Albert Park is a beautiful and serene park situated in the centre of downtown Auckland, a reprieve from busy city life and frequented by many suit-and-tie guys and students on their lunch-breaks each day.
Albert Park was originally the site of the Albert Barracks, one of Auckland’s early European military fortifications, which was converted into a public park in the 1880s. But it is not Albert Park itself that exudes intrigue… but what lies beneath.What most people don’t know is that underneath Albert Park is over 3.5 kilometres of man-made tunnels built during the war to shelter over 20,000 people in the event of an air-raid. The tunnels consist of a network of shelters, sanitation facilities and first aid posts, all ventilated by air shafts, with a total of nine entrances. Fortunately, the expected air raids did not eventuate, but with the tunnels unused, by the end of 1943 the timber supports were beginning to fail. By February 1945, the tunnels were filled in with unfired clay bricks, the entrances buried and the air shafts and other shafts in-filled.
And so the tunnels remain to this day…
This, my friends is the stuff adventure is made of. I don’t know about you, but the Indiana-Jones-alter-ego in me screams out to throw caution to the wind… to look for an entrance, rediscover long-forgotten places and flee from giant boulders (okay perhaps not flee from giant boulders ;-)). As this site shows, there have been exposed entrances in recent years and intrepid (or insane depending on how you look at it) explorers have ventured inside.
What I am dying to know is:
- Are they still accessible today? (One article written in march 2009 said they still are.)
- Will my wife let me? (Happy wife happy life.)
- If the answer to the above questions is “Yes”, who’s keen for a roadtrip to Albert Park (and beneath)?
Further Albert Park tunnel info: to whet your adventurer’s appetite:
- Large image of the Tunnel Plans
- Google earth image of Albert Park with with the tunnel system superimposed over top.
- Wikipedia’s Albert Park Tunnels entry
- The best Albert Park tunnel site in existence.
Please leave a comment if you have any further information, know of exposed entrances… think I’m crazy, etc.
no…
Posted by PaisleyJade | February 8, 2010, 12:56 pmI’m super keen, but it appears as if you have some serious begging to do :P.
Posted by Stephen | February 8, 2010, 3:54 pmhahaha yes you are crazy, but then so are most of the people who have made a difference in this world (IMO)…
Posted by Rachel Kate | February 9, 2010, 9:16 amlets take some tools along and break into entrance 6.
Posted by Joseph Pyle | February 10, 2010, 6:57 pmVery keen. Seems the only unknown is what its like behind the locked door. We know from the 1996 explorers that the constitution hill entrance (#9) is a dead end.
Posted by Matt | February 18, 2010, 6:00 pmim in…
trying to find more info on the internet at the moment..
Posted by Rj | March 24, 2010, 1:18 pmim a locksmith and ive looked at the bowen street enterance :-) . . keen as bro
Posted by stronglung | July 1, 2010, 10:56 pmHi stronglung – thanks for the comment, are any of the entrances accessible nowadays?
Posted by Symon | July 2, 2010, 9:17 amHi there,
did this get any traction? I have been looking at this for a few years now but lacked the numbersd to make a mission, let us know.
Cheers
Posted by Gary | August 23, 2010, 4:05 pmThe tunnels are still accessible. You don’t need to break in to get to them. Just contact Auckland Council and ask for permission – make sure you have a good enough reason such as making a film doco or something (actually it would make quite a good doco), bring along a video camera for legitimacy and have adequate safety gear.
Posted by Mike | September 16, 2010, 8:50 amHey Symon, Frances and I went there just the other week. Some of the tunnels are still accessible to the public during certain hours – not sure about the others though. A few have collapsed… If you ever decide to come down and make an expedition, count me in!
Posted by Matt | April 1, 2011, 4:18 pmI’m moving from the UK to Auckland in the next few weeks, this is the sort of thing I get upto here in the UK so if anyone is planning on a mission to get into the tunnels count me in. barnsleymat@hotmail.com
Posted by Matt | April 10, 2011, 12:08 pmI can remember looking through my father’s theodolite as he surveyed the middle tunnel.I was still at primary school at the time. He also surveyed for the gun emplacements around the waterfront. My brother (now deceased)and I used to bike from Greenlane to St. Heliers to take our father’s lunch to him. I can also remember going to Mangere on the back of a small truck when my father surveyed there for the future airport.There was a crabapple tree at one of the gates. Strange what sticks in a child’s mind.
Posted by Doreen E. Deed (nee Bines) | April 22, 2011, 5:50 pmHi Doreen. Awesome memories! Thanks for commenting ;-)
Posted by Symon | May 2, 2011, 9:12 am