Puketutu Island


Te Motu a Hiaroa is a volcanic island in the Manukau Harbour, New Zealand, and is part of the Auckland volcanic field. European settlers called it Weekes' Island, but this was eventually abandoned in favour of the historical Māori name.
The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "tutu shrub hill" for Puketutu.

History

In the 1950s, several of its scoria cones were heavily quarried for fill to extend Auckland Airport nearby. The island's highest point, 65 m high Pinnacle Hill, was retained. The charitable trust now owning the forested island has proposed a scheme whereby biosolids from the nearby Mangere wastewater treatment plant could be used to reshape the older form of the island. While the process could take up to 35 years, the final goal is envisaged as becoming a park for the Auckland Region.
Watercare then bought a long term lease of the island and then transferred its ownership to the Te Motu a Hiaroa Governance Trust. A trust with 12 iwi trustees.
The island was also used as the site for several pā throughout the last centuries, though these were deserted by the time of the arrival of European colonists in the area.