*THE ORIGINS
The Greater Auckland Region has stunning seas and coastline, spectacular hill ranges, and a rich wildlife. Our canyons are located in the two main volcanic ranges of the region: Blue Canyon is in the Waitakere Ranges, and Sleeping God Canyon in the Kauaeranga Valley of the Coromandel Peninsula.
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SEAS ON ALL SIDES
The Auckland region, along with the Coromandel Peninsula which is not formally part of it, is a narrow piece of land deeply indented by the sea. There is a strong contrast between the west and the east coasts. The west coast is straight and simple and, open to the prevailing westerlies, its seas are rough. It is a wild and exhilarating place.
By contrast the east coast is extremely indented, with harbours, bays, and peninsulas. This is the Hauraki Gulf, a vast expanse of gentler waters studded with many islands. Nowhere in the region is more than a few kilometres from the coast.
*YOUNG ACTIVE VOLCANOES
While the sea so dominates at first sight, the region owes its character at least as much to the action and the products of volcanism. Most striking of all are the numerous (nearly 50) little basaltic cones that are spread across Auckland Isthmus and make it a unique setting. The Auckland Volcanic Field has formed progressively over the last 150,000 years approximatively, and is still active by geological standards. Youngest of all is Rangitoto Island, nowadays the dominating landmark of Auckland Harbour, which first erupted about 600 years ago. Some distance south the Franklin Volcanic Field is a comparable basaltic field, slightly older, centred around Pukekohe and the Bombay Hills.
*ERODED, HUGE VOLCANIC ARCS
Both the Waitakere Ranges and the mountains of the Coromandel Peninsula originated in volcanic phases of much greater extent. They belong to two parallel volcanic arcs that were active between approximately 24 and 5 million years ago, caused by the subduction of the Pacific Tectonic Plate underneath the Australian Tectonic Plate. Along both arcs a series a huge rhyolithic and andesitic strato-volcanoes, comparable to or larger than the present day Ruapehu and Taranaki, were built and eroded over time.
*GIANT TREES IN ANCIENT NATIVE FOREST
Like the rest of New Zealand, the Auckland region was densely forested prior to human settlement, although not the isthmus itself. This region, as well as the Coromandel and the whole of Northland, is the realm of the giant kauri, one of the largest and oldest living trees on earth. The kauri forests that once extensively covered these regions have been felled almost entirely, but a few large survivors remain in both the Waitakere Ranges and the Coromandel Peninsula. It is the role of the Waitakare Regional Park and the Coromandel Forest Park to protect them, and to favour the regeneration of large tracts of native forest.
