Titirangi is a hill in Gisborne city,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is also known as Kaiti Hill, but this refers to the first ridge overlooking

Poverty Bay Poverty Bay (Māori: ''Tūranganui-a-Kiwa'') is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the north ...

and Gisborne. The hill is an ancestral site of the

Ngāti Oneone Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...

(sub-tribe) in Gisborne. It is at the base of this hill that Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

came ashore, after first sighting New Zealand in October 1769. The 33 ha Titirangi Reserve is a tourist attraction; the hill has a Cook monument, a pohutukawa tree planted by

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

, the

James Cook Observatory The James Cook Observatory, or just ''Cook Observatory'' was the most eastern astronomical observatory in the world. It was located on Titirangi (Kaiti Hill), Gisborne, North Island, New Zealand. It was named after Captain James Cook Jame ...

, a fitness course, a park, and four lookouts over Gisborne city and Poverty Bay. Other features include a World War II gun emplacement, a summit track and nature trails. At the base of the hill is the marae Te Poho-o-Rawiri, the home of

, which was built by Master-carver, Pine Taiapa.

References

External links

Titirangi, Poho o Rawiri, Cook Landing Site
Tourism Eastland Inc. Forts in New Zealand Landforms of the Gisborne District Hills of New Zealand Monuments and memorials to James Cook {{Maori-stub