October 29, 2018
Bats and skinks to replace cars on Maungarei
More than 11,000 trees and shrubs will be planted on Maungarei-Mount Wellington over the next few years as the Tāmaki Tūpuna Maunga Authority works to restore its tranquility.
Motor vehicles will be banned from the maunga from November 10 as part of a push to pedestrianise the city’s volcanic cones.
Authority chair Paul Majurey says work involved removing foreign elements, including taking off exotic trees and replanting the native species that used to be there.
"The team has worked hard on vegetation species but also the fauna, some of the skinks and bats actually that were there formerly, so part of this work is about as best as we can understanding what the history has been on these tūpuna maunga, respecting the special places they have, the tihi, the pā, the kainga, the māra kai, and some of the vegetation," he says.
While there was some opposition to pedestrianisation, especially at Devonport’s Takaranga-Mount Victoria, that has ebbed some people to see how much more peaceful they are without vehicles.
The next maunga to be closed off to vehicles will be Ōwairaka-Mount Albert
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