Our travels north to Cape Reinga for our summer holiday took us to Whangarei where we stayed for several days. I hadn’t really made any Sota plans for this area as we had limited spare time here, but as we came down the Brynderwyn hills looking north to Whangarei and Bream Head in the far distance I could tell that some of those impressive peaks would no doubt be Sota summits. Talking with Warren ZL2AJ he pointed out that we actually had a couple of nearby drive up ones worth checking out so we chose Mt Tiger, an easy drive up, about 20 minutes away from our camp at Manganese point.
It was a very pleasant drive to the summit of Mt Tiger where there is a lay-by area beside the road and a fence line with handy posts to attach the pole to.
I was soon set up in the baking sun, we were often getting temperatures 30 degrees plus so far on this trip. It was a very nice summer for ZL!
Starting on 40 meters I soon realised this was not going to be the best band today as I could only manage one qso with Soren, ZL1SKL, switching to 20 meters I quickly got another two ZL’s and five Vk stations including a surprise S2S with VK1DI/P. The calls on 20 stopped so I moved to 15 meters and managed one more ZL, Jackie ZL1WA was good strong copy at my end. The heat was getting hard to tolerate and the calls had dried up so we called it quits and headed back down to camp for Lunch and a much needed swim.
Watch out for those power lines when setting up!
Summit – ZL1/NL-062 Mt Tiger
Height – 328m
Access – From Whangarei town proceed to Whareora Rd then turn right onto Mt Tiger Rd, follow to summit. Alternatively take the coastal route on Whangarei Heads Rd and at Parua Bay take Owhiwa Rd to Mt tiger rd and the summit.
Cell and Internet – Vodafone good signal, others should be the same.
ZL2ATH 