Mount Pleasant (New Zealand)

Story

Mount Pleasant is the highest elevation in the eastern Port Hills in Christchurch, New Zealand. It once held a Māori pā, but there was little left of it when European settlers first arrived in the 1840s. The hill was first used as a sheep run, and became the base trig station for the survey of Canterbury. It was also used as a signal station to make residents aware of ships coming into Lyttelton Harbour. During World War II, an extensive heavy anti-aircraft artillery battery was built near the summit, and the foundations of those buildings still exist.GeographyMount Pleasant is located in the Port Hills and is high. On its northern slope is the Christchurch suburb of Mount Pleasant, and on its southern side is Lyttelton Harbour.EtymologyThe Māori name of the hill is Tauhinu Korokio, which refers to two native plants. The first, Tauhinu, is a cottonwood of the genus Ozothamnus. Korokio is a densely branched Cotoneaster (Corokia cotoneaster). The New Zealand Geographic Board officially changed the name to Tauhinukorokio/Mount Pleasant in September 1948, which was gazetted in The New Zealand Gazette 1949 on page 858.