Gavin Grimmer
If you have a look inside this entrance through the bars, this is what you'll see:
This does only look to go in a few feet, but I'm told it is very deceptive and actually is further than it looks, although this has nothing to do with what I am trying to portray here.
You’ll observe the calcium stains that starts on the walls and the ceiling towards the rear of this short tunnel and continues right to the rear.
I've seen this phenomenon before in places like old concrete water tanks and the like. My belief is (please correct me if I'm wrong) that this calcium leeches out of the cement due to long periods of dampness and this is especially prominent in the rear section of the ceiling here.
When you go back and look at the trench cut through the rock that leads directly to this entrance, it seems logical to come to the conclusion that this trench was cut (like it is in other locations further around the coast-line) to protect the minefield cable network where it was exposed to more traffic. The fact that this trench goes towards this entrance certainly does infer the possibility that this cable went into this small tunnel, and although I'm not sure exactly where the 1897 Observation Post “G” spoken of in Martin's books (pages 245- 248 in the first, and 233- 236 in the second) was located, I wouldn't mind betting it was somewhere very close to above this short tunnel. Hence I believe this is another camouflaged opening to a much deeper tunnel. One would have to ask one's self, why would you need to build a tunnel this short and then place a metal grated door over it. It just simply doesn't make sense!
For what it's worth, the plastic pipe protruding into the rear of this cavity is a drain from a swimming pool from one of the houses above the cliff, but I'm not sure where the one shown at the top of this photo comes from. Being plastic tube dates it as relatively recent additions.
The purpose of Observation Post “G” was to control the 11 x 500 lb Ground Mines situated in the “Friendly Channel”. This Channel was for the friendly ships to navigate through clear of the main minefields, but if an unfriendly ship managed to get through using this channel, then from this Observation Post these mines could be detonated.
After just re-reading Martin's book article on this Observation Post, it does become
very apparent that this Observation Post was indeed very close to above this entrance
although Martin does say that they found a 4 core wire on the cliff face heading
up to this Post. If you have a look at the following 1920's photo, it does show what
appears to be a heavy cable going up this cliff face and what may be another cable
or maybe a water pipe linking in with this - leading down to the changing rooms.
I would imagine having fresh water to wash the salt off after having a swim in the
sea water swimming pool before getting changed, would be a “must”.
So what was this tunnel built for?
Once again from Martin’s book - He found a document in the National Archives, Wellington, dated 23 May 1892 entitled “Auckland Minefield.” In this document it was talking of Observation Position ‘G’ and it said, “Access to this chamber can be obtained by an existing footpath at high-water mark; but it would be very much better to hew a gallery through the hard ash reef of the cliff, and so both connect the sub-marine depot and the observing station, and also afford a safe line for the lead from the general firing batteries for the observer’s firing keys.” (document continues on next page)
NH Page 47
