Auckland Region

1GREENLANE

Heading north on SH 1, turn left onto the Greenlane offramp and take the first turn on the left from the roundabout onto Green Lane East Road. Head southwest 0.2 km onto Green Lane West Road. The Great South Road seperates the Greenland East and West Roads and is one of Auckland's primary locations for car dealerships. The Penrose branch of Go Rentals is to the left, 2 km south on the Great South Road.

2ACACIA COTTAGE

Continue 0.8 km west on Green Lane West Road to the entrance to Cornwall Park which is on the left. Head south 0.4 km on Pohutukawa Drive to the roundabout and take the second turn on the left onto the Olive Grove Road. Continue 0.4 km to Huia Lodge which is the park visitor centre, on the left and Acacia Cottage on the right.
Having got word that Auckland was soon to become the capital of New Zealand, in 1840 William Brown and John Logan Campbell, set up camp on Browns Island in the Hauraki Gulf, determined to become two of the first traders in the new town. Just before Christmas that year they pitched their tent near the beach at Commercial Bay, eventually setting up business premises in the rapidly growing Auckland City. Acacia Cottage was originally built in O’Connell Street in 1841 and as the oldest surviving house in the settlement, was moved to Cornwall Park in the 1920s. Acacia Cottage started out as a simple, four-roomed dwelling of Georgian design, with a fifth room added later to one side. It was built at a time when most of the other settlers were living in tents and has since undergone extensive restoration at the park where it is open to the public.

One Tree Hill Monument.

3ONE TREE HILL

Continue northwest 1 km on the Olive Grove Road as it circles around the base of One Tree Hill, then turn left and drive 0.8 km up to the summit carpark.
One Tree Hill is one of the largest of the 48 volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field and is also one of the more recent. It erupted over 20,000 years ago forming a complex scoria cone with three craters while sending flows of lava down ancient stream valleys towards Onehunga. Known to the Maori as Maungakiekie, it is also the largest and most complex fortress (pa) built on a volcanic cone in the country. You can still see clear evidence of the hundreds of living terraces, food storage pits, defensive ditches and banks that were occupied by the Maori for centuries.  A population of up to 5,000 people would have lived in the area, moving to the defended pa site in times of danger. In traditional Maori society, warfare was often a seasonal activity, so the pa were built to defend the storage pits housing the sweet potato (kumara) crops as well as providing a place of refuge for the local people. The pa featured a system of scarps, ditches and banks lined with palisades and would have had fighting stages located near the entrance ways. The Maori once buried their dead on the mountain, often depositing their bones in lava caves. Having seen obelisks during his travels in Egypt, Sir John Logan Campbell commissioned architect Richard Atkinson Abbott to design the 33m obelisk that now stands on the summit of One Tree Hill. The obelisk, covered in Coromandel tonolite on a basalt base, was not unveiled until 1948, after the Second World War, in keeping with Maori custom of not holding such ceremonies during a time of war. It was built as a permanent record of Sir John Logan Campbell’s admiration for the achievements and character of the great Maori race and is located next to his grave on the summit of the mountain.

Return 0.8 km back down the mountain and turn left. Continue around the base of the mountain 0.8 km on the Olive Grove Road then turn left  and continue 0.6 km along Twin Oak Drive.

CORNWALL PARK

One of the first merchants to set up business in Auckland in the 1800s, Sir John Logan Campbell had made his fortune in land and brewing as well as other enterprises. Regarded as one of the cities founding fathers, he had always considered that Auckland should have its own central park. During a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York in 1901, Sir John Logan Campbell was made an honorary Mayor of Auckland and used the opportunity to gift Cornwall Park to the people of Auckland. Landscape architect Austin Strong produced the original designs for the park, with its wide areas of open space, sweeping driveways and broad avenues of trees. The work continued over the next century and today Cornwall Park, together with the One Tree Hill Domain, forms the largest area of parkland in the city. Old stone walls around the park date back to the original Maori occupation and early European farms established in the area. The olive grove was one of Sir John Logan Campbells experimental plantings. You can still see these trees as well as walk through groves of kauri and pohutukawa on a number of well developed walkways around the park. Today visitors can experience a peaceful rural setting in the heart of Auckland city thanks to Sir John Logan Campbells enduring vision.

