Epsom is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located in the centre of the Auckland isthmus between Mount Eden and Greenlane, south of Newmarket, and 5 km (3.1 mi) south of the Auckland City Centre.
Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill, Cornwall Park, Alexandra Park and Greenlane Clinical Centre and suburban Epsom houses seen from Maungawhau / Mount Eden
Epsom is a valley located between four volcanic hills on the Auckland isthmus
The Almorah Rock Forest is a rare biome in the Auckland Region, formed in low-soil areas on the volcanic rock deposits of Maungawhau / Mount Eden. Currently only 25 hectares (62 acres) of rock forest remain
Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill was a major settlement and terraced pā site, important to the Waiohua union of Tāmaki Māori in the 17th and 18th centuries
The Auckland isthmus, also known as the Tāmaki isthmus, is a narrow stretch of land on the North Island of New Zealand in the Auckland Region, and the location of the central suburbs of the city of Auckland, including the CBD. The isthmus is located between two rias : the Waitematā Harbour to the north, which opens to the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana and Pacific Ocean, and the Manukau Harbour to the south, which opens to the Tasman Sea. The isthmus is the most southern section of the Northland Peninsula.
The Auckland isthmus seen from the International Space Station in 2019
Almorah Rock Forest, an ecosystem that once covered much of the Auckland isthmus (pictured: lava rock forest remnant at Withiel Thomas Reserve, Newmarket)
Wetlands and swamps surrounded by Cordyline australis (cabbage trees / tī kōuka) formed in many of the unforested areas of the isthmus (pictured: Cabbage Tree Swamp in Sandringham, circa 1910)
Kūmara (sweet potato) was widely grown on the isthmus during the pre-European period, and stored in rua kūmara (storehouses) (pictured: storehouse pit remnants on Ōhinerau)