KEY POINTS:
Back in April, Watercare Services announced a $25 million project to recreate Puketutu, the Manukau Harbour volcano destroyed by previous generations to provide fill for the neighbouring international airport.
In what surely will be a world first, Watercare proposes to rebuild the original form of the mountain over
the next 50 years, using the processed biosolids flushed down Auckland's lavatories.
Auckland University dean of science Dick Bellamy is now promoting a similar reconstruction of the cluster of cones that once formed the Three Kings group, only one of which - the Big King - has escaped destruction.
Professor Bellamy, whose Landscape Rd home sits on the tuff ring of the Three Kings crater, edge of what was Auckland's largest explosion crater, says "we've destroyed a number of the originals, here's a chance to do something a bit nicer".
With mining of this 16,000-year-old explosion crater fast coming to an end, he fears that mining company Winstone Aggregates and Auckland City will focus remediation plans on creating a flat building platform suitable for housing or factories. Professor Bellamy's vision is somewhat more adventurous.
"The two Kings that were destroyed were not particularly high and if you got rid of the chamber-pot reservoir on the other one, you could recreate it pretty much as it was, turning it into an informal recreational area."
He says colleagues at the university say it's technically feasible and in his view, once completed, the restoration "would give back to the neighbourhood something that's a bit sexier than the flat emptiness being talked about".
The accompanying 1875 painting by the Rev John Kinder, with the Manukau Harbour in the distance and Mt Albert to the right, shows the dramatic landscape that made up the most extensive crater system on the isthmus.
Volcanologists say this eruption blanketed much of Auckland with ash, covering One Tree Hill, for example, with a layer up to 3m thick. The Bellamy rebuild would be less dramatic than that. Just truckload after truckload of clean fill from building sites all over the city.
You have to admit its attractions. As the city spreads out, dumping sites for excavated soil are disappearing further and further down motorways.
Like the Watercare solution for its biosolid disposal problems, a huge central isthmus disposal site has obvious attractions. Think of the disposal problems associated with undergrounding State Highway 20 through Helen Clark's adjacent Mt Albert electorate, for instance.
But beyond the practical, by restoring this impressive natural landmark we would be making a symbolic acknowledgement of our newfound respect for the unique natural landscape on which Auckland is built. If you can restore wetlands, replant kauri forests, clean up streams and harbours, then why not restore the one feature of the natural landscape that makes Auckland unique?
The little spurt of activity on Ruapehu last week suggests that leaving it to nature to repair the damage of past generations is not the preferable way to go. Even if turning that particular tap on and off was an option. But when we have the Disneyland option, why not use it?
Professor Bellamy even suggests mining a little more scoria and storing it away for decorating the rebuilt mountain once the job is done. I like it. Even if it's not going to fool anyone. Not to begin with, anyway. But in 100 years, who will know - or worry?
Apart from anything else, it will demonstrate to the worthies from Unesco who are sitting in judgment on whether Auckland's volcanic field should become a World Heritage site that we're serious about it.
Winstone Aggregates is consulting neighbourhood groups about the future of the site but has indicated a preference for a mix of residential and commercial uses and open public space - a standard Mt Wellington quarry-type solution. Professor Bellamy wants a more imaginative solution.
He's already on the Three Kings quarry site liaison group, representing the South Epsom Planning Group, and has put his proposals to the Winstone officials. It seems they've been less than impressed.
That hasn't slowed the one-time Auckland regional councillor one jot. Indeed, he seems to be rather looking forward to the ensuing debate. "I'm retiring next year," he laughs. "I'll have plenty of time to work on it."
