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...
This weekend a new cycle path opened that completes the north western motorway cycle lane, helping cycle commuters to avoid K-Road, Symonds Street or Queen Street completely - a real bonus (unless you enjoy cycling amongst 4 slow moving congested lanes consisting mainly of buses).
The cycle lane is entered from the motorway overbridge on Upper Queen Street. From there it's a very smooth and fast run downhill (sadly not so fast uphill) beside the motorway offramp, under Grafton Bridge and Wellesley Street, eventually depositing you on to Beach Road where a cycle lane has been added beside the citybound traffic lane.
While I was drawing, a bloke stopped by and pointed out where he recalled all the houses were before they were cleared for the motorway. A friend mentioned his grandmother used to pick fruit in an orchard in this gully too. Back in those days the Symonds Street cemetery extended down into the gully as well. It must have been quite a different place!
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