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Doing it in Auckland

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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Having fun in the hills!


« on: May 09, 2010, 05:18:30 pm »


Man uncovers well

CARLY TAWHIAO - Auckland City Harbour News | 5:00AM - Friday, 07 May 2010

NEVER-ENDING: With help from friends and family, Patrick Lees' excavation of a well has reached 14 metres. — JASON OXENHAM/Auckland City Harbour News.
NEVER-ENDING: With help from friends and family, Patrick Lees' excavation of a well has reached 14 metres.
 — JASON OXENHAM/Auckland City Harbour News.


BURIED DEEP: A few remnants from the past that were found in a 14-metre deep well located beside Patrick Lees’ Mount Albert home. — JASON OXENHAM/Auckland City Harbour News.
BURIED DEEP: A few remnants from the past that were found in a 14-metre deep well located beside
Patrick Lees’ Mount Albert home. — JASON OXENHAM/Auckland City Harbour News.


CURIOSITY has turned to satisfaction for Patrick Lees since uncovering an old water well on his property.

The demolition yard owner has spent the last 10 years renovating his 75-year-old Mount Albert home but only discovered the former water hole late last year.

"It use to be part of the driveway and had a concrete cover a foot thick. We decided it must be a well but thought it would be filled in completely."

With the help of his "enthusiastic builder friend," Mr Lees got a diamond cutter and drilled a hole through it to drop a stone down.

Realising it was bigger than first thought, the men brought in an excavator to take the heavy lid off.

There they discovered a crevice seven metres deep which was filled with old shed remains, horse shoes, broken ceramics, glass bottles and cows' teeth.

"It's old Mount Albert. When lava flowed, caverns formed but they also dynamited the basalt rock near main roads. They sunk wells for drinking water and there were a lot of them," he says.

Once the contents from the well were removed, Mr Lees was then inspired to find the base of the well.

However at 14m, with no base in sight and no more safety rope to lead them down, the excavations have come to a halt.

"It's something that should be preserved but it is a question of how deep do we go?" he says.

Mr Lees now plans to replace the original concrete lid with a glass cover, and light up the shaft by installing a stage spotlight fitted in brass. "We tried all sorts of lights. At night it will look quite impressive."

More than a dozen people, rigged in a harness and helmet, have made the descent and more than 186 cubic metres of dirt has been removed by a bucket attached to an electric winch.

"It's weird how it gives you a false sense of security when you're going down there because you're surrounded by wall. It's not that scary," he says.

"There are probably people in different places who know a lot about them. It's just a matter of them turning up."

Mount Albert Historical Society chairwoman Mary Inomata says the society is delighted by the find and encourages others who are aware of wells to call her on 846-4509.

"Everybody had a well, there was no such thing as town water, but it's really hard to know where they are now," she says. "It would be great to have a register of wells."


http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/3664725/Man-uncovers-well
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