Mountain's friends invited to take a traffic-free stroll to the summit

Mt Eden. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Mt Eden's summit road will provide a more peaceful view next month when traffic is banned to allow the building of bus traps and a path smooth enough for pushchairs.

The road will be closed on Sunday for the annual Love Your Mountain Day, when volunteers will explain the volcano's cultural and archaeological importance.

Then on December 12, a controversial permanent ban on large coaches from the upper slopes kicks in.

On the same day, the road closes to cars as well - until summit roadworks are finished for the holiday season.

Friends of Maungawhau spokesman Kit Howden said the sixth annual Sunday event would include displays on the archaeology, geology, Maori settlement and natural history of the mountain and the volunteers' planting of the former quarry.

A visitor centre would take over the old tea kiosk for the day.

"The kiosk was refurbished for the Rugby World Cup but it has not been used," said Mr Howden. "So we are setting it up to give people an idea of what could be achieved.

"The council is taking a good step by getting rid of the big buses from the summit after a decade of campaigning by mana whenua and the Friends."

Summit tours have been arranged by Ngati Whatua heritage adviser Malcolm Paterson and Tamaki Hikoi senior guide Prince Davis.

Mt Eden, or Maungawhau, is one of the 11 volcanic cones in Auckland which will be managed under a new co-governance regime between the Tamaki collective of iwi.

"It's been open slather on the top for a long time," said Mr Paterson, of Ngati Whatua Kaipara and Orakei, who manages the iwi resource management unit. "The bus ban is acknowledgment that the mountain is more than just a cheap commons for commercial tour operators to bring tourists to at no charge for a quick stop, quick view and a cigarette, and move on."

Regional parks manager Mace Ward said buses would still visit the mountain but park near the kiosk. The council would run two vehicles like electric-powered golf carts as a link between the bus park and the summit for people who could not manage the 250m walk. The shuttle drivers would give information on the mountain.

Inbound Tour Operators' Council chief Lesley Immink said coaches carried almost half of the 1.2 million visitors to the summit annually.

"The walk up and down adds so much time on to the itinerary that most operators will give it a miss.

"They might go to Bastion Pt ... but they might just head straight out of Auckland from the airport."

Mt Eden

Love Your Mountain Day
This Sunday