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...
Have just spent a spectacular morning at Vector Arena with our 7 year old watching even younger children (as young as 5!) blasting down an 8 metre start chute, pedaling madly over jumps and berms, and quite often each other, in a bid to take out a world championship.
Quite exciting to experience the atmosphere of an event where over 2000 competitors from 30 countries have congregated to race flat-out over a temporary racetrack modeled from over 60 truck loads of dirt inside a building usually hosting church groups and rock stars.
Thanks to Patrick Etienne from Paris who graciously took some time out to be sketched. Good luck in your qualifying race tonight!
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