oCDo, 
Back on the road after 🎄 with family/ T-out for life admin & a bout of 🦠 Covid.
Whangārei Heads owes much of its distinctiveness to the extinct volcanoes that shape its skyline. Mt Aubrey at 216m, seen from McLeod Bay (📷1). Mt Manaia at 420m, seen from Urquharts Bay (📷2). WWII gun emplacement at Home Pt on Busby Head (📷3), w/ mural inside battery observation post (📷4).
🚐 #VanLife #Motorhome #CamperVan #RV #Travel #RoadTrip #Nomad 🇳🇿 #Aotearoa #NZ #NewZealand 🤔🌲🧭❤️ #CREWmission 📷 #Photography
“Mount Manaia is the tūpuna/ancestor and chief of Ngātiwai and many Iwi and hapū (sub-tribes) of not only Whangārei, but the Northland region. The craggy peaks represent his family who were turned to stone through karakia (ritual chants) in a dispute over the infidelity of his wife.” (DOC)
“Building coastal defences daring WWII was a huge undertaking. In 1942, virtually all building materials and available labour were directed towards this task. This emplacement, which cost £3,450 to build, included wooden accommodation huts as well as the concrete buildings you see today. The Bream Head gun only ever fired three test shots. Apparently, one of these travelled a massive 12 miles although the rated range was only 17,000 yards. The complex was carefully designed to look likel a farmhouse with out-buildings. The 'house' was actually the armoury and accommodation for the officers. The battery observation post was disguised as a rocky outcrop. The building site was blasted into the rear of a boulder, and small rocks cemented onto the roof completed the effect. The gun emplacement itself was supposed to blend into the hillside, due to a camouflage net fastened onto steel loops embedded in the walls. Armament: The battery was allocated a US 155mm field gun, which ended up at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea (inside the ship that was carrying it). Instead, a 5-inch 51 calibre US naval gun was installed. The gun was a standard secondary armament for US warships, built in 1912/13. It was quick firing, designed to counter fast-moving destroyers and torpedo boats. There was a limited supply of 5-inch ammunition available, which is why this gun emplacement does not have the usual magazine.” (DOC)
“This Battery Observation Post (BOP) is special because of the mural painted on the concrete above the window. This is a rare survivor, one of the last military murals in the country. The mural was painted by soldiers rather than artists. The subject is a panorama of the view through the BOP windows measured off in degrees. Its purpose was to allow those directing fire to quickly estimate the bearing of a sighting. The symbols painted on the window frame are to aid with semaphore signalling, a low-tech communication system using hand-held flags representing particular letters or numbers. The painting is a snapshot of the Whangarei Harbour in 1942, when there was no oil refinery and few houses. The armoury and officers accommodation building is painted in the right-hand corner, disguised as a farmhouse. Painted directly onto concrete, the mural was never meant to last. In 1995, it was painstakingly restored by art conservators. They cleaned the fragile surface, consolidated the paint layer, and re-touched areas where paint was lost. The building was made weather-tight, with polycarbonate windows and a door, in an effort to protect the mural.” (DOC)
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