Auckland slip a signal to cliff-top dwellers
Airbnb guests staying next to a house where the backyard has fallen down a cliff say they were told to keep their daughter away from the unstable edge.
A 10-metre cliff collapsed on to Auckland’s Eastern Beach on Sunday taking most of a house’s backyard with it.
The owners have not been able to be contacted.
The Airbnb residents staying next door said their host had advised them to stay away from the edge.
‘‘They told us to not let our daughter play too close because it’s dangerous,’’ a woman, who declined to be named, said.
A fence borders the edge of the cliff with a ‘‘Danger’’ sign at the gate.
Beyond the gate, fallen trees can be seen lining the coast line.
But the family aren’t worried about living there.
‘‘We’re only here for three months. If we owned the place then yes, we’d definitely be worried.’’
Ben Dellabarca and his flatmate were walking his dogs along Eastern Beach about midday on Sunday when the pair noticed rocks coming off the rock face.
All of a sudden a massive hunk of dirt, debris, trees and what seemed to be a retaining wall fell away, crashing on to the beach below.
All that was left was a slab of decking hanging precariously over the cliff edge.
‘‘The dogs were under it only a minute before it fell,’’ Dellabarca said.
Dellabarca, who captured the moment the cliff collapsed on video, estimated it to be about 10-15 metres tall.
He said he tried contacting the owners of the house above but they weren’t home.
Auckland Council geotechnical engineer Ross Roberts said the slip happened in an area of known instability.
Auckland councillors for Howick, Sharon Stewart and Dick Quax, yesterday inspected the damage from the beach below the slip, before visiting the property from its road entrance.
Former Howick Local Board member Steve Udy said living on a cliff was bound to have its consequences and Eastern Beach was not different to other coastal parts of the region.
‘‘Cliffs are unstable all over Auckland. If you build close to a cliff, you’re in trouble.
‘‘A certain degree of caution needs to be taken when building near cliffs,’’ he said.
Udy’s suggestion to the Auckland Council was to have clear distance guidelines for property owners so they did not build too close to the edge of cliffs.
‘‘People build around here for the views, which is great, but let’s not put too many of our houses on the cliff.’’