Rarotonga | |
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Mount Smart | |
Detail from a postcard of Onehunga viewed from the west around 1910, showing Rarotonga / Mount Smart scoria cone before it was quarried away.
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Highest point | |
Coordinates | 36°55′6″S 174°48′45″E / 36.91833°S 174.81250°ECoordinates: 36°55′6″S 174°48′45″E / 36.91833°S 174.81250°E |
Geography | |
Location | North Island, New Zealand |
Geology | |
Volcanic arc/belt | Auckland volcanic field |
Rarotonga / Mount Smart (also known as Te Ipu kura a Maki) is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field. Quarrying removed almost all the scoria cone, which was 87 m high (around 57 m higher than the surrounding land). Prior to the arrival of Pākehā, it was extensively terraced and used as a defensive pā. The former quarry is now the site of Mount Smart Stadium.
In the 2014 Treaty of Waitangi settlement with the Tamaki Makaurau Collective of 13 Auckland iwi, the volcano was officially named Rarotonga / Mount Smart and ownership was vested to the collective.
The name Rarotonga means "the lower south" and was brought from Hawaiki. Mount Smart was named after Henry Dalton Smart, a lieutenant in the mounted police in the 1840s. Te Ipu kura a Maki means "the red bowl of Maki".