Paritutu Road

Known as Paritūtū Road since at least 1854, the name of this street was of course taken from Paritūtū itself.

Remnant of an ancient volcano, Māori had flattened the summit of Paritūtū (the name means upright cliff) to build whare and food storage pits and a fortified pā was constructed at the eastern base. The rock was sighted by Captain James Cook through his telescope on 13 January 1770 and noted in his diary as “a very remarkable point on the Main that riseth to a good height”.

By the 1890s a track up the side of Paritūtū was being improved, with steps cut and a wire rope installed to make the climb “fairly safe”, so the view from atop this iconic feature of the New Plymouth landscape was obviously popular with residents and visitors alike. A meeting of the Scenery Preservation Society was reported in the Taranaki Daily News in 1901 at which a motion was carried to stop “the depravation of Paritūtū” by means of quarrying. Those present agreed unanimously that such a “grand piece of scenery” should not be destroyed and a deputation was sent to the Harbour Board which promised to prevent any “future vandalism over and about this striking landmark”. However, thousands more tonnes of rock were blasted from the southern side of Paritūtū in the 1920s to extend the port, thereby dramatically altering its shape. Fortunately the stone proved unsuitable and Paritūtū was finally left alone, to become part of a protected reserve in 1986.

Paritūtū Road remained a rural thoroughfare for many years, but the growth of the town westward meant it was used more and more, and the Harbour Board spent £285 on maintenance in 1878 alone. The road was “metalled” in 1920, using crushed stone from a pit on Frankley Road. Farms were replaced by houses at the southern end of the street but the northern end became an industrial area, home to oil companies like Texaco and factories like Ivon Watkins Dow (now Corteva).

Paritūtū Crescent was created in 1941 but renamed Centennial Drive thirty years later to prevent confusion with the original Paritūtū Road.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.