Auckland - a city built on volcanoes

Auckland is a city built on - and of - many volcanoes.  Most are extinct but some are only dormant.  The CBD and suburbs are all built on top of extinct volcanoes and many islands of the gulf are also extinct volcanoes - see Browns Island at left.

 
The mightiest volcano of all is Rangitoto - which is only dormant as it last erupted a mere 550 years ago.  It is an icon of Auckland and is unusual in that it looks the same no matter what direction you view it from - it is an almost perfect cone shape.  The name Rangitoto means "Bloody Sky" in Maori. It is perhaps Auckland's most favourite landmark.

Looking at a map of just a small part of Auckland shows how ubiquitous the volcanoes are. They stretch far beyond he area shown on the map.

When I wrote that Auckland was built on and of its volcanoes I meant that many volcanic cones were excavated (and often obliterated), for the red and black scoria which were the base metal of our roads - and buildings.


Flying over Auckland as you arrive home it is the volcanoes that are the most predominant of the landscape features below you. As you look down on the houses nestled around those volcanic cones and out over the blue waters of Auckland's two harbours - both dotted with volcanoes - you know you are home.