Auckland’s best-kept secret out of the bag
A more than decade-long fight to secure public ownership of a parcel of land leading to a secluded cove off Waitemata Harbour has ended with a $270,000 purchase.
North Shore councillor Chris Darby confirmed Auckland Council had bought a 175sq m block of land at the corner of Stanley Point Rd and Second Ave, in Devonport, allowing the public legal access to a previously hard-to-reach bay named Secret Cove.
The land, with the legal address of 60A Stanley Point Rd, was bought for $270,000 and council signage will be erected directing the public to the accessway, Darby said.
The long-fought purchase was “fantastic” news for Aucklanders, Darby said.
“The purchase of this land to enable public access to Secret Cove has been a long and complicated one, but it’s finally done now and I couldn’t be happier.”
Some residents on the street did not know of the accessway’s existence, just metres from Auckland’s biggest residential waterfront site, a 1.5ha property owned by one of the country’s richest families, the Spencers.
“The [purchase] means the secret of Secret Cove can now be experienced and enjoyed by all.”
The accessway was originally bought by 16 now-deceased people in the 1930s or 1940s, with the goal to protect access to the beach for the public, Darby said. Those people never sold the land, but several years ago an immediate neighbour lodged a caveat on the title, he said.
The legacy North Shore City Council had handled the public acquisition of the land badly, but the legal department of the Super City had successfully gone to court to have the caveat lifted and the land transferred to the Public Trust Office.
One of the 16 original purchasers was William Henry Worrall.
A relative, who did not want to be named, said descendants were pleased the accessway was now owned by Aucklanders.
Council staff announced the purchase on Facebook, prompting a mixed response from the public.
Franco Martinez wrote that the news was “rad”. But others expressed their disappointment the location of the hideaway bay had been shared.
“Why announce it to the world like this?” Mary Hammer wrote.