More adventures [PICS]

[Toksin]

HOKAY

Today I headed out to Makara to check out the WW2 gun emplacements. I thought it would be a gentle walk, boy was I wrong.


Makara Beach



















Heroic shot



The way up


Cecily Rose, 12 weeks old. Not mine btw. It was at this point that we realised the baby stroller wouldn't make it up, so my friends headed back and I carried on up on my own.


Looking down from the cliffs. If I ever decide to hurl myself off a cliff, this is where I'll do it.


The South Island


Looking back to the beach






The gun emplacements!




View from the bunker


Looking eastish


Behind the bunker


Looking the other way


Obligatory self shot




FORT OPAU. BUILT BY THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT COMMENCING APRIL 1941 AT A COST OF SEVENTY SIX THOUSAND POUNDS.
MANNED BY THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE 73rd HEAVY BATTERY UNDER THE 10th COAST REGIMENT FROM JULY 1941 TO FEBRUARY 1943.
ARMAMENT INSTALLED WAS TWO SIX-INCH GUNS AND RADAR GUNS WERE PROOFED BY FEBRUARY 1942 AND CALIBRATION SHOOT WAS HELD ON 7TH JULY 1942. GUNS WERE REMOVED IN JUNE 1944.
PLAQUE ERECTED BY WELLINGTON ARMY ASSOCIATION MARCH 1988


Looking North. Island on the right is Kapiti, don't know what the others are


Heading back down




Rainbow clouds!! (This is not photoshopped beyond resizing for AF)





And for our Australian members:





Camera is my trust Sony DSC-V1 at 5 megapixel resized to suit.

[slave]

Fuck you velcro glove wearing bitches!!!

Nice pics tho, cant wait!!!

[Toksin]

Forgot to add my reminders for next time:

1)Be fitter
2)Wear hiking boots, not sneakers
3)Don't bring a baby stroller

[slave]

So I need to bring my GP's??

[pickle]

Originally Posted by Toksin

Forgot to add my reminders for next time:

1)Be fitter
2)Wear hiking boots, not sneakers
3)Don't bring a baby stroller

IM COMING IM COMING but how are you gonna take me if there's no baby stroller


I LIKE YOUR PICTURES DAVID! YOU R A NEAT PHOTOGRAPHER!

[slave]

Well, apparently t3h boys are heading there on the 17th. Cant wait!!!!!

[Suislide]

some nice pics dave. wish there were scenery like that around here, but no...it's mostly flat.

i would go out and about and take some pics today, but all the grass is still dead and brown from winter, and the trees are just starting to bud, so there's barely any leaves yet. wouldn't look as nice as it could, so i'll wait a month or two before doing a "Caledon, Ontario, Canada" picture documentary.

[Amish_kid]

Pfft, I will own you all this summer. When everything gets bloomed and green I'm taking a backroad tour and gonna make some really really awesome pictures.

[HogieGT-R]

those are some sweet pics Dave! makes me wish that i could have gone down there for a vacation

[publicenemy137]

hmm maybe i'll take some pix of the cherry blossoms in DC, I live relatively close to em.

[Moppie]

Some nice pics, Iv been to that beach,but didnt know there were any Gun emplacements there.
Altough thier a little small, I was hopeing for tunnels etc.

Something like this:


Thats one of the stair ways in Stoney Batter on Waiheke Island, there there are 3 much larger emplacments linked by tunnels with liveing space inbetween

[zebrathree]

Im learning here. I thought we only had emplacements at Devonport and Wrights Hill. THis is soooo cool.

[taranaki]

Tokkie is the new COT photojournalist.How long before he dresses up as a fireman?

Discuss

[Moppie]

Originally Posted by zebrathree

Im learning here. I thought we only had emplacements at Devonport and Wrights Hill. THis is soooo cool.

There are quite a few scattered around the country, the orginal emplacements we're set up in the late 1800s to protect Auckland Harbour from Raiders (Pirates) and these were added to and expanded at the start of WW1. More were then added around the country at the start of WW2.

