Islands on the land

Wenderholm Regional Park and beach. Photo / Janna Dixon

Fifty years ago, a block of coastal land north of the city - long coveted by both Maori and Pakeha - was bought for all Aucklanders.

The 127 hectares known as Wenderholm was the first land purchase made by the new Auckland Regional Authority. The ARA was set up in 1964 as urban Auckland began to sprawl, with part of its purpose to create a regional network of parks preserving valuable forest and coastline for Aucklanders to enjoy for free.

The ARA had already inherited the 556ha Centennial Memorial Park in the Waitakere Ranges, established in 1940 to mark Auckland's centenary.

The sandspit and headland of Wenderholm, known by Maori as Maungatauhoro, was first sold for 50 by Ngati Rongo chief Te Hemara Tauhia to Auckland businessman Robert Graham in 1868. Graham named it Wenderholm - Swedish for "winter home". It passed through the hands of many influential businessmen before the ARA bought it from the Couldrey family for 186,800 in March 1965 - saving it from subdivision into lifestyle blocks.

Wenderholm set a precedent "to protect coastal land from development and other threats, and to maintain public access to the region's coast," as the Regional Parks Management Plan outlines.

The 111ha reserve at Long Bay, once a farm owned by the Vaughan family, was bought soon after Wenderholm. Today the parkland is sheltered from the sea by a sand dune system undergoing ecological restoration. Around 1.3m people each year visit Long Bay Regional Park, renowned as a meeting place for the city's myriad ethnic groups.

Today, Auckland boasts 26 regional parks, covering more than 40,000ha - around 8.5 per cent of the region's land area. Owned and managed by Auckland Council, on behalf of the people of Auckland, many were created by land purchases and transfers of land from other public agencies. Some, like Atiu Creek near Wellsford, have been through special bequests from private individuals.

The land on the Kaipara Harbour came into the hands of a young Swiss traveller, Pierre Chatelanat, in 1951 when it was a wilderness of gorse and manuka scrub.

Chatelenat sold much of the 4000ha to the Government for farms for soldiers returning from World War II, before turning the rest into an outstanding model farm, making sure to preserve historic Maori pa and terraces.

After decades working around the globe with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Chatelanat and his wife Jackie gifted the 843ha Atiu Creek Farm to Aucklanders in 2006.

Enhancing biodiversity is a major focus in the regional parks, including open sanctuaries with predator-proof fences at Tawharanui near Warkworth, Shakespear on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, and the mainland island, "Ark in the Park", within the Cascade Kauri Park in the Waitakeres.