Well, not much of a surprise at all. We could see that one coming like a freight train across the Nullarbor. Option A, aka a flyover motorway bridge closest to the Basin Reserve, has been chosen as the preferred option by the NZTA, ignoring the daring alternatives of Option B (similar to A, but in an alternative “silly” position), and the myriad of other options considered,…
On the one hand Brownlee giveth: on the other hand he taketh away. Last week Wellington had the unexpected pleasure of finding that Memorial Park was to be saved from the knackers yard and the motorway was put underground (in a trench). This week we are about to wake up and find out that the other half of the bargain is that Basin Reserve continues to…
There is a lot of interesting information coming out of Canterbury lately – not just the new City Plan, but also the videos at the enquiry into the collapse of the CTV building. In relation to what it is doing to Engineers, and other people involved in the building industry, it is