Vinegar Hill, New Zealand
| Vinegar Hill, New Zealand | |
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| Coordinates: 39°56′15″S 175°38′27″E / 39.93750°S 175.64083°E |
Vinegar Hill is a locality on State Highway 1 in New Zealand's North Island; a camp at that locality and an annual Christmas celebration held at the camp.
Vinegar Hill is on the banks of the Rangitikei River within the Putai Ngahere Reserve, near the junction of State Highway 54 and State Highway 1, about 5 km north of Hunterville in the Manawatu-Wanganui region of New Zealand.
There is a misconception over how this Vinegar Hill was named. Some think that it is named after the Battle of Vinegar Hill in Ireland. However, the name was derived from a source closer than that. Vinegar Hill was named after an incident in early colonial times: a bullock cart carrying barrels of vinegar overturned after the bullocks slipped on the muddy track on the hillside, covering the hillside in vinegar from the broken barrels. The name of the reserve, Putai Ngahere, comes from a totara tree growing in the reserve.
In late summer 2004, massive flooding caused great damage to many parts of the Manawatu-Wanganui region. The campsite at Vinegar Hill was inundated with floodwater and the toilet block at the northern end of the site was destroyed. However, there was little damage to the southern end in comparison, where the LGBT camp is held, despite a line in the bush showed the floodwater had been over three metres deep. Nevertheless, the septic tank did need replacing, the toilets had to be cleared of silt, and the track leading past the beach had to be regraded.
New toilets have since been built at the northern end, consisting of several uni-sex toilets and lockable showers. The Manawatu District Council is evaluating the usefulness of these toilets, and whether they remain relatively free of graffiti, before replacing the toilets at the southern end with a similar block to comply with environmental codes requiring the septic tank to be further from the river.
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