Welcome to Auckland’s original ‘Municipal Destructor’. Everyone, like me, know it as Victoria Park Market – a super popular open air market through the 80's to 2000's – a great place to buy your crystals and tie-dies etc! I've always known that it was originally the city rubbish dump – when the city was waaaay smaller). There is more to the story, of course. It was originally created in reaction to a bubonic plague scare in Sydney. For sanitary reasons it was built to burn Auckland’s rubbish and waste while using the heat generated to provide electricity to power the city. Sounds pretty clever eh, and I guess we were plague free. However, we must have been breathing some seriously toxic smoke fumes! That 38 metre tall chimney must have helped a little but don't forget all the horse manure and night carts, they were definitely smellier times. The municipal destructor is now a gentrified place that's home to restaurants and businesses, like the superb Milenta restau...
Herded the kids around the Maritime Museum on the weekend and got this quick sketch (left) of the original 1800’s cutter ‘Rewa’ on display inside the museum while they clambered all over and in it.
What an excellent place to take the kids on a rainy day, especially with the newer interactive and Sir Peter Blake additions, free for Auckland residents too.
What an excellent place to take the kids on a rainy day, especially with the newer interactive and Sir Peter Blake additions, free for Auckland residents too.
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