ROLLING STONES

I love the Rolling Stones music and have all of the best albums. A lot of the songs have references to rocks, stones and falling down. This is quite apt for what follows.

When we first moved to McLeod Bay I jokingly pointed to the strange and massive rock formations on Mount Aubrey up behind our house and said to the Old Girl "I hope they don't fall down". She assured me that as they had been there for squillions of years it was unlikely that they would choose to fall down now.

Thats our house with the driveway to the left. Note rock formations on Mount Aubrey above.

In February we had a very severe rainfall in the area with 300mm falling in a few hours. I counted  80 slips on the road around the Heads and we only just got home that evening before the road was closed due to a washout. Several of the magnificent bush walks were severely damaged from slips and the Reotahi one on the other side of Mount Aubrey (above) is interrupted by a mighty chasm that can only be crossed by pulling yourself up on a rope.

 http://grumpyoldmanreturnsnz.blogspot.com/2011/04/nice-stroll.html

The slips have destabilised the land  here and there and last weekend one of the 'immovable' boulders, part of the rock formations, fell off Mount Aubrey and crashed down through the bush and came to rest behind one of the houses  on the West side of the mountain.

You can see the scale of the boulder by the man inadvisably leaning on it.

We were in Auckland that weekend but neighbours described the sound as a loud rumbling like a thunderstorm or an earthquake. (Note: for all those considering a shift to Northland - we do not have earthquakes up here). The boulder came to rest 40 metres above the house below.

I did a Google search for Rolling Stone song titles and came up with a few appropriate ones:

Before They Make Me Run
Coming Down Again
Out Of Control
Tumbling Dice
Rain Fall Down
Rip This Joint
Rocks Off
Heart Of Stone
Rock And A hard Place
Gimme Shelter
Send It To Me
Slipping Away
Let It Loose
Shattered
Down The Road Apiece

and of course,

Like A Rolling Stone