Auckland’s famous One Tree Hill is arguably closer to, but still not really, living up to its name.

I can recall vividly the day, all those years ago, when One Tree Hill’s famous lone monterey pine was for the umpteenth time desecrated by protesters; only this time it was damaged beyond repair thus had to be finally put out of its long-standing misery.

For a long while after that day international tourists would come to Auckland and they would view our beloved One Tree Hill, but with unspoken mockery, as if to say, ‘Sorry, how many trees did you say there were?’

Well, Len Brown and the Auckland council have seemingly had enough of this kind of ridicule – ‘No more shall One Tree Hill be a shameless misnomer at which the rest of the world chortles’, they have said; ‘No more will Aucklanders be forced to lower their heads in shame while awkwardly explaining how in fact there did used to be a tree there but what with so much racial tension in New Zealand and so many indignant radicals and so much irrationality and impetuous behaviour and the unnecessary destruction that sometimes comes with that…’ is what Len Brown and the council might have said…

After enduring years of sporadic vandalism – Maori activists reportedly perceiving One Tree Hill’s towering monterey pine as symbolic of their oppression at the hand of the White man – in 1999 a radical by the name of Mike Smith used his chainsaw to thoroughly ring-bark the tree, leading to its eventual removal.

…So now the issue has been rectified; not surprisingly though such was the compounded feeling of shame after 16 years of One Tree Hill having not one tree, they’ve gone and overcompensated.

Now adorning the area where a single mighty monterey pine once proudly stood, nine totara and pohutukawa have been planted – New Zealand natives in the hope the New Zealand natives will not feel oppressed.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Opie Rashun

Photography by Nate Tiff Fewd