Have you heard of Camp Bunn?
Camp Bunn was one of two military camps set up by the Americans during the Second World War. Japanese invasion of the Pacific brought the threat of war closer to New Zealand. Then, without warning, two large US supply bases sprung up. Sylvia Park Camp on the Mt Wellington Highway supplied meat and food to camps and ships. Camp Bunn, east of the railway near Tamaki Station, was part of a large compound spread out beyond Mt Wellington towards Winstone's quarry.
The camp was a motor vehicle and military supply dump, which doubled as a place where soldiers could rest between duties. According to R.A.Baker, "it was not safe to go near the transport and munition enclosure after dark, as some of the soldiers recovering from the Pacific campaigns were inclined to be trigger happy, though if you knew the right people the camp could be profitable".
At the end of the war there was a housing shortage. Servicemen were returning from overseas and building had stopped during the war. Camp Bunn became a transit camp for the temporary homeless and for families waiting for a state house. The Camp was closed in 1961.
Māori settlement on Maungarei mountain
Maungarei (Mt. Wellington) has been carbon dated as appearing about 9,300 years ago when violent eruptions spewed lava out of the depths of the earth causing the land to buckle and twist. The mountain became a hill pa between 1630 and 1700. It is believed that over 2000 Maori lived in the pa.
What did the pa look like?
 The pa was enclosed at the base by a stone wall. Inside the wall were large huts and food plantations. At intervals up the terraced slopes were high palisades of tree trunks planted on the edge of terraces and laced together with vines. Behind the palisades were platforms for the fighting men. About two thirds of the way up was a wide terrace with huts, partly sunk into the ground, and food pits. The chief's house was near the summit and above it was a high platform watchtower. Most people lived in family groups on the terraces and during times of war, retreated to top parts of the mountain to be protected by the trenches and palisades.
What food did the occupants eat?
The number of food storage pits and their detailed construction shows that agriculture was very important. Their were extensive gardens on the flat land at the foot of the mountain. Kumura was the main crop, but other plants such as the gourd and bracken fern were grown. Fishing and shell fish gathering supplemented agriculture. Archaelogical excavations show evidence of dog and rat bones.
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