Flagstaff Hill

#197 Do - head up to Flagstaff Hill on a sunny Sunday morning and rest in the tussock! I jogged slowly (it is a tad steep at times) up to the 666m Flagstaff summit from the Bull Ring carpark, along the Pineapple track and back via the Firebreak Track (using DCC's 'Rough Tracks' map). It's a 6km loop with great views and lots of tussock to lie in and look up - the tussock is as tall as me in places. The walk to the summit is only about 20 minutes for the view (rather than doing the loop). The hill is part of the rim of the Dunedin volcano that erupted about 13 million years ago. Apparently the hill was given the name Flagstaff by Mr Charles Kettle in 1846 when conducting a survey of the Otago block and a flag was hoisted here to indicate a ship had entered the harbour, which would send a flurry of men to the city in the hope of finding a wife! The hill was known by Māori as Whakaari (also known as Te Whanaupaki) which we now use a variation of this for the suburb Wakari that lies to the south of Flagstaff. We're very lucky to have so many hill tracks to explore

#trail #nature #history #view