Local hill loses its lofty status

The height of Mangamuka Summit has been reduced by 4000m, turning it back into a hill. Photo / Peter de Graaf

It was briefly New Zealand's highest mountain - but now Mangamuka Summit has lost 4000m and turned back into a hill.

Earlier this month, the Advocate revealed that New Zealand's highest point was Mangamuka Summit, where State Highway 1 crosses the ranges south of Kaitaia, and not Aoraki Mt Cook as previously believed.

A sign at the summit parking area recorded the elevation as 4383m, significantly higher than Mt Cook's 3724m.

The same sign photographed earlier this month.

However, before hordes of mountaineers could descend on Northland to scale the country's only 4000m-plus peak, someone changed the sign by removing the "4".

The summit height is now a less impressive, but more plausible, 383m. Faint marks where the 4 used to be can still be seen.

Adding to the mystery, the first letters of Mangamuka and Summit have also been replaced with what appear to be home-made versions.

Mangamuka Summit's change in height is not unprecedented. In 1991, the top 10m fell off Aoraki Mt Cook; erosion since then has claimed another 30m, reducing the mountain's originally recorded height from 3764m to 3724m.

The latest twist in the Mangamuka Summit saga is the reverse of the 1995 film The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain, in which wily Welsh villagers built up their local hill so it could be officially classed as a mountain.