Land, trees slide down Ōwairaka/Mt Albert towards award-winning home

Part of Ōwairaka/Mt Albert and a number of trees many metres tall have slid into two private properties, including an award-winning home

Danica Paki said a huge pine tree toppled right beside her house but many more were looming above and she is pleading for help from authorities because she fears the slip from the maunga three days ago could move further.

Around 6pm on Friday night at the height of the storm, a large amount of earth and many trees cascaded down from the public reserve administered by the Tūpuna Maunga Authority into the section and towards the highly-praised home she owns with husband Samuel McConnell.

The slip was around 20m by 40m, perched just above her house, she said.

“I’m terrified. This huge amount of earth and trees suddenly fell into our section and the neighbours’ and it’s come from the maunga,” Paki said today.

An Auckland Council inspector examined the house and section today and decided that due to the landslip and trees, it was unsafe to occupy, Paki said.

She and McConnell were then advised to leave.

But the house has not officially been red-stickered, she said.

Further assessments are needed.

What terrifies Paki the most is that the “island” of trees has slid off the maunga and now hangs precariously. Those trees she estimated were up to 80m tall but they now have no roots connecting them into the ground.

The slip, estimated by the homeowner to be 20m x 40m. Photo / supplied

So, the trees could topple onto her place and the neighbours’.

“I fear that the island of trees and a huge amount of earth will move. The trees could topple and crush the houses. The earth could cascade down further and push into the back of our house or the neighbours’,” she said.

Julie Fairey, an Albert Eden Puketapapa ward councillor, said she had been in touch with Paki.

“We’ve just come off a briefing for the elected members of Auckland Council where I asked about these kinds of situations. I’m just writing an email now to try to help. I’ve also contacted local Mt Albert MP Jacinda Ardern and she’s undertaken to visit the neighbours whose places are beside Danica’s place,” Fairey said.

“If people have urgent welfare needs, the phone number is 0800 222200. That’s the civil defence response and I’d encourage people to call that,” she said.

Paki’s Mt Albert Rd house is valued by the council at $3.3 million.

In 2020, it won the residential interior of the year renovation award from Architecture NZ after the gardens were designed by Xanthe White and renovations were designed by Raukura Turei. Urbis magazine’s article was headlined ‘A gentle rhythm: Mount Albert renovation’. Changes were said to champion balance and tactility. The 1948 red brick house has a stucco upper level and art deco features.

Paki said she feared all the hard work and thought that went into the place could now be lost if someone didn’t help soon.

A neighbour’s swimming pool was now also “full of earth and trees”, she said.

Samuel McConnell and Danica Paki: told to leave home on side of maunga. Photo / supplied

On Friday after the slip occurred, Paki and her family got 80 sandbags and packed them on the edge of the maunga ring road which gives vehicles access to the summit.

That stopped water from pouring down into the residential sites and exacerbating the situation, she said. Water had already entered the downstairs area of Paki’s house from the maunga, she said. But the emergency measures she and the family took stopped it getting much worse.

“It was like an earthquake when the earth slid around 6pm. There was a massive rumble then one of the really big trees came down,” she said.

She wants what she says are now-unstable trees to be “tethered” or secured so they don’t fall onto the surrounding houses.

The house won an interior design award. Photo / supplied

But the council staffer said nothing more could be done until a full assessment was made and it was a long weekend so nothing would happen immediately.

Paki has also tried to contact her insurer but has heard nothing back yet.

“We’re extremely worried things could get worse,” she said this afternoon.

Staff from arborists Treescape had visited, Paki said.

But they also said nothing could be done until a full geotechnical assessment of the slip had been made, she said.

“It’s so frustrating. We’re getting more rain and we’re worried this could get much worse. The house could be crushed,” she said.

Inquiries have been made to the council and authority about the situation with the maunga, the slip and the trees. However, council staff are out in force today examining hundreds of homes across Auckland.