The North Shore ( or ) is one of the major geographical regions of Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. The area is defined as the northern shores of the Waitematā Harbour as far north as the Ōkura River.

The North Shore is primarily uplifted Waitemata Group sandstone from the Miocene, and includes the northernmost features of the Auckland volcanic field, such as Lake Pupuke—the oldest known feature of the field. Settled by Tāmaki Māori in the 13th or 14th centuries, the Waitematā Harbour headlands became important places for harvesting seasonal resources and for controlling transportation across the region. European settlers arrived in the North Shore in the 1840s, and by the turn of the 20th century, the inland area has become a hub for fruit growing, while the eastern coast had developed into a tourism destination for Aucklanders.

The North Shore rapidly suburbanised after the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959, and by 1989 the five local authorities in the area amalgamated to create North Shore City, which existed until 2010.

Definition and etymology

The name North Shore has been used in English as far back as 1843, and has traditionally been defined as the area north of the Waitematā Harbour as far as Lucas Creek and Ōkura River. Other areas referred to as part of the North Shore include Pāremoremo, Lucas Heights. Ōkura and Redvale, rural villages located between metropolitan Auckland and the Hibiscus Coast, are considered a part of the North Shore. Major centres on the North Shore include Albany, Birkenhead, Browns Bay, Devonport, Glenfield, Northcote and Takapuna.

and are the two most commonly used Māori names for the North Shore. () name refers to Kahu, the granddaughter of Maki, the namesake ancestor of the iwi Te Kawerau ā Maki. Kahu was among the members of Te Kawerau ā Maki who was based on the North Shore. is a name that has been in use since at least the 1980s, and is found in the names of organisations such as Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Raki Paewhenua, Te Raki Paewhenua Committee, and the health and social service organisation Te Puna Hauora o te Raki Paewhenua.

In the mid-19th century, Māori-language texts predominantly use the names Takapuna, or Awataha, to describe the North Shore. Takapuna, a name originally given to a spring at Maungauika / North Head, had gradually grown to refer to the wider southern North Shore area before the early colonial era.

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, and uplifted due to tectonic forces. The sedimentary layers of Waitemata sandstone can be clearly seen in the eroding cliff faces of the bays along the Hauraki Gulf. Basement rocks in the area are greywacke and argillite, and a number of the headlands are formed from harder Parnell grit rocks, produced by lahars during the Miocene. The North Shore and wider Rodney area feature small areas of Albany Conglomerate rock.

Volcanic features

The North Shore is home to the northernmost features of the Auckland volcanic field. Lake Pupuke, a volcanic maar located in Takapuna, is one of the oldest known features of the Auckland volcanic field, erupting an estimated 193,200 years ago. 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.

There are two volcanic maars found on the eastern coastline of Northcote: Tank Farm, also known as Tuff Crater or , joined to the south by Onepoto (also known as ). Onepoto and Tank Farm erupted an estimated 187,600 and 181,000 years ago respectively.

Three volcanic features can be found at Devonport: Takarunga / Mount Victoria, the highest volcano on the North Shore at , and Maungauika / North Head, the south-east headland of the North Shore located at the mouth of the Waitematā Harbour. The third feature, Takararo / Mount Cambria, was quarried in tis entirety by the 1970s. Of these three features, Maungauika / North Head is significantly older, dated to approximately 87,000 years ago. Takararo / Mount Cambria is estimated to have erupted 43,000 years ago, while Takarunga / Mount Victoria erupted approximately 35,000 years ago.

While not located on the North Shore, the Rangitoto Island, dominates the horizon for many of the bays along the eastern coast. The island is the youngest feature of the field, having erupted around the year 1,500.

Geography

The North Shore comprises a large suburban area to the north of Downtown Auckland; linked to the rest of the Greater Auckland metropolitan area by two harbour bridges – the Auckland Harbour Bridge crosses the inner Waitematā Harbour to the Auckland isthmus and Auckland City Centre, while the Upper Harbour Bridge on State Highway 18 provides a connection to West Auckland, across the Upper Waitematā Harbour.

Three major estuaries of the Waitematā Harbour flow through the North Shore. Oruamo or Hellyers Creek flows through the central west North Shore, separating Glenfield and Beach Haven from Greenhithe in the north-west. Further to the north is Lucas Creek, which separates Greenhithe from Pāremoremo. Shoal Bay is found to the south, which separates Northcote from Takapuna and Devonport in the east. To the east of Shoal Bay is the Devonport peninsula. The southern Devonport peninsula was formerly a presque-isle, only joined to the mainland at Narrow Neck by a small spit, until much of Ngataringa Bay was reclaimed for the Waitemata Golf Course in the 1870s. Traditional histories tell that during king tides, the tombolo was completely submerged.

