Waiheke Island Summit

Phil ZL1PSH reached out to the ZL SOTA community to see if there was an interest to have a joint activation at Waiheke Island. The response was positive from Myself, Sasha ZL1JX and Soren ZL1SKL. With the help of Howard ZL1BXA who is a resident on the island and was able to arrange permission with the landowner, we set a date and made our way to the island.

The easiest way to get on the ferry is with an AT Hop card. We had to purchase a card (as non Auckland residents) from Britomart, before boarding the ferry. The crossing was a bit choppy but nothing that would make you seasick. Once we landed Howard took us via a fantastic bakery that sold among other goodies giant sized shrews-berry look-a-like biscuits, to the summit. We set off to the top under a pine plantation to start with, then over a fence and across a paddock with a friendly sheep.

From the top the rest of the group worked various stations on VHF while I worked on HF (mostly 40) before lunch. After lunch I relinquished the HF radio to Soren while Sasha and Phil set up HF a few metres away. We also managed to work Nick ZL1IU on VHF SSB from Kerikeri and Peter VK3PF on 14 MHz on Mount Baranduda in Victoria, Australia.

This was an enjoyable activation with fellow sotateers. It was great to meet some for the first time and others again at such a great setting, doing what we enjoy, at altitude.

Details

Summit – Maunganui (Waiheke Island) ZL1/AK-020

Height – 231 mASL (climb 100 m)

Access – From 182 Orapiu Road

Nominal time to summit – 20 minutes

Mobile and internet coverage from the summit – Good coverage

Summit Marker – Trig

Land Access Permission – Private Land – permission required (see text).