Auckland floods: North Shore hotel loses part of car park, cliff collapses into sea

A North Shore hotel is perched on land closer to the sea after losing part of a car park when a slip brought down mature cliff-front pōhutukawa. Part of the asphalted area in front of the Ocean Breeze Hotel,1 Beresford St, Bayswater has collapsed. Car parks which were marked out beside the building have now gone and asphalt can be seen hanging over the edge, above the sea.

Fencing once at the clifftop now lays at the bottom and in the water. Drone footage and stills of the destruction were taken this morning by photographer Brett Phibbs although exactly when the slip occurred is uncertain. He filmed the slip and pōhutukawa laying at the bottom of the cliff and in the sea.

Once, the cliff face had been forested by those same trees with Google Earth images showing dense vegetation. Where once there was a car park: Ocean Breeze Hotel, Bayswater. Photo / Brett Phibbs Other media reported the hotel staying occupied and open for business although some rooms were evacuated on the advice from council that it was unsafe.

Advertisement Advertise with NZME. Auckland Council staff are understood to have visited the hotel. Ocean Breeze Hotel was this morning not answering calls.

But it is still advertising bookings and says it offers guests a restaurant with breakfasts. The building is at the end of the Bayswater peninsula near the Bayswater Marina where developer Simon Herbert is planning to build many apartments. It advertises accommodation from $159/night and says it has extensive Harbour Bridge and CBD waterfront views.

Property records show Ling Hai Hotel owns the property. Its directors are Qinghai Ling of Rizhao, China and Feng Liang of Long Bay, Auckland. The company was incorporated in 2016 and has its registered offices at the Bayswater property.

Auckland has extensive surface flooding and Auckland Transport is responding to multiple flood events across the network. North Shore councillor Chris Darby surveyed the area near his Stanley Bay home on the next-door peninsula earlier this week, before the overnight rain. He said he counted 30 new slips and was deeply concerned about the area.

Advertisement Advertise with NZME. He had not seen the slip beneath Ocean Breeze today but said that was part of more widespread damage in the area. Before the overnight rain: the hotel at the end of the peninsula with the forested cliff beneath.

Photo / Google Earth “We have to take a close look at what has caused the extreme erosion or slips,” he said of action needed by the council. Part of that review would require a relook at planning rules, including building setbacks, impervious areas in proximity to cliffs, vegetation protection, and stormwater management and discharges, he said. Read More Auckland floods: North Shore community calling for .

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. . Flood clean up begins on North Shore He raised concern about the monitoring of coastal environments and the need to actively give advice to landowners about what they could do to mitigate the effects of erosion, particularly with coastal cliff vegetation plans.

“Some property owners don’t connect the dots when they direct stormwater to the top of a cliff and then wonder why their land has disappeared under a load of a sodden cliff top yet 1000L of extra water in the ground is a ton of extra weight,” Darby said. Experienced arborists say they often field requests to severely prune coastal vegetation to enhance views. But that has consequences for cliff stability, he said.

“The good ones say they won’t go beyond what’s best arboriculture practice. They bemoan the availability of many tree-hacking operators posing as expert arborists,” Darby said. Cliff collapses also occurred around Stanley Bay on Friday night.

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