Kaiti Hill
"A Wonderful Asset"

If you want to see Paris there's always the Eiffel Tower. That goes for Blackpool, too.

But in Gisborne, it's Kaiti Hill--not quite as high as the Eiffel, but up to Blackpool standards. And it has one great advantage. You can go up in your car in five minutes from the Post Office.

The Queen went up. It was one of the most-publicised events of her New Zealand tour.

Every year thousands of visitors to Gisborne stand on Kaiti and enjoy one of the finest views in the country.

As the Mayor said, unveiling the new direction indicator in the lookout last month, "it is a wonderful asset, capable of unlimited development".

The building of the lookout was the work of Gisborne Jaycees in 1951 and 1952. These pictures record their sterling effort.

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Kaiti Hill-- an aerial view from the centre of the city

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The lookout plaque

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A view of the lookout--the day it was opened.
Lloyd Cornish

There is no doubt that the Kaiti Hill lookout is a splendid memorial to the Jaycees and to the many long hours they put in on the hill. It is also a memorial to the special kind of community responsibility and service which organised groups can bring to bear on community development. Since the Kaiti lookout was built, the Jaycees have undertaken and successfully carried through a number of projects, and at present are engaged in the improvement of the park at Kelvin Rise.

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Levelling the top. 560 cubic yards of spoil were moved

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Some of the Jaycees on the job

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Buttressing the embankment

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Concrete was mixed on car park...

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...and laboriously carried to the summit

Building Kaiti Hill Lookout called for a prodigious amount of hard manual labour. Owing to the nature of the project, atop a small knoll, machines could not be used, and all the pick and shovel work was just that. Several tons of concrete mix were lugged up from the car park to the lookout.

In the building of the project, the Jaycees were quick to acknowledge the great assistance given by commercial firms in donating materials and hiring equipment.

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With steps completed, concrete mix could be carried up in barrows

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Building the fence round the car park

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Unusual angle is provided by Aerial shot

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Excavating postholes--the Jaycee way!