A thud in the night, and homes left devastated
They were in their lounge, the Australian Open turned up loud to counter the thunderous rain, when they heard a dull thud.
“You don’t hear much noise at the end of the point so I wondered if it was a car boot or a door,” said Stanley Point homeowner Jacquie Mockridge.
That dull thud was the sound of the first lot of earth cascading off the cliff beneath their own and adjoining properties, falling about 20m to the sea below.
Theirs is a double calamity because Mockridge and partner Eric Sellwood both have homes on the point which have been scarred by cliff collapses, collectively valued at $9.4 million by Auckland Council.
Their two sections near Cyril Bassett Lookout had been clawed by rain on January 27, becoming so sodden that when the land went, so did mature po¯hutukawa, crashing onto the rocks below.
It was getting dark that Friday when Mockridge saw that a big olive tree out the front of their clifftop place was leaning, so Selwood investigated.
“He opened the door and went out. Just at that moment, the land slid away and a big corner of our property fell. There was just enough light when the corner went. We saw it go and heard it. It’s just a big thud,” Mockridge said.
The couple own adjoining waterfront places, both now yellowstickered, leaving them worried about the future yet hopeful about the possibility of cliff stabilisation and repairs.
The slip left the deck of their brown and orange home hanging above the cliff, the land beneath it gone. The deck is inaccessible until more thorough investigations are completed and a plan actioned.
“If we lost any more, the house might go,” Mockridge said of the brown and orange house. They had been planning to sell but have withdrawn it from the market.
“Eric estimates it’s about 7m,” she said of their land lost at that house during the storm.
At their neighbouring white and grey place, the cliff collapse had “taken off a corner and compromised our whole property.
“It’s been an absolutely harrowing experience. We evacuated very, very quickly. It was very dark and we had no idea how much land had gone and if there would be further land going.
“When it happened, we went into a state of panic, packed a bag, stuffed our cats into a cage, grabbed valuables, got into the car and went to a friend’s place who also has cats. We shut ourselves in a room. I didn’t sleep. I thought the whole house would go,” she said of the orange and brown place.
On Saturday, January 28, they returned with a family member. A builder advised them they could go back inside. Auckland Council inspectors were already in the street and examined both homes and sites.
On Sunday, January 29, the National Emergency Management Agency visited, confirming the yellow-stickering.
The stability of a towering Norfolk pine in front of their home is being examined.
Mockridge thanked all staff who had visited, saying experts from Hamilton and Tauranga were in Auckland to help: “The council has been doing a fabulous job, coming to check on us to make sure everyone is okay.”
Now, the couple fear the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle.
They wonder what further damage that might cause.
Chris Darby, a North Shore councillor and Stanley Point resident, walked the area on January 30 to examine the damage.
“The fragile nature of the North Shore coastal sandstone and mudstone cliffs is evident in what must be hundreds of slips, large and small,” Darby said.
“This morning’s low tide gave me the opportunity to survey some of the damage. Just in the vicinity of Stanley Point and Bayswater there are about 30 properties affected by slips.
“Many have already been initially assessed by council staff working non-stop, with a handful being redor yellow-stickered.”
He said people should stay well clear of the top or bottom of slips, and that with more rain and overland flows, the ground is most likely still moving.
Other properties affected in the area are three $9.5m adjoining townhouses near the Mockridge/ Selwood homes, which the Herald reported on last year.
Those places lost the ground beneath decks last winter. Black polythene has since been laid in an attempt to stop rain and wind from further eroding the already-fragile ground.
Ross Roberts, council head of engineering resilience, said part of the cliff in front of those three places had fallen due to heavy midwinter rain.
“The slip beneath Stanley Point Rd occurred on July 12 following an extremely intense downpour. Following an assessment by council engineers, it was deemed that the landslide was a natural occurrence caused by the period of heavy rain,” Roberts said last year.
Also in Stanley Point, a slip occurred near a low-rise part of the $60m-plus Devon Park apartments.
David Rowland, chairman of the body corporate and a resident of the 12-level, 60-unit block, said a precautionary approach was being taken before a full assessment of the low-rise building could be made.
People were no longer living in a six-unit annex beside the tower because it was red-stickered but the tower was still safe to occupy, he said.
The apartments are at 45 Stanley Point Rd and sell for $1 million-plus each.
Darby said he was concerned about the whole area.
“Overland flows from structures and impervious landscaping that find a way to the tops of cliffs can have disastrous effects.
“Severe pruning or removal of po¯hutukawa and other vegetation for views often results in land failure when the root systems — binding soils and rock — die.
“In my view council could be guiding property owners better on how to maintain a healthy cliff environment, with planting plans and information on the dos and don’ts of stormwater disposal.”