Maori cultural find halts bus lane in its tracks

The midden - a buried dump of shells or bones - was uncovered at the corner of Esmonde and Lake Rds in Takapuna where a large pohutukawa had been felled to make way for intersection improvements. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Discovery of a Maori heritage site has halted work on part of the North Shore's bus lane system for a month.

City Council corridor project manager Graham Nell said yesterday work would not resume until a clearance was received from Historic Places Trust archaeologists.

Contractors found a midden - usually a buried dump of shells or bones or charcoal - under the stump of a large pohutukawa tree which had been felled to make way for improvements to the Lake Rd-Esmonde Rd intersection.

Mr Nell said an archaeologist had checked the area before excavation work had begun and thought it was a small midden.

"But when we started to pull the stump out we suddenly found it was a large midden that had been covered by the tree roots."

Mr Nell said the council was obliged by law not to damage such sites and must seek the trust's permission to proceed with the work.

The trust needed to investigate and document the midden and this could take as much as three months, he said.

A trust archaeologist was not available for comment.

But iwi cultural representative Gary Thompson said he understood the site was not of important cultural significance although it dated back to pre-European settlement. He said middens were uncovered "quite a bit" on the peninsula, which had been the site of many pa and a well-used anchor for waka between the Waitemata Harbour and Takapuna Beach.

Middens are one of the most commonly found archaeological sites and can provide evidence of the lifestyle and diet of early Maori.

Mr Nell said work on the dedicated bus lane project was continuing with the contractor working around the heritage site.