One Tree Hill, New Zealand
From Freepedia
| Suburb | One Tree Hill |
| City | Auckland City |
| Island | North Island |
| Surrounded by - to the north | Epsom |
One Tree Hill is a 182 metre volcanic peak located in Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb which is built around the base of the hill is also called One Tree Hill. The hill is also known under its Maori name Maungakiekie, which translates to 'hill of the kiekie vine'. The mountain and it's surrounds were home to the Wai o Hua tribe, since the early 1700's and probally before that time. Other Maori tribes in the Auckland area can also trace their ancestry to the Mountain. It is surrounded by the suburbs of Royal Oak to the west, and clockwise, Epsom, Greenlane, Oranga, and Onehunga.
Maungakiekie was the largest and most important Maori Pa in pre-European times with a population estimated at up to 3000. At this time, the Nga Marama chief; Kiwi Tamaki held the Pa and used its strategic location to exact tribute from travellers passing from Northland to the rest of the North Island along the richly soiled isthmus. Its placing 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 diverse harbours. The volcanic soil of the slopes of the mountain proved highly fertile, and easy to defend from raiding parties from other tribes by its steep sides and imposing pallisades.
On the summit of the hill is an obelisk, the grave of Sir John Logan Campbell, and until recently a Monterey Pine tree. This tree (one of two pines) had been planted to replace a sacred Maori Totara tree, the tree which had given Maungakiekie its English name. The Totara was cut down by a white settler in 1852 for firewood. The obelisk was constructed in accordance with the wishes and provisions in John Campbell's will to commemorate his admiration for the Maori people.
There were initially two pines, however, in the early 1960's during a Scout Jamboree, a group of overseas Boy Scouts cut down one of them. The remaining tree was attacked with chainsaws twice by Maori protesters. The final attack left the tree unable to recover and so was removed on October 26, 2000 due to the risk of it dying and falling down. A new nickname "No Tree Hill" soon became popular. In the meantime six trees have been planted in 2002 to possibly give the new nickname "Six Tree Hill". It is expected that the five weakest trees will be removed allowing one to reach full maturity.
Image:One Tree Hill, Auckland.jpg The hill's scoria cones erupted 20,000 - 30,000 years ago, creating lava flows that covered an area of 20 square kilometres. The summit provides views across the Auckland area, and allows visitors to see both of Auckland's Harbours.
Things named after One Tree Hill
- Irish rock band U2 wrote a song about the hill, One Tree Hill, which appeared on their album The Joshua Tree. This song was written to commemorate the death of New Zealander Greg Carroll, an employee of the band who died in a motorcycle accident in Dublin on July 3, 1986.
- The Asteroid 23988 Maungakiekie is named after the hill.
- Mozilla Firefox 0.9 was named One Tree Hill by Auckland resident and(at that time) Firefox lead engineer Ben Goodger.
External links
- Auckland Regional Council: One Tree Hill
- One Tree Hill loses its tree - bbc.co.uk news report from 26 October, 2000
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Categories: Auckland urban districts | Auckland Volcanic Field | Cinder cones | Mountains of New Zealand