The highest point on the North Shore is a hill (A9L5) in the Albany hills, which is the origin point of the Ōkura River. The highest point in metropolitan North Shore is an hill (A5X2) to on Pupuke Road in Northcote, referred informally by residents in the early 20th century as Clay Hill. The hill is the location of the Pupuke Road Reservoir and Pump Station.

Climate

Flora

Prior to human settlement, the inland North Shore area was primarily a northern broadleaf podocarp forest, dominated by kauri, tōtara, mataī, miro and kahikatea trees. Pōhutukawa trees were a major feature of the coastline. By the 19th century, much of the North Shore was primarily scrubland, vegetated by plants such as mānuka, tutu, harakeke flax and ferns.

Some kauri remnant forest remains in areas around Birkenhead, including Kauri Park and Le Roys Bush, while Smiths Bush in the Onewa Domain is a remnant native forest dominated by kahikatea and taraire trees. Fernhill Escarpment in Albany is a remnant forest which had tōtara trees estimated to be 800 years old.

In 1974, Graeme Platt established the first commercial native plant nursery in New Zealand. Many of his plants were local to the Albany area, meaning many native plants across New Zealand planted in the 1970s and 1980s originate from North Shore forests. This includes the tōtara cultivar Aurea, also known by the name Albany Gold.

History Māori history

Tāmaki Māori settlement of the Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries. The Devonport area was one of the earliest settled in the region, known to be settled by Tāmaki Māori ancestor Peretū. Toi-te-huatahi and his followers settled and intermarried with these early peoples. Around the year 1350, the Tainui migratory canoe visited the North Shore, stopping at the freshwater spring southwest of Maungauika / North Head, and at the Waiake Lagoon (Deep Creek).

Boat Rock (, "The Rat's Tooth") in the Waitematā Harbour southwest of Birkenhead was a location of great significance to Tāmaki Māori. The rock was the location where Te Arawa chief Kahumatamomoe placed a mauri stone (a stone of religious significance), naming the Waitematā ("The Waters of the Stone") after the stone.

Over time, many of the early Tāmaki Māori people of the North Shore identified as Ngā Oho. While the poor soils of the central North Shore acted as a barrier to agriculture and settlement, people settled the coastal margins, most notably the volcanic south-east, Long Bay (), Kauri Point in Chatswood, and Tauhinu at Greenhithe. Stonefield gardens were constructed on the volcanic hills to the south-east, where crops such as uwhi yam, Taro and kūmara.

An (traditional path) connected Lucas Creek and the Ōkura River. This was used as a portage, where waka could be hauled overland between the two bodies of water. Numerous archaeological sites are found on the banks of the Lucas Creek and the Ōteha valley, because of its importance as a transportation node. Similar portages linked Shoal Bay () at St Leonards Bay, and ("Scratched Waka"), a portage between Ngataringa Bay and Narrow Neck Beach, located underneath the reclaimed land at Waitemata Golf Club, which was underwater during king tides. Browns Bay was often a stopping point on journeys, for Māori travelling between the north and Auckland to the south.

For much of Māori history, the North Shore acted as a buffer zone, between Te Tai Tokerau Māori in the north and Tāmaki Māori tribes in the south.

Te Kawerau ā Maki, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Manuhiri

Likely in the 17th century, the warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region. Maki conquered and unified many of 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, ("The Greater Lands of 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. Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki settlements during this period included in Northcote, the volcanic hills of Takarunga / Mount Victoria and Maungauika / North Head, and Ōmangaia Pā at Browns Bay.

The focal point of Te Kawerau ā Maki on the North Shore was ("The Brow of Mana"), a headland pā at Kauri Point in modern-day Chatswood likely constructed in the 17th century, and ("Wind Shelter"), the kāinga below the cliffs at Kendall Bay. The pā was of strategic importance due to its commanding view of the Waitematā Harbour, and its proximity to a renowned , a shark fishery which brought seasonal visitors from across Tāmaki Makurau and the Hauraki Gulf in the summer, including important rangatira such as Kiwi Tāmaki of Waiohua, and later Tarahawaiki of Ngāti Whātua. was named after the ancestor Manaoterangi, who was the rangatira of the pā in the mid-18th century. The pā was spared from the conflicts of the early 18th century between Ngāti Whātua and Waiohua, as Manaoterangi was a close relative of Tuperiri of the Ngāti Whātua, and was married to Waikahuia, the sister of Kiwi Tāmaki. At the end of his life, Manaoterangi entrusted his people to Tuperiri and the iwi that grew to become Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

Expansion of Ngāti Pāoa, and early contact with Europeans