Three Kings, New Zealand

Three Kings refers to both a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, and the (formerly) three-peaked volcano that it is named after. Three Kings should not be confused with the Three Kings Islands, located off the northern tip of New Zealand's North Island.

Suburb

View looking north-east from the summit of Big King, showing terracing on the slopes from when it was a Maori pa.

Suburb:	Three Kings
City:	Auckland City
Island:	North Island
Surrounded by  - to the north  - to the east  - to the south  - to the west	Mount Eden One Tree Hill, Royal Oak Hillsborough Mount Roskill

Three Kings is located six kilometres south of the city centre, between the suburbs of Royal Oak and Mt Roskill.

The suburb is home to an ethnically diverse population of about 5,000 people.

Three Kings features a small shopping mall and supermarket complex called Three Kings Plaza. It also has a commercial area, an accident and medical clinic and hosts the office of Phil Goff, former Labour Party leader and MP for the Mt Roskill electorate. The local state secondary school is Mount Roskill Grammar School. Catholic students attend Marcellin College (coed), St Peter's College (boys) or Marist College (girls). The local state primary schools are Mt Roskill Primary and Intermediate, Three Kings Primary, May Road Primary and Domminion Road Primary.

Volcano

Big King from Mt Albert

Three Kings (also Te Tatua a Riukiuta) is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland Volcanic Field. What is, or was, called "The Three Kings" was a collection of volcanic cones (actually four in number) sitting inside a much larger shallower explosion crater. Along the edge of this crater to the south runs Mount Albert Road and to the north Landscape Road. This volcanic field erupted repeatedly over thousands of years disgorging vast amounts of scoria and lava. The three largest scoria cones of the group were Big King at 133 m high, East King at 120 m high, and Highest King which was 135 m high.

Massive lava flows ran from here to the Waitemata Harbour several miles away creating Meola Reef at Point Chevalier. These flows created lava tunnels which still exist under the current ground surface. Thus rainwater falling on Three Kings and the surrounding area is channeled underground for miles until it emerges at Western Springs Lake. Most of these lava tunnels have collapsed but sections of them form caves and can be accessed from private properties in the area.

The Three Kings area has been drastically quarried over the years for the red scoria it contains, and only one of the three large peaks (Big King) remains today, largely because of the water tank that was built on its summit at the beginning of the 20th century. Big King is the property of the Auckland City Council and being a public reserve will not be quarried.

However, the large scoria deposits in the surrounding area are still being quarried. The ground water level became a problem for the quarry in 1995, and Winstone Aggregates, the company operating the quarry, arranged with the Auckland City Council to supply the water to the region. However, as a result of local opposition to this arrangement, the water is instead discarded into the sea. The dewatering has led to concerns about subsidence of the ground.

Three Kings was the site of a pā, and Big King has retained Māori earthworks from that era such as kumara pits and terracing.

References

• City of Volcanoes: A geology of Auckland - Searle, Ernest J.; revised by Mayhill, R.D.; Longman Paul, 1981. First published 1964. ISBN 0-582-71784-1.

External links

• Description aimed at home buyers
• Statistical profile
• View of Three Kings in 1920, showing East King, with Highest King on the left.
• Painting of Three Kings from 1875.
• Early photo of Three Kings Pa.