4HIGHWIC HOUSE

Continue back to the roundabout on Pohutukawa Drive and return 0.4 km to the park entrance on Green Lane West Road. Cross the road to Puriri Drive which is directly opposite and continue 1.4 km to Campbell Cresent. Head north 0.2 km on Campbell Cresent past the Statue of John Logan Campbell and turn right onto Market Road. Continue 1.4 km and turn left onto Alpers Ave. Continue 0.3 km and turn right onto Gilles Ave. Drive north 0.4 km and turn right into Mortimers Pass Road. The entrance to Highwic is a short distance on the right.
One of the finest timber Gothic houses in the country, Highwic was inspired by one of the designs in American A.J Downings patternbook ‘The Architecture of Country Houses’. Begun in 1862 by Alfred Buckland, and extended in 1873, the building was home to Buckland’s 21 children and remained in the family until the 1970s. Highwic is furnished with antiques and is open from Wednesday to Sunday each week.

Auckland War Memorial Museum.

5AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM AND DOMAIN

Continue east down Mortimers Pass 0.2 km and turn left onto Broadway. Continue north through Newmarket 1.8 km and turn left at the roundabout onto Davis Cresent. Continue 0.1 km and turn right onto Carlton Gore Road and travel 0.4 km to the Auckland Domain on the right. Continue north through the domain 0.6 km on Football Road and turn right at the Cresent into Cenotaph Road.
The largest neo-classical structure in the country, the Auckland War Memorial Museum is located on Pukekawa Hill (hill of bitter memories), the highest point in the 81 ha Auckland Domain, overlooking the Waitemata harbour. Established in 1852 and moved to the domain where the new building was opened in 1929, the museum is a cultural and spiritual touchstone for New Zealanders. Featuring priceless Maori and Pacific Island artifacts and treasures, including three buildings and a war canoe dating back top 1830, the museum also hosts daily Maori cultural performances. There is an extensive collection of weapons from both world wars including original Mitsubishi Zero and Supermarine Spitfire aircraft.  The amazing natural history section has over 1.5 million specimens and the museum hosts numerous local and international exhibitions. Every year on  April 25th, ANZAC day is commemorated with a dawn service outside near the cenotaph. The Domain, surrounding the museum, was Auckland’s first park. Established in 1880 it features a large pond, fed by an underground spring, that was used as Auckland's first water supply. Trial plantings of numerous exotic plant species were established in the area, many of which have survived to the present day. The Wintergardens, were opened in 1913, comprising an enclosed courtyard, complete with a fish pond, fountains and classical marble statues, located between two large glasshouses, one of which exhibits temperate plants while the other features tropical plants. There is also an extensive native fernery nearby. A variety of sculptures have been installed throughout the domain and on the rim of the volcanic crater overlooking a number of sports fields, you can see a wooden cricket pavilion that was built in 1898. The area forms a natural amphitheatre for large outdoor events like the annual Christmas ‘Carols in the Park'.

6ST MARYS

Continue east on Cenotaph Road and turn left into the Maunsell Road Extension and continue on Maunsell Road 0.3 km. A short distance to the right at no. 545 Parnell Road it’s worth taking a look at the old Jubilee building which was originally built as an institute for the blind in 1909. Designed by Edward Bartley, the main buildings feature red brick with arches dressed in Oamaru stone, window surrounds and banding on the gables. The three pavilions are linked by a double height verandah. To continue the tour, drive north along Parnell Road 0.1 km to Ayr Street. Kinder House, built in the 1850s is on the left at 2 Ayr Street and a short distance further at 14 Ayr Street is Ewelme Cottage, which dates back to 1863. You can also see the Terrace Houses on the corner of Claybrook Rd along with a wooden villa at 6 Claybrook Rd, built in 1842.
Continue on Parnell Road 0.2 km to St Marys on the right.
Alongside the monstrous brick cathedral on Parnell Road, lies the magnificent Saint Marys in Holy Trinity. One of the finest wooden churches in New Zealand, and the largest wooden, gothic style church in the world, St Marys was built between 1886 and 1898 and was designed by renowned architect Benjamin Mountfort, who had been responsible for many of the gothic revival buildings in Christchurch. With Romanesque architectural features usually only found on the great medieval stone cathedrals in Europe, St Marys has numerous gables placed above lancet shaped windows, a wooden three sided altar tribune and a steeply pitched roof, but the true magnificence of this wooden church isn’t seen until you go inside.

