Motutapu Island
Volcanic ash island preserving centuries-old footprints of a family fleeing a sudden eruption.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Motutapu Island in Auckland opens with a family and their dog frozen mid-run in ash, caught fleeing an eruption of Rangitoto around the year 1400 with no oral tradition ever recorded of the event. It follows archaeologist Rudi Sunde's 1958 discovery of artifacts eroding from a cliff, and what researchers found as they dug into the site in the years that followed.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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