Well, poor wee Purchas Hill. Unfortunately it doesn't really exist anymore, as it had become part of the Stonefields development and currently (as of Dec 2024) landworks are well underway to build the next stage of housing.
So while there isn't much to speak of anymore, its history remains, and it does have one thing going for it - it's extremely close proximity to Mt Wellington. So close in fact, that the activation zone for Purchas Hill encompasses all of Mt Wellington.
Today was a spur-of-the-moment activation decision. I had woken up not feeling 100% but it had been a nice day, and by the time work was done I was ready to head outside for a little fresh air.
So I headed for Mt Wellington to activate Purchas Hill - perfectly within the rules, I was not activating Mt Wellington at all.
I sent out an alert via ontheair.nz that I was going portable at Purchas Hill at 4.30pm
This sent out an email to ontheair subscribers and also a push notification to our ZL1AA Slack group.
Once I arrived to Mt Wellington and got to the top, I put out a spot. Again, this went out to ontheair subscribers via email and issued a Slack push notification.
This worked very well, and I actually got great feedback on the air! The push notifications are a new integration with Slack that I setup, a way to get instant notifications of when someone is out activating a volcano.
My first contact was Glen ZL1MY over in St Heliers - he told me that he saw my email come through from ontheair and decided to switch on to see if he could chase me. That feedback and action was much appreciated.
My second contact was Scott ZL1CST, and he told me he saw my notification pop up in Slack! Excellent, the technology was working!
My third contact was Steve ZL1SRP in Ponsonby, followed by Ian ZL1AOX in Papakura. These two I assume just heard me without seeing any notifications.
So I was absolutely thrilled with this spur-of-the-moment activation on a Wednesday afternoon after work. It showed that our new spotting and alerting system was working well, and that people were willing to jump on the air with either a small amount or no notice.
Thanks to all chasers!
Purchas "Hill" as shown from the northern slope of Mt Wellington.
A more zoomed in view of Purchas Hill - shows the earthworks and construction happening where it once stood, as at December 2024.
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