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...
The newest and one of the largest Cunard Line vessels arrived in Auckland this month on her maiden voyage. Sailing from Southampton for the first time, through the Panama Canal and stopping in Tonga on it’s way to New Zealand. The 323 meter liner will visit 30 ports on her first world voyage.
Sketched while cyclling on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon, I squinted into the sun in an attempt to capture her sheer size. Maybe thats why I captured 11 decks in my sketch, not the 14 decks that I researched later.
Maybe I need a bigger sketchbook?
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