![]() Wilson repeats a rumour he’s heard that it dates back even further to the 1950s as a post-war project, something The Spinoff couldn’t verify. Twenty years later, as a beginner journalist at the North Shore Times-Advertiser, it’s one of the first stories I wrote about. The Auckland Business Chamber reports Penlink first being pitched as far back as 1981. The project has been mooted for decades as the cure to Whangaparāoa commuters’ ills, but never quite got over the line. “Sooner the better please!” said another. “One lane in, one lane out – Penlink, bring it on,” a local told Newshub in 2018. Penlink is seen as the only option by those in authority to ease this congestion, and those living on the peninsula agree. One resident describes living there as “a nightmare”. The toll road is needed because of the commuter traffic that backs up along Whangaparāoa Road and congests around Silverdale every weekday morning and evening, and often on weekends. Other residents are even closer to the project, with some just 100 metres away. It’s a 7km stretch of road with room for pedestrians and cyclists that includes a bridge across the Weiti River just north of Stillwater, one that will stretch across Wilson’s horizon, ruining his views. In a month’s time, work is scheduled to begin on a “massive” motorway project connecting Whangaparāoa Peninsula to State Highway 1, a $830 million motorway extension called Ō Mahurangi Penlink that will take four years to build. He’s right: only those birds and the hum of his fridge can be heard as we talk and take in his view. “If a dog farts on the other side of the valley, we’ll hear it,” says Wilson. The only downside is that noise from lawnmowers or chainsaws echoes around Stillwater’s basin-shaped location. “We’re near to the city in a nice quiet place … you’re in a different world.” That isolation has made Stillwater a sought-after location, with houses snapped up on the rare occasion they go on sale. People come here, and they stay here, for that lifestyle, says Wilson. Wilson and Gina are two of them, the third a man walking his dog who waves to me. “There’s literally nothing.” He’s right: on the day The Spinoff visits, I encounter just three people across several hours. “If you live here you accept the fact that you live at the end of a road,” says Wilson. With no shops, churches, pubs or public transport, and just a members-only boat club and a community hall for entertainment, it’s a place where residents enjoy the quiet life. The welcome blackboard that greets Stillwater visitors and residents (Photo: Chris Schulz) Instead, you have to navigate suburban streets, then rural roads, to find Duck Creek Road, where you’ll be greeted by a bucket of chalk hanging from an old bike tyre and a blackboard that reads: “Happy Birthday Jayden”. You can’t jump on the motorway to get to Stillwater. Then he sighs, his accent still evident, “Stillwater.”Ībout a half-hour drive north of Tāmaki Makaurau – if you know where you’re going – lies a small isolated settlement of around 600 homes and 1,500 people. “The water’s still, the air’s still, you can hear the birds singing,” says Wilson, smiling. ![]() It’s overcast and drizzly, but finches fly over our heads, making it easy to see why Wilson and his wife Gina moved here from the UK in 2005 and never left. “A quiet spot,” nods the retired mechanical engineer, gazing out over the Weiti River and across to the horizon. Peter Wilson stands on his doorstep with his hands on his hips. Chris Schulz pays the small north Auckland settlement a visit. Controversial motorway project Penlink will join Whangaparāoa Peninsula to State Highway 1, but Stillwater residents say it will ruin their peace and quiet.
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