Awhitu Peninsula


The Awhitu Peninsula is a long peninsula in the North Island of New Zealand, extending north from the mouth of the Waikato River to the entrance to Manukau Harbour.
The Peninsula is bounded in the west by rugged cliffs over the Tasman Sea, but it slopes gently to the west, with low-lying pastoral and swamp land along the edge of the Waiuku River and Manukau Harbour. At the northern tip, the Manukau Heads rises to a prominence above the entrance to the similarly-named harbour. The nearby historic Manukau Heads Lighthouse is one of the few in the country open to the public.
The peninsula is relatively sparsely populated, despite its proximity to the centre of Auckland city. The largest settlement on or near the peninsula is Waiuku, which lies at the peninsula's isthmus.

Biodiversity

The Peninsula has a high sympatric diversity of native New Zealand land snails. Communities of >70 native species in a 4 ha patch of bush can be found here, whereas in other parts of the world, 15 sympatric land snail species would be considered high. Grazing and other habitat disturbances can negatively impact this diversity.