About This Cache:
Te Akatarewa Pa, the hill ridge of Hiwi, and Mount Alfred
At a rather modest height of 133m, Mt Alfred/Te Akatarewa Pa is the second highest point, (after Matairangi/Mt Victoria), on the ridgeline of the small hills forming the Wellington town belt on the CBDs eastern side. The prominence of this small peak is hard to spot due to the heavy cover of pine trees that now exist, but is readily apparent in earlier photos, as below.
Although the Town Belt was largely covered in native forest in 1840, this had been cleared by the late 1860s with livestock farming dominating Wellington’s hills for the rest of the 19th century, and well into the 20th century. In the 1930s the first major reforestation project began when government relief workers planted the flanks of Mt Victoria and Tinakori Hill with exotic trees – pine and macrocarpa.
View of Wellington College and Mount Alfred, from the Mount Cook Barracks, 1930
The location of the cache on this small hilltop is on the site, or close to where Te Akatarewa Pa, an old stockaded village inhabited by Ngai-Tara, once stood. The pa was built here because it is one of the higher points on this ridgeline, which was known in pre-European times as Te Ranga a Hiwi – the hill ridge of Hiwi. Hiwi, who lived in the Akatarewa Pa, was the son of Hine-Kiti, a famous chieftainess of Ngati-Hinewai, hapu of Ngai-Tara.
The ridgeline comprised a series of significant sites and was seen as a defensive line through the area particularly to Ngai-Tara. A series of pa or forts extended from Point Jernimgham near the site of Waihirere Pa through Te Akatarewa Pa and out to Uruhau Pa (Island Bay) and Haewai (Houghton Bay).
The peak was later named Mount Alfred after Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Prince Alfred was created Duke of Edinburgh in 1866, and became the first member of the Royal Family to visit New Zealand, arriving in Wellington in 1869 as captain of the frigate HMS Galatea. |
 |
You are encouraged to include pictures with your log (just no spoilers).