One Tree Hill, New Zealand

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One Tree Hill Maungakiekie
One Tree Hill after the removal of the "One Tree". Image does not show dense suburban surroundings.
Elevation	182m
Location	North Island, New Zealand
Coordinates	36°54′0″S 174°46′59″E / 36.9°S 174.78306°E / -36.9; 174.78306Coordinates: 36°54′0″S 174°46′59″E / 36.9°S 174.78306°E / -36.9; 174.78306

One Tree Hill (or Maungakiekie in Māori) is a 182 metre volcanic peak located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is an important memorial place for both Māori and other New Zealanders. The suburb around the base of the hill is also called One Tree Hill; it is surrounded by the suburbs of Royal Oak to the west, and clockwise, Epsom, Greenlane, Oranga, and Onehunga.

The hill's scoria cones erupted 20,000 - 30,000 years ago, creating lava flows that covered an area of 20 square kilometres, mostly towards Onehunga, making it the largest (in terms of area covered) of the Auckland volcanic field. The summit provides views across the Auckland area, and allows visitors to see both of Auckland's harbours.^[1]

Due to the use of the hilltop as a nightly party stop for boy racers and other (often drunk) groups of youths, it was decided in 2008 to close off the road access to the summit at night. While walking up to the hilltop will still be possible at night, it is hoped that this move will reduce vandalism. The police intend to continue monitoring the locality after hours.^[2]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Māori pā (fort) 1.2 European parks 1.2.1 Cornwall Park 1.2.2 One Tree Hill Domain 2 Trees on the hill 3 In popular culture 4 Gallery 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Māori pā (fort)

The Māori name Maungakiekie translates to 'mountain of the kiekie vine'^{[citation needed]}, though other translations give the meaning as 'totara that stands alone'.^[2] The mountain and its surrounds were home to the Wai o Hua tribe, since the early 1700s and probably before that time. Other Māori tribes in the Auckland area can also trace their ancestry to the mountain.

Maungakiekie was the largest and most important Māori Pā in pre-European times. The cone and its surroundings are estimated to have been home to a population of up to 5,000.^[3] At this time, the Nga Marama chief Kiwi Tamaki held the pa and used its strategic placement to exact tribute from travellers passing from Northland to the rest of the North Island through the rich isthmus. Its position between the Waitemata Harbour to the East (opening upon the Pacific Ocean) and the Manukau Harbour to the West (opening onto the Tasman Sea) afforded a wide variety of seafood from the two harbours. The volcanic soil of the slopes of the mountain proved highly fertile and easy to defend from raiding parties from other tribes due to its steep sides and imposing palisades. The inhabitants terraced the hill extensively, and it is considered to be the largest prehistoric earthwork fortifications world-wide.^[4] It is also the largest and most complex volcanic cone / earth fortress known in the Southern Hemisphere.^[3]

[edit] European parks

[edit] Cornwall Park

Cornwall Park is the legacy of Sir John Logan Campbell. Originally the land was a farm owned by him on the outskirts of Auckland. Upon his return from Italy in the 1880s he intended to build a great family residence on the slopes of the hill (where the current tearooms are) and planted many trees including olives on the slopes. Eventually he constructed a house closer to town (the land is now part of the Parnell Rose gardens). By about 1900 he realised that Auckland's suburbs were spreading at an alarming rate and he decided to leave the Greenlane property to the city as a park. Parts of the park, about 120 hectares (296.5 acres), are still run as a farm today, providing Aucklanders with access to an example of rural life in the heart of the city.^[5] The park was designed by the landscape architect Austin Strong and is based on Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.^[6][7]

Campbell initially intended the name to be Corinth Park after the noted region in Greece. It received the name Cornwall Park because of the Royal visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1901 by the Duke & Duchess of Cornwall (later King George V & Queen Mary). John Logan Campbell was asked to be honorary Mayor of Auckland during the visits, and he took the opportunity to gift the park to the people of New Zealand and asked that it be called Cornwall Park. In return he was knighted.

Acacia Cottage

Cornwall Park is home to Acacia Cottage, one of the earliest surviving timber buildings in New Zealand, and also the oldest extant in Auckland. Built in 1841, it was originally the home of William Brown and John Logan Campbell and located behind their store. It was relocated in 1920 from its original location off Shortland Street, in what is now the heart of the CBD of Auckland City. In 1956 moved again within the park to a more prominent location. It is listed as a 'Category I' site by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.^[8]

Stardome Observatory

The Stardome Observatory (previously known as Auckland Observatory), is also located within Cornwall Park, and contains two telescopes and a planetarium. The observatory has, amongst other research, discovered and named the asteroid 19620 Auckland. Its current functions combine entertainment and education (via the planetarium and via public access to the older telescope) as well as ongoing research with both telescopes. It is operated by a charitable trust.

