Mount Auckland/Atuanui is a 304m high mountain overlooking the Kaipara Harbour about an hours drive north of Auckland city. The track is not a loop, but more an up-n-over, so we took two cars and left mine at the SH16 end and took Roger’s up to the start at the carpark on Kaipara Hills Rd.

Everyone complains the SH16 entrance is hard to find, but no one posts a picture of it, so here it is.

DoC description (of 2km north of the the Glorit-Kaipara Hills Rd turnoff) is pretty accurate. The sign must have been erected since the Google car went through as it doesn’t show on StreetView and makes it reasonable easy to spot now.

The track climbs up past an old airstrip, through some farmland, and into some very nice bush before reaching the summit with its viewing platform. The weather was overcast and showery, so although the views were good they weren’t great and haven’t photographed well. Had lunch sheltering from a shower under a big Puriri tree, and then out and down through farmland to where I’d left my car.

We collected Roger’s car and headed off to the Hallertau brewery to sample all their brews.

Brendan and Jess arranged to catch up with us at Galbraith’s on New Year’s Day on their visit back to New Zealand. And they introduced us to their new baby Amelia. She’s as destructive with beer mats as me.

It really poured down this New Year’s Eve. A good test of my drain. And the result is a big FAIL.

I even dreamed about house renovations. On waking up I went and checked downstairs to find the water slowly seeping in through the floor. I don’t think the water is coming in from the side from where I’m trying to drain it away from. The bottom of the drain doesn’t seem to have much water at all. I think it is just the water table rising on my section and the downstairs room is the lowest part, so not much the drain can do.

Not much water in there

I made a homemade drainage pump from the bits of my old dishwasher. I wanted it to pump right out of the room. The hose reached and I knocked a hole in the wall for it, but the pump was just not capable of pumping all the way up to ground level. So, instead I used my empty garden clippings wheelie bin as a reservoir and used buckets to keep that from overflowing.

That’s a 240 litre wheelie bin, and I had to keep taking bucket loads out to stop it overflowing, so that would have been easily over 250 litres.

Isn’t it dangerous mixing water and 240 volts? You bet!!! Notice I was using an RCD, but still I don’t recommend doing this at home. Especially when the drain hose comes off and water starts going everywhere. Fortunately I didn’t electrocute myself.

I think my plan now is to cut a hole in the floor, dig a sump, and get a more powerful drainage pump installed permanently.

After burning out the motor in my electric lawnmower on Friday, I gave up up on my lawns and contacted Robert to arrange a walk in the Waitaks for Saturday.

We walked up the Karamatura stream, had lunch with Old Tom Thumb, and climbed to the top of Goat Hill for some overcast views of Auckland and Cornwallis. Coming back we returned via the Karamatura Waterfall.

On the track up to Goat Hill I found this bullet. I called the police today to find out if I should hand it in to them, but they said that wasn’t a necessity although I could if it made me feel safer.

Had a few beers and some Sages Indian curry with Robert and Tim back at my place.

That’s a good crop of cat growing there.