7PARNELL

Continue north on Parnell Road veering slightly left and continue 1 km down the hill.
The oldest of Auckland’s historic suburbs, Parnell was first settled in 1841 with most of its oldest surviving buildings dating from the 1860s, when Bishop Selwyn lived there. The Parnell Village was redeveloped by Les Harvey in the 1970s, with a number of old homes on Parnell Rise restored and converted into shops linked by small cobblestoned pathways. Craftspeople gave Parnell a bohemian atmosphere and brought a new influx of shoppers and tourists. Today you will also find a number of expensive boutiques and fashionable restaurants. Probably the best way to experience Parnell is to take a stroll down the hill. On the main road you can see the 1924 Parnell Library Building, a stately example of classical stone architecture, along with Whitby Lodge, built from stone around 1874.  Hulme Court features ornate woodwork around the veranda and is the oldest house in Auckland still on its original site. The lower part of Parnell has a larger concentration of Edwardian retail buildings including Kemp's Department Store. Established in 1885, it incorporated a merchant, tailor, draper, milliner and mercer. Across the road down St Stephens Avenue there are a number of fascinating wooden gothic buildings built in the early 1860s including a library, baptistery and bell tower, as well as a bishop's house and chapel. The neighboring Neligan House was completed in 1910 and features a private chapel at the front.  A small but complex house, built across the road in 1857 using dark volcanic stone from Rangitoto Island, was once used as a Deanery.

CUSTOM STREET HISTORIC BUILDINGS

Following the development of the Britomart site in the 1880s, numerous commercial buildings were erected in and around Custom Street which became the centre of warehousing and trade in the city. You can still see many of these old historic buildings including the old Kiwi Tavern at no.3 Britomart Place, the Barrington Building at no.10 Custom Street, Old Sofrana House at no. 14 and the Levy Building at no. 20 Custom Street. Excelsior House is at no. 22 Custom Street and Stanbeth House at no. 26. The Masonic House and Buckland Building is at no. 30 Custom Street and the Australis House is at 36-38 Custom Street. Built in 1904 for £10,000, the building operated as a large warehouse as well as a shop front for Messrs A.J. Entrican & Company, the Entrican brothers having arrived from Ireland in 1880. The A.H.Nathan Building was erected in 1903 at 40-46 Custom Street and was originally used to sell a range of goods including shirts, foodstuffs, clothing, guns and general merchandise. The business also supplied coal to the American Naval flotilla as well as becoming agents for the Columbia Gramophone Company. The old Britomart Service Station building is at no. 48 Custom Street, the Hipkins & Coutts Building at no. 50 and Charter House at no. 54 Custom Street.

8BRITOMART

Veer left into Parnell Rise and head downhill 0.4 km and turn right into Beach Road. Drive 0.8 km and continue 0.3 km on Custom Street East . The Britomart Complex is on the right.
The Britomart transport center, is the connecting point for train, ferry and bus services in Auckland. Located in the historic Chief Post Office building in Queen Elizabeth Square, the Britomart development returned these services to the site downtown where the old railway station, the ferry building and the tram terminus once brought thousands of people past and through the Chief Post Office building every day. Opened in 1912 by the prime minister of the time, William Massey, the Chief Post Office was a grand structure, built using Coromandel granite and Oamaru Stone, with a three-storey art deco style annex added later. Designed with mail shoots running between floors and employing thousands of people, the building handled banking, mail, telegrams, pension payments and also included an electoral office. People gathered outside during the 1913 Waterfront Strike and the following year, soldiers began arriving to board the ships that would take them to fight in the first World War. Massive crowds gathered here to welcome the arrival of the Achilles Fleet in the Second World War. Today the Chief Post Office Building has been beautifully restored and Queen Elizabeth Square features a bronze sculpture of a Maori chief by Molly McAlister.

Sky Tower, Auckland.

9SKY TOWER

Continue west on Customs Street West 0.3 km and turn left onto Hobson Street. Drive 0.6 km, turn left at Wellesley Street West and take the next turn on the left into Federal Street. The Sky Tower is on the left 0.2 km at the end of the road.
Illuminated by multicoloured led lights at night and visible from most parts of Auckland, the 328 m Sky Tower is the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere. With three observation decks and a revolving restaurant, the tower also provides visitors with the opportunity walk around  the exterior, climb the telecommunications mast and make a 192 m ‘sky jump’ controlled by a guide cable to prevent the jumpers, who can reach speeds of up to 85 km/hr, from being blown into the tower by wind gusts. The tower is designed to withstand 200 km/hr winds and an earthquake 40 km away, measuring 7 on the Richter scale. The tower can sway up to a metre in high winds. Constructed using reinforced, high-performance concrete, the 12 m diameter shaft contains three lifts as well as an emergency stairwell and is supported by eight legs which are anchored onto 16 foundation piles that were drilled over 12 m deep into the sandstone bedrock. The upper levels were constructed using composite materials, structural steel, precast and reinforced concrete. The observation decks are clad in aluminium with blue/green reflective glass panels. During construction 15,000 cubic metres of concrete, 2,000 metric tons of reinforcing steel and 660 metric tons of structural steel were used.