Auckland Heritage Festival: Pakuranga Fossil Forest & Ash

Geologist and author Bruce Hayward will lead this 3-4 km guided walk along Tamaki Estuary's Rotary Coastal Walkway.We will see a sequence of black lignites that accumulated in ancient swamps along with white volcanic ash deposits that were erupted from the Mangakino Caldera Volcano about 1 million years ago.

Some of these white ash deposits were erupted by New Zealand's largest ever eruption and one of largest known on Earth. We will also see fossilised remains of forests that were growing in this area at the time of these large eruptions. At another location we can see fossilised freshwater wetland vegetation that was buried by ash erupted about 25,000 years ago from nearby Panmure Basin Volcano.

Bring shoes suitable for slightly muddy comnditions at the fossil forest. No booking required. No cancellation for weather. promoted by Geoscience Society of NZ and Auckland Geology Club.