[2] These fields were formed through the movement of magma through the scoria base of Maungawhau/Mount Eden leading to lava flows down the slope of the volcano.

[3] The Almorah Rock Forest was once 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) in size, but has since been reduced to a 3.2 hectares (7.9 acres) pocket of land encompassing three small reserves and a number of private properties making up the majority of remaining lava rock forest in Auckland.

The basalt forest floor contains a limited amount of soil, but accumulates leaf litter allowing plants to germinate between large boulders.

Large native canopy trees found within the Almorah Rock Forest include; Mangeao (Litsea Calicaris), Tītoki (Alectryon excelsus), Pūriri (Vitex Lucens), Kohe Kohe (Dysoxylum spectabile) and Akapuka (Griselinia lucida).

Urban Ark - Manawa Taiao is a support organisation for a range of community conservation group including the Maungawhau Ecological Halo, which since 2021 has created a network of backyard traps around the rock forest patches and Maungawhau to reduce the number of mammalian predators in the area.

Much of the native forest of the Auckland isthmus is believed to have been burned and repurposed for cultivation by Māori settlers starting in the 13th century.

[1][11] This likely included portions of the Almorah Rock Forest due to its proximity to a pā site on Maungawhau/Mount Eden.

Subdivision in the area continued until the 1980s, when it was halted due to ecological and architectural heritage concerns [1] In 1948, the descendants of Algernon Thomas gifted the city a 0.7 hectares (1.7 acres) block of land within the Almorah Rock Forest.