Arrival and Settlement / Te Taenga Mai

As a strategic, defensible location overlooking the Manukau Harbour, Mangere Mountain was an attractive location for the first people to arrive from their ancestral homeland of Hawaiiki. The fertile volcanic soil of the maunga (mountain) as well as it’s proximity to the moana (sea) and creation of puna (fresh water springs) provided a further incentive to settlement.

When you take a guided walk, you can view the remains of over 800 years of Māori settlement, including a fortified Māori pā. You can see the boundaries that once defined the landscape as villages, gardens, storage pits, forts and boundary walls.

Set out on one of our guided walks over our mountain and you will hear the stories of the first people who arrived in this location. They were followed by many others – and their descendants live here today. One of them might be your guide.