataniwha, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Whātua, can trace their lineage to Kahu.
In the 17th century, Ngāti Pāoa attacked the settlements around the Waitematā Harbour, later intermarrying with the Te Kawerau ā Maki and Ngāi Tai people of the southern North Shore. During intertribal war with Ngāpuhi, the pā at Maungauika / North Head was sieged in 1793, leading Ngāti Pāoa to refocus their settlements on Waiheke Island until the 1830s. During the early 1820s, most Māori of the North Shore fled for the Waikato or Northland due to the threat of war parties during the Musket Wars.
Lake Pupuke and Te Riri a Mataaho
Lake Pupuke was an important location to Tāmaki Māori of the North Shore. It was used a source of fresh water, and its name Pupuke Moana referred to how the fresh water would habitually flow out from the lake to the sea. Eels and mussels were harvested from the lake, and birds who were attracted to the lake were snared for food, and harakeke from the shores could be harvested for textiles. The northern shores of the lake was home to a grove of karaka trees, which were likely used for both food and medicinal purposes.Takapuna is part of the setting of Te Riri a Mataaho, a Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki traditional story that describes the creation of Lake Pupuke and Ngā Mahanga "The Twins", two rock formations on Takapuna Beach. Two tupua, Matakamokamo and his wife Matakerepo, lived on Te Rua Maunga, a mountain located at Lake Pupuke. The couple argued over some flax clothing that Matakerepo had made for her husband, and the argument became so heated that the fire outside their dwelling died out. Matakamokamo cursed Mahuika, Goddess of the Fire, for allowing this to happen. Mahuika was furious at the couple, and asked Mataaho to punish them. Mataaho destroyed their mountain home, and in its place left Pupuke Moana, while at the same time he formed the mountain Rangitoto. The couple fled to the newly formed island, where Mataaho formed three peaks on the mountain, so that the couple can view the ruins of their former home. Hinerei and Matamiha, the couples' twin children, were turned to stone, and remain as rock features on the southern Takapuna Beach.
Te Uru Tapu
To the north of Takapuna Beach is a wāhi tapu called Te Uru Tapu, a grove of pōhutukawa used for burial ceremonies by Tāmaki Māori. As a part of traditional burial practices, bodies would be wrapped in flax mats and placed in a sitting position in the trees, with the dead later being buried once their bodies had naturally decomposed.In the early 2000s, the North Shore City Council built a boardwalk through the grove. Access was removed in June 2018 due to risks of falling branches, and access to the grove was not returned after the Auckland Council consulted with seven iwi. In 2021, vandals poisoned and cut down many of the trees in the grove, including karo, karaka, nīkau palms and tōtara, however did not target the pōhutukawa.
Early colonial period
The first land purchases at Takapuna were undertaken by Henry Taylor and Alexander Sparks in November 1839. These land sales were later disallowed, and Takapuna was purchased by the Crown on 13 April 1841 as a part of the Mahurangi Block. Farms were auctioned in 1844, and the first European farmers arrived in the Takapuna area in 1847. Early European settlers were predominantly from England, Scotland and Ireland, and they established farms around the lake. Crops such as wheat, maize, barley, potatoes and kūmara were grown at these farms, and homesteads planted single acre orchards dominated by plums, apples and peaches.In 1849, the Catholic Church purchased land at Takapuna, where Jean-Baptiste Pompallier established St Mary's College, a school and later seminary that catered to both European and Māori.
In 1852, the Crown granted of land south of Lake Pupuke to Barry's Point / Awataha to Ngāpuhi chief Eruera Maihi Patuone, in order to create a shield for the City of Auckland against potential invasion from Ngāpuhi and other northern tribes. Patuone's people lived in the area until the 1880s. Patuone named his settlement Waiwharariki, meaning "Waters of Wharariki", a mat made of harakeke flax. Patuone's lands at Waiwharariki included a peach tree orchard and a village of twenty huts. Many Ngāpuhi from the settlement worked on the farms at Lake Pupuke, establishing a network of fences for the properties.
In 1863, the first subdivisions were created in Takapuna, where villas were constructed on the eastern shores of Lake Pupuke. The streets were named after famous lakes of the world. A ferry service began to operate from Barry's Point at Shoal Bay, and the Takapuna Hotel was established in 1863 near the ferry launch. Despite the Long Depression of the 1880s, Takapuna grew as a community. By this period, sheep breeding had become important in northern Takapuna, and Takapuna dairy farms supplied milk for Auckland. A post office was established in Takapuna in 1880, followed by St Peter's Church in 1883.
During fears of Russian invasion in the 1880s, Fort Takapuna was established to the southeast of the suburb. Lake Pupuke became the major source of fresh water for the North Shore, with Devonport receiving fresh water in the 1890s, followed by Northcote in 1906. In 1913, a new pumphouse was constructed on the lake, in order to supply Birkenhead with fresh water.