That I know of there are:
Emplacements on: North head (devonport).
Waiheke Island (Stoney Batter)
Gt Barrier Island (good luck getting to them with out a boat, and some climbing gear).
Motutapu Island, with an old Army Barreks close by that is now used for school camps etc.
North Head/Whangaparoa Penisula (my grandfather fired the last practice shot from these guns before they were removed in the late 50s)
Along the water front from the City to Misson bay there are several machine gun nests and smaller bunkers built into the cliff.
Rangitoto has a Look out on its peak. (no tunnels though)



All the emplacements have some kind of tunnel network associated with them. The one at Stoney Batter is most well known, its entire length its accesable to the public, and their is a group working on restoring them.
They plan to rebuild the orginal generators, and get the tunnels and assiciated plotting and enginering rooms back to thier orginal working conditionl.
The most famous are the ones on North Head, in the top of Mt Victoria. Most of these used to be open to the public, and you could walk through seveal hundred meters of open tunnel between the gun emplacments. However there have always been several tunnels that have been locked off, or bricked up, and over the past 10 years access has become more and more restricted. The Navey controls the land the tunnels are in and claims the resticted access is for public safety, and that the blocked tunnels don't lead anywhere. But there are groups who claim the tunnels are at least twice as big as what has already been explored, and have maps as evidence. They claim that everything from WWII supplies to complete planes are stashed in the tunnels.


However the most complex network actualy exists under Auckland City. There is an extensive tunnel network and series of bomb shelters built under Albert park in the middle of the city. The entrance is at the end of Victoria Street East, but is well bricked up and painted over. However thier existance has been confirmed by the council and maps have been presented to show thier extent. During WWII they were designed to be able to hold the population of the CBD (several thousand ppl). Again there are groups attempting to get the tunnels reopened and used as a tourist attraction, or since they come out the other side of the Grafton Gully, use them as part of a public transport network.
And as usual, there are groups who claim these tunnels are even bigger than is know, that they they link up with the emplacements on Mt Victoria and go as far as Mission bay where they link up with some of the Machine gun nests.
This is of course highly unlikely, as Auckland sits on a site with the highest concentration of Volcanic domes in the world, and so the under lying geology would make such an eleberate tunnel network very difficult.


And of course there are also several emplacements around Wellington. The ones Toksin found above, and I believe one or two others on the other side of the harbour.


EDIT Google is a wondeful thing, just found this about the wellington regions, seem there are more than a few emblacments and other buildings left: http://capitaldefence.orcon.net.nz/remgon/wgtnrem.htm

[zebrathree]

Hey thanks for that info Moppie. I'll have to look at them next time Im up there. Ive been to North Head, very cool.


Found some more info on Fort Opau at this interesting site:
http://capitaldefence.orcon.net.nz/index.htm








In April 1941 construction was authorised for a 2 gun coastal battery for close defence located above cliffs near Opau Bay on the western coastline of Wellington. It was armed with two 6" MkVII breach loading guns on PIII mountings.

Before work could commence a two mile road had to be created to provide access to the site. Part of a nearby gully was filled in to provide a flat area to be used as a barracks area. This was hidden from the sea by being below the landward side of the ridge.
7 November 1941 saw the contract for the gun emplacements being let with work on the No.1 emplacement starting immediately. The No.2 emplacement was started on the 15 of November. Work started on a Radar Direction Finding station on the 29 November as radar was used to guide the guns.
Both of the 6" guns had been temporarily stored at Fort Dorset and then they were moved from there up to Fort Opau. Installation of the No.1 gun was undertaken between December 14 1941 and the 22nd. After Christmas, between December 28 and January 3 1942 the No.2 gun was installed. Both of the emplacements were completed during January.
The guns were proofed on the 26th of January in 1942 with the results being deemed satisfactory by the army.

The RDF (Radar Direction Finding) station was completed on the 28th of February. Construction of the BOP (Battery Observation Post) and Command Post was started on the 20th of January 1942 and completed on the 9th of April. Although this may seem like along time by today's standards 1942 saw an enormous amounts of defence related construction being undertaken due to the Japanese expansion within the pacific. At the same time due to the war construction manpower was stretched to the limit.

By late 1943 the situation in the Pacific had improved so on the 6th of September 1943 Fort Opau was put into care and maintenance. The decision to decommission the fort was made about June 1944. On the 28th of June the guns were loaded onto rail to be sent to the Royal New Zealand Navy armament depot in Auckland. On the 4th of September the same year the radar equipment was dismantled.
It is interesting to note that Fort Opau was decommissioned before the end of the war in the Pacific (which ended on the 15th of August 1945) and before the 9.2" battery on Wrights Hill above Karori was operational. Like many coastal defence works in New Zealand history, Fort Opau never fired a shot at any enemy vessels during its short life.

On 20 March 1988 a plaque was unveiled on the north side of the northern emplacement. It briefly describes the history of the Fort Opau Battery.
Although devoid of all of their fittings, the concrete remains of the observation post, command post and emplacements still remain. Part of the RDF station building remains although in ruin. Nearby in the barracks area, the foundations for most of the buildings are all that remains of the camp that housed the gunners of Fort Opau.
The Fort is publicly accessible from the Makara walkway which is a circular walk of about 6km starting and finishing at Makara beach. The walkway is administered by the Dept of Conservation and is open for most of the year except during lambing season.