Maungataketake, Extinct volcano near Auckland Airport, New Zealand

Maungataketake, also called Ellett's Mount, is a volcano in the Auckland volcanic field near Auckland Airport. Its 76 m scoria cone and 100 m wide crater were quarried away from September 1962 for construction materials used to build the airport. Layers of tuff and ash from the eruption lie over fallen trunks of the Ihumātao fossil forest.

The volcano erupted roughly 90,000 years ago, leaving layers of tuff and ash that preserved parts of the ancient Ihumatao forest. These deposits also sealed an older kauri forest that lay in a peat swamp beneath the surface.

Maungataketake was the site of a pā, and in the early 1700s it was one of the major defensive pā of the Waiohua confederacy. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage translates the name as "broad mountain". In the mid-1400s Tāmaki Māori built extensive stone gardens at Maungataketake, Ōtuataua and Ihumātao.

The site is best visited at low tide when fossil forest layers become visible at the end of Renton Road. A picnic table on site offers a quiet observation point to explore the remains and surrounding landscape.

The volcanic eruption preserved two distinct forest types stacked together: trees in ash layers at the surface and an older kauri forest from peat deposits deep below. This layering offers a rare view of two different forest ages in one location.