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...
I’m not a huge tennis fan or player. It’s a fact that makes me a bit of a minority in my own family. Despite that I usually end up at the West End Cup at some stage.
Billed as the biggest NZ tennis tournament outside of the ASB Classic, it usually has most of the top kiwi players and sometimes people from offshore which makes for pretty good viewing. This year there seemed to be more Australian players than Kiwis and a couple from even further afield like Julia Glushko who took out the women’s title this year.
Here’s Finn Tearney serving to Ajeet Rai in the semis. (The men’s title was eventually taken out by Australian John Patrick Smith.)
Here some spectators enjoy a close-up view from catered the courtside tables, and below even Sky TV were there to broadcast this years event...
And it’s not all heavy duty tennis with local cafe Juk (Jess’ Underground Kitchen) serving up delicious tacos and the Brulee Bike busy adding the finishing touch to their delicious crème brulees with a blowtorch!
Billed as the biggest NZ tennis tournament outside of the ASB Classic, it usually has most of the top kiwi players and sometimes people from offshore which makes for pretty good viewing. This year there seemed to be more Australian players than Kiwis and a couple from even further afield like Julia Glushko who took out the women’s title this year.
Here’s Finn Tearney serving to Ajeet Rai in the semis. (The men’s title was eventually taken out by Australian John Patrick Smith.)
Here some spectators enjoy a close-up view from catered the courtside tables, and below even Sky TV were there to broadcast this years event...
And it’s not all heavy duty tennis with local cafe Juk (Jess’ Underground Kitchen) serving up delicious tacos and the Brulee Bike busy adding the finishing touch to their delicious crème brulees with a blowtorch!
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