This cache is near Albert Park, one of Auckland's nice, expansive, yet historically fascinating parks, in the heart of Auckland City.
On the subject of Albert Park's history, what is less well-known about Albert Park are the tunnels built underneath them as air raid shelters in World War 2, just in case of a bomb attack, opened in 1942.
Sadly, the closest you can get to the entrance of tunnels today is Wellesley Street (or Constitution Hill-where there is a locked metal door leading to one of the original nine entrances), which is where this cache is located. Nevertheless, probably wherever you are in Albert Park, you will be standing on top of a tunnel of some description!
However, these were not just your average tunnels. They stretched 3.5 kilometres, contained sanitation facilities, accommodation facilities, ventilation fans, emergency lighting, first aid posts and even an emergency speaker system. The walls were lined with native NZ timber and the floors were lined with volcanic scoria.
At the end of the War, the tunnels fell into disuse and the timber became to collapse. The city Council had no money to restore them or convert them to anything else useful, so they were filled with clay bricks to prevent collapse, and the entrances were sealed up, with the last entrance sealed on the 18th of April 1946.
More recently, there have been many attempts by various people to get the tunnels opened again, possibly for the purposes of tourism, a museum, or transport, but sadly, none of these ideas have taken off. However, hope is not lost! There have been active attempts by campaigners to get the tunnels (at least partly) re-opened and converted to a museum. (I have no association with this at all, and am not advertising this whatsoever, but) the Facebook page has 8,804 likes! Which one would you want?
The cache is a camoed 2L lunchbox covered with natural foliage and timber. Re-cover well once found.
To access the path, you can either go to the intersection between Princes and Wellesley Streets or go towards the toilets in Albert Park.
As a side note, I believe the tree is an Ombu tree that has made its way from South America as a result of a wealthy, keen traveller way back in the day.
According to wiki, the Ombu is evergreen, and the water-storing, fire-resistant trunk consists of "anomalous secondary thickening" rather than true wood which makes the wood soft and spongy enough to be cut with a knife! This means that Ombus are popular bonsai trees, and that the tree is technically a gigantic succulent, fire-resistant bush. However, beware, the sap is poisonous and the leaves will create a laxative effect when eaten.
FTF honours goes to slieschke