One Tree Hill, New Zealand

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This article is about the volcanic peak and surrounding suburb in New Zealand; for other meanings, see One Tree Hill.

Suburb:	One Tree Hill
City:	Auckland City
Island:	North Island
Surrounded by - to the north - to the east - to the south - to the west	Epsom Greenlane, Oranga Onehunga, Royal Oak Three Kings

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'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. It is an important memorial place for both Māori and other New Zealanders.

1 Māori history
2 Later history
3 Trees on the hill
4 Things named after One Tree Hill
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Māori history

The hill is also known under its Māori name Maungakiekie, which translates to 'hill of the kikie vine'. 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. 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 Māori Pā 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. The inhabitants terraced the hill extensively, and it has been called the largest known earth fort in the world.

[edit] Later history

Cornwall Park and One Tree Hill Domain are 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.[1] Parts of the park, about 120 hectares are still run as a farm today,[2] providing many Aucklanders with access to an example of rural life, in the heart of the city.

He initially intended to call it Corinth Park after the noted region of 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. It was during this visit that 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.

The park was designed by the landscape architect Austin Strong and is based on Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Detail of the obelisk.

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

Until 2000, a Radiata pine tree was standing next to the obelisk. This tree (one of two pines) had been planted to replace a sacred Māori Totara tree, the tree which had given Maungakiekie its English name. This totara had been cut down by a white settler in 1852 for firewood.

However, in the early 1960s during a jamboree, a group of overseas Boy Scouts cut down one of the two newer pines. The remaining tree was later attacked twice with chainsaws by Māori protesters (partly because it was not a native New Zealand species and thus considered an insult). The first attack happened on 28 October 1994, the anniversary of the 1835 Declaration of Independence [3]. The final attack (on October 5, 2000)[4]left the tree unable to recover and so it was removed due to the risk of it dying and falling down.

Partly due to uncertainty as to what species of tree should be replanted, the hill stands empty at the moment, except for the obelisk. A new nickname, "None Tree Hill", soon became popular.

One Tree Hill after the removal of the "One Tree". This vista does not show the dense suburban surroundings.

[edit] 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. 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.

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, about half a kilometre to the southwest of the actual Mount Maungakiekie.