Situated atop Puketapu Hill (Holy Hill)
333 metres • 1092 feet
This cairn commands a view of the land which Sir John McKenzie worked as a shepherd when a young man.
Sir John McKenzie was born Ardross, Rosshire, Scotland 1838. Cam to Otago 1861 and became Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Immigration, and Commissioner of State Forests in 1891. While in this office he instigate the Land Settlement Act which enable the government to repurchase the 89 huge land holdings and dived them into 1,694 homesteads for individual mixed farming, founding farming as it is today.
This cairn is 13 metres – 43 feet high and 3.3 metre – 11 feet wide at the base.
It has internal stairs to an observation platform on the top.
The cairn was erected by H.S. Bingham, Monumental Mason of Dunedin, 1931
Erected by Palmerton Businessmens Assn. 1981