[edit] One Tree Hill Domain

One Tree Hill Domain or Maungakiekie (118 acres / 48 hectares) is an Auckland City Council-administered park adjoining Cornwall Park (425 acres / 172 hectares) creating a total of 220 hectares (540 acres) of public green space.^[9]

On the summit of the hill is the grave of Sir John Logan Campbell surmounted by an obelisk. The obelisk was constructed in accordance with the wishes and provisions in John Campbell's will to commemorate his admiration for the Māori people. Before it stands a bronze statue of a Māori warrior. The stone obelisk was completed by 1940 – the centennial year of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi but the unveiling of the obelisk was delayed until 24 April 1948, after World War II was over, in keeping with Māori custom of not holding such ceremonies during a time of bloodshed.

[edit] Trees on the hill

When Auckland was founded as a colonial town a tree stood near the summit which gave the hill its English name. Two accounts identify it as a pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa). This tree was cut down by a white settler in 1852, in an act of vandalism in one account,^{[citation needed]} or for firewood in another.^[2] It seems likely this was a different tree from the totara (Podocarpus totara) which, as a sacred tree, had given the hill one of its Maori names. A radiata pine was planted in the 1870s to replace the previous totara.^[10] John Logan Campbell repeatedly tried to grow native trees on the hill's summit, but the trees failed to survive - with only two pines, originally part of a shelter belt for the native trees, surviving for long. However, in 1960, one of the two was felled in another attack,^[2] possibly for firewood.^{[citation needed]}

The remaining tree was later attacked twice with chainsaws by Māori activists to draw attention to injustices they believed the New Zealand government had inflicted upon Maori (as the tree was not a native New Zealand species, they considered it an appropriate target). The first attack happened on 28 October 1994, the anniversary of the 1835 Declaration of Independence.^[11] A second attack on 5 October 2000^[12] left the tree unable to recover even though substantial efforts were made, and so it was removed due to the risk of it collapsing.^[2] The chainsaw used in the first attack was later placed on sale on popular New Zealand auction site, TradeMe in 2007,^[13] but later withdrawn by the website after complaints and a poll of users. It was later listed on eBay.^[14]

Partly due to uncertainty as to what species of tree should be replanted (a new pine or a tree native to New Zealand), the summit stands empty at the moment, except for the obelisk. A new nickname, "N(one) Tree Hill", soon became popular. Plans are ongoing to plant a grove of pohutukawa and totara trees at the summit, but concerns by local iwi over Treaty of Waitangi claims have so far prevented any actual planting.^[15] The Council also had to remove repeated illegal plantings, usually of pohutukawa, over the last years.^[16]

[edit] In popular culture

• Irish rock band U2 wrote a song about the hill, "One Tree Hill", which appeared on their album The Joshua Tree. It was written to honour New Zealander Greg Carroll, an employee of the band who died in a motorcycle accident in Dublin on July 3, 1986.
  • The naming of the teen television drama, One Tree Hill, was inspired in turn by the U2 song. In the series Andy Hargrove hails from New Zealand. His mother moved the family to Tree Hill, North Carolina because of the common name.

• Asteroid 23988 Maungakiekie was named after the hill by Ian P. Griffin, a British astronomer. The Asteroid was discovered at the Auckland Observatory which is located in the One Tree Hill Domain, a kilometre southwest of the peak.

• Mozilla Firefox 0.9 was named One Tree Hill by Auckland resident and (at that time) Firefox lead engineer Ben Goodger.

[edit] Gallery

Crater at the One Tree Hill Summit	One Tree Hill viewed from Mt Eden	View of Auckland from flanks of One Tree Hill	Rangitoto from near One Tree Hill summit
Cornwall Park from the base of One Tree Hill	Pasturage in Cornwall park

[edit] References

• McLauchlan, Gordon (Ed) (1989). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of New Zealand. David Bateman Ltd. ISBN 1-86953-007-1. 

[edit] External links

• One Tree Hill (from the Auckland volcanic field website of the Auckland Regional Council)
• Cornwall Park (official website of the park surrounding One Tree Hill)