Northcote Tuff Crater

The Tuff Crater Restoration Project

The weather on Sunday was ok, despite the downpours during the week the weekend wasn’t too bad at all. It was just as well as I had been advised that the Northcote Tuff Crater (also known as Tank farm) and Onepoto Basin walk was treacherous underfoot when wet.  I was hoping to have a local with us as a guide but unfortunately they were unable to make it so we tramped on regardless.

View from the look out at St Peters Street

The North Shore Nordic Walkers met at the Library at Northcote at 8.00 am.  We walked down College Road crossing over to number 77 turning right onto the walkway in St Peters Street; we stopped at the Crater lookout and then turned right onto the track which was mostly gravel, boardwalk and around wetland. Further on we crossed onto the grass adjacent to the motorway.

Boardwalk around the Crater

Onepoto, (Maori for short beach) is a volcanic crater or maar on the North Shore situated near to the approaches to the Auckland Harbour Bridge, The 26 ha crater is the result of a number of massive eruptions about 250,000 years ago. It first emerged as a freshwater lake, then later became a tidal lagoon when sea levels rose after the last ice age. The crater floor has been reclaimed and now has a sports field, a children’s playground and a lake surrounded with beautiful native bush.  Some areas of the tuff were quarried away in the 1950s to obtain landfill for the Northern Motorway. The tidal Onepoto Stream runs through the swamp under Onewa Cycle Bridge near Waitemata Harbour.

 View from the Motorway Bridge

This area was also known as Tank Farm - the name comes from the  petrochemicals storage tanks which were located here during World War II.

Onepoto Domain

At the end of the walkway we climbed up the steps onto the motorway bridge to take a look at the traffic zipping past; the view of the city is spectacular from the footbridge.  From the bridge we walked back across the grass and past the Pumping Station on the left. Taking a right between the houses we walked though to Heath Ave. Following our map we headed right down Sylvan Avenue where we crossed over to number 72 and along the track to Onepoto Basin. We followed the track through the park to the playground then we heard the loud speakers, Auckland Run Series were having one of their events and we arrived in the middle of it. Curses. Mental note - must check the events calendar for future walks!

Children's Playground

We stopped to look at our map when a helpful young lady came along and gave us directions to another walkway to take us to Northcote Tennis club, unfortunately it clashed with the runners and we tried to find an alternative route. Grace found us a track between the houses but it circled back further along the street so we ended up back in the race;. Curses again. Anyway we meandered for a wee while before deciding to walk facing the runners along the street and exiting Exmouth Road before turning right into College Road and back to the library.

The Lake

We walked though to the shops and found a lovely cafe for our coffee, I had very yellow eggs on toast and was told that they were probably organic although I don’t know as my Nan would say "eggs is eggs", but they tasted superb!

Information & Sources:

http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Volcanoes/Sci-Media/Animations-and-Interactives/Volcano-map-of-New-Zealand

http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/news/slow-boat-to-danger/1018200/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onepoto_(volcanic_crater)