Ellangowan Scenic Reserve

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Ellangowan Scenic Reserve
Ellengowan Scenic Reserve Aug 2025 MRD 10.jpg
NZ Banks Peninsula relief location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Reserve location on Banks Peninsula
Location Banks Peninsula
Nearest city Christchurch
Coordinates 43°47′17″S173°02′17″E / 43.788°S 173.038°E / -43.788; 173.038 [1]
Area322 hectares (800 acres)
Elevation600 m (1,968.50 ft)
Created1973
EtymologyFrom Ellangowan, the Moore family farm
Operated by Department of Conservation (New Zealand)
DesignationScenic Reserve

Ellangowan Scenic Reserve is a public scenic reserve on Banks Peninsula, New Zealand, near Akaroa at the head of Hickory Bay. It is notable for having the northernmost naturally-ocurring red beech (Nothofagus fusca) on Banks Peninsula.

Contents

Geography

This 322-hectare (800-acre) reserve is situated in eastern Banks Peninsula, next to the Summit Road, 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) east of the intersection above Akaroa known as the Cabstand. Its southern and eastern borders follow Hickory Bay road, and it extends along the hill slopes along the northern bank of the Ellangowan Stream some distance towards Hickory Bay. A car park at western edge of the reserve is approximately 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea level, and a track climbs to an escarpment 739 metres (0.459 mi) high with notable views of the coast, before making a descent through mixed podocarp–southern beech forest to the road. [2]

History

In 1886 Alexander Roberts bought 1,215 hectares (3,000 acres) of land in Hickory Bay and began clearing it, growing cocksfoot for seed and running 5000 sheep and hundreds of head of cattle. He sold most of the land in 1898, and one of the buyers was Charles Moore of Okains Bay, who farmed there with his sons William, Arthur, and Harold. William in turn ran a farm with his sons William and Charles, using a mobile cocksfoot threshing machine well into the 1920s. Charles's son John established a Perendale stud on the farm, named Ellangowan. [3] In 1970 the Moore family gifted the core of the forest reserve to the public, and in 1973 it was formally gazetted as Ellangowan Scenic Reserve, named after the family farm. [1] John Moore sold the farm in 1978 and retired to Tai Tapu. [3]

The area of the reserve in 1973 was 7.86 hectares (19.4 acres) of forested bluff bounded on three sides by the Summit Road and Hickory Bay Road. [4] This was gradually expanded to 22 hectares (54 acres), and in 2002 nearly 300 hectares (740 acres) of land was acquired by the Nature Heritage Fund alongside the reserve. The merged public conservation land made Ellangowan the largest scenic reserve on Banks Peninsula. [5]

Ecology

Flora

Mountain five-finger Ellengowan Scenic Reserve Aug 2025 MRD 06.jpg
Mountain five-finger

The forest canopy of Ellangowan Scenic Reserve is a mixture of podocarps (mostly mountain tōtara, Podocarpus laetus ) and scattered red beech (Nothofagus fusca). The red beech here mark the northernmost extent of the species' distribution on Banks Peninsula. Smaller trees include lancewood ( Pseudopanax arboreus ), lemonwood ( Pittosporum tenuifolium ), mountain five finger ( Pseudopanax colensoi ), pate (Schefflera digitata), broadleaf / kāpuka ( Griselinia littoralis ) and tōī / mountain cabbage tree ( Cordyline indivisa). [2]

Veronica lavaudiana Veronica lavaudiana - Katrina Muir - 439866768.jpeg
Veronica lavaudiana

The escarpment at the centre of the reserve has rock-dwelling plants, including the yellow rock daisy Senecio lagopus and the endemic Banks Peninsula sun hebe Veronica lavaudiana. [2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Ellangowan Scenic Reserve". New Zealand Gazetteer. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 L. W. McCaskill (1974), Scenic Reserves of Canterbury, Wellington: Department of Lands and Survey, p. 28, Wikidata   Q136116318 }
  3. 1 2 Gordon Ogilvie (1990). Banks Peninsula: cradle of Canterbury. Wellington: GP Publications. pp. 138–139. ISBN   0-477-01439-9. Wikidata   Q132531982.
  4. ↑ "Acquisition of Land for Scenic Purposes" (PDF). The New Zealand Gazette (34): 798. 18 April 1973.
  5. ↑ "New reserve at Hickory Bay". www.beehive.govt.nz. 25 July 2002. Retrieved 6 September 2025.

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