This Site is dedicated to all those families of the people that have tragically disappeared on flights in and around New Zealand. I only hope that from all the effort in building this site and from all the effort of those taking part in this venture, that it will bear fruit in bringing ‘closure’ to their memories!
Gavin Grimmer
Note that in the 1968 photo above, there appears to be some sort of construction
going on in the left rear corner. What it is I don’t know, but it is interesting
considering that Ian Reid said that in 1969 he saw Parks Board staff blocking up
the tunnel in the area behind where the toilets now are. Note the next photo I have
dated 1973 shows the building has now gone - most likely demolished.
In this 1963 photo above, you can see a dark area in this corner that appears very
much like the entrance the eyewitnesses talked of..
Consider these reports of a tunnel entrance near the hairpin bend:
George Stanley Furnell 1950-55,
The hairpin bend on the NE side and just before the cattle grid was another entrance,
it was about 40 paces from the apex of the corner, this one you could drive a vehicle
inside. Further along is another entrance which goes to a gun emplacement; this isn't
the one that I am referring to. The whole corner has since been bulldozed away.
Henry C M Brock, 1952-62,
An entrance I remember seeing was about half way up the hill and off to the left
of the road that goes to the school, it was just before the hairpin bend and the
cattle stop. It had double iron gates at the entrance and was quite big, a 15cwt
Bedford truck would easily go through, a short distance in beyond the iron gates
was a pair of heavy wooden doors. Beyond this big entrance was another smaller entrance
which went into a gun emplacement where I believe someone started to grow mushrooms.
(Note: The Northern Battery beside the present day car park is where these mushrooms
were grown)
Joan Dighton/Robinson, 1953 - 62,
Large tunnel near the hairpin bend. It was in the side of the hill just before you
went over the cattle stop
Thelma Bell, 1970s.
The bus drove through the main gate at the bottom of the hill and parked on a flat
area. A short distance from the bus they took us through an entrance like a garage
door that went into quite a big room. From here each group went in separate directions
through the tunnels that started off being quite narrow.