liamcool
Blue Crack Addict
That's a TV show from December 1980, the date of which escapes me at the moment, so I'm guessing the 12th.
coolian2 said:I can understand hating Auckland if you had to stay in the city and the trip to the airport was the biggest taste you got of the rest of the place.
If someone offered me a free place in the city i'd tell them to piss off, i'd rather pay $10 a day to take the bus in from out where it's nice.
There are times the Auckland city is nice, but i'd hate to have to spend more than an average Uni day there.
I haven't been into Auckland city since i went to Wellington. I'm going to be sorely disappointed when i do.
liamcool said:That's a TV show from December 1980, the date of which escapes me at the moment, so I'm guessing the 12th.
Axver said:
I remember visiting Auckland as a child and not hating it like I did in 2006. Those times, we stayed on the North Shore and visited places like MOTAT and whatnot.
Auckland's inner city really is unappealling. It needs to be revitalised in a big way with something on the scale of what Wellington did in the 1990s. Though some huge, pointless stadium was never going to be the way to do it.
coolian2 said:A big, pointless stadium would have been a start. There is something i really liked about having the stadium right on hand in Wellington, it felt more vibrant.
Like i said in the last thread, Auckland has to start again. As much as i want to, it'll never happen. But there are so many people opposed to the slightest change - the almighty fuss about upgrading Queen St is a case in point - there isn't a chance of any type of serious redevelopment without the aid of a natural disaster.
From AUT i look right down onto Aotea Square and the Aotea Centre, and it looks shit. How do we champion this to be such an important part of the city? It's a tip, externally. Not so bad inside. One of the things that was great about Wellington was how clean and beautifully preserved all the buildings were. Everything in Auckland is grungy.
Axver said:I'm not convinced that a big, pointless stadium is the start Auckland needs. I mean, in Wellington, the Cake Tin followed the rejuvenation of the foreshore with things like Te Papa and the Convention Centre. Furthermore, it was built out of sheer necessity; Athletic Park was nigh-on unusable and subject to a land rights claim, and the Basin Reserve has to stay as the Basin Reserve. Auckland's already got three perfectly good stadiums.
The other problem with a stadium is that sure, it gets a stack of people in for one event, but they don't stay. They come in one day a week at the height of the sporting season and then sod off back to their homes. A cultural landmark like Te Papa does a whole lot more.
I think Auckland needs to first acknowledge that its port is reaching its limit and it's never going to be the main port for the upper North Island. Tauranga and the new port going in up at Marsden Point are far better. So use them, rail everything Auckland-bound to the inland port in Wiri, and keep only the essentials. That will free up a stack of land for fantastic redevelopment.
coolian2 said:I'm a stadium nerd and i take issue with you suggesting Auckland has three good stadiums. We have one - Mt Smart. Eden Park is an inaccessible tip and i presume the third is North Harbour, which is also inaccessible. I've had many other stadium nerds visit Auckland and they change their attitude on North Harbour, going from saying it doesn't look so far on Google Earth to telling me they didn't expect it to be so far out. But that's irrelevant right now.
An accessible harbour front would do a lot more than even a cultural landmark. I think the Port of Auckland has to go soon, because it really messes up the city, and now that i know there is an alternative other than Tauranga i'm going to be more opposed to it.
We need a better waterfront, some nice cultural features and something other than an indoor arena too far from Britomart.
Axver said:
I've a casual interest in stadiums, but never taken it to nerdish levels - that's for railways. And speaking of railways, correct me if I'm grossly mistaken, but how can you say Eden Park is inaccessible when it's near a railway station? Kingsland I believe. Develop that as a transport hub, build the underground line that's proposed from Britomart to the Western Line (I think to meet at Mount Eden or Kingsland), and there's ideal transport. Especially if the second harbour crossing that's on the drawing board includes a rail crossing. As for the North Harbour stadium - true, that does seem to be quite out of the way.
What baffles me is that Wellington manages to juggle being a major harbour and having an attractive waterfront while Auckland, which has two harbours to work with, completely fucks it up.
coolian2 said:Train and bus schedules - what are you meant to do if the trains run very rarely, and effectively all the Britomart. By the time you get to Britomart you've probably missed the last bus to wherever you want to go. The train is used by a lot of people going to Eden Park once, and most vow never to do it again.
Same problem for North Harbour, the last bus back to Britomart leaves at the same time as most events finish. You miss the bus, you're fucked. It's probably more an Auckland public transport issue. My biggest problem with Eden Park is that it is a tip. It's by far the worst major stadium in New Zealand i've been to, but i haven't been to Carisbrook. Viewing is terrible, it's old...it looks terrible on TV. It's embarrassing.
Wellington really fluked it with geography. The deepest part of the harbour, as i understand it, isn't smack in front of the CBD and so there isn't much sense in sticking a port there, while in Auckland the "best" place for the port is right in the middle of town.
The Manukau Harbour is shit. In every way.
Axver said:
As for Carisbrook, you might me able to tell me what the hell's going on there. I've heard they're talking about developing University Oval and calling it Carisbrook. As someone with strong Otago connections, what a load of fucking horseshit that would be. The House of Pain is the House of Pain. It's not the bloody University Oval or anywhere else!
As a matter of trivia, Port Nick wasn't always meant to be Wellington's harbour - there was a very serious plan to use the southern arm of Porirua Harbour. Then there was an earthquake in around 1855 that raised Porirua Harbour such that it ceased to be an appealling option.
bonocomet said:Not looking good for MOTD.
coolian2 said:I have no idea what's happening with Dunedin. The University Oval would make a nice cricket ground, and i've heard they're planning a new stadium somewhere else to replace Carisbrook, but i haven't heard anything in months.
The funny part is the same earthquake that made the Porirua Harbour a less appealing option was the same one that made the Basin Reserve usable as a cricket ground.
AchtungGirl219 said:I'd completely agree! I love MOTD... I can't believe so many people are voting for it! As much as I love all of these songs, MOTD would easily be in my top 3 here...
phillyfan26 said:In God's Country.
That's how good this album is.
liamcool said:You people have no taste. Mothers is amazing.
DreamOutLoud13 said:
Your name is Ian?
All this time I've been reading your screenname all as one word, 'coolian' as in, 'cool' with the '-ian' suffix. Wow
liamcool said:You people have no taste. Mothers is amazing.