This parcel of land was first settled in 1921 by local identity Ben Rudd, who had previously grown vegetables on the other side of Flagstaff at what is now Rudd Rd.
As a grouchy recluse, a shotgun-wielding Rudd confronted members of the tramping club who had accidentally strayed on his land in 1923.
He was later mollified when the club paid him £5 to cut a track which bypassed his land. Rudd passed away only seven years later and the tramping club purchased the land in 1946.
Club member Richard Pettinger says part of the rationale for the club to own a piece of Flagstaff was to discourage the DCC from locking up all the land as water reserve, or even developing it with a formed road to Swampy Ridge.
Ben Rudd’s former property is now regenerating with kānuka and native broadleaf trees and the club is putting much effort into additional plantings such as silver beech.
The DCC supports the club by waiving the rates bill and providing financial assistance for weed control from the council’s bio-diversity funds.
For its part, the club contributes to the maintenance of walking tracks, from the Pineapple Track to a plethora of rugged backcountry tracks.
Volunteers, such as the Green Hut Track Group, spend more than 2000 hours a year maintaining more than 100km of DCC and Department of Conservation backcountry tracks.
Club members regularly battle introduced weeds such pines, broom, Himalayan honeysuckle, elderberry — and now a new invader, the brightly-fruiting rowan tree.
The undergrowth at Ben Rudd’s land is so dense, the club employs a drone pilot to give GPS co-ordinates to workers on the ground when searching for wilding trees.
Mindful of their land being in the catchment for the city’s drinking water, Pettinger says they use a benign herbicide that doesn’t poison the water.
He says the DCC’s eradication of weeds by helicopter elsewhere on the hill comes at a cost.
"The area was being colonised by native woody species like mānuka and kānuka and along the tops were gorse and broom, which the club used to try to control by hand. But the DCC said ‘Let’s spray the area’. As soon as they did that, they lost all the native woody species as well as native orchids."
Two years ago, the club erected a bench and panorama display near the top of Ben Rudd’s land, marking 100 years since Rudd started farming there. This year, the club celebrated its own centenary and with help from the DCC, a wooden seat with views over Leith Valley has been installed about two-thirds of the way up the Pineapple Track.
This popular track gets its name from the tins of pineapple the tramping club’s first president, Oscar Balk, would share with walkers as he guided them up the hill. The tins were hung on a fence line, and while the rusted tins are long gone, some of the fence posts and wire are still visible today.
The wide, gravelled track walkers and runners between Ross Creek and Flagstaff ridge enjoy today was built in the 1980s. The original Pineapple track that Balk hiked is a much rougher, slippery track, still accessible from behind the concrete water tanks near Tanner Rd, crossing McGouns Track and eventually joining the new Pineapple Track at the tramping club’s new centenary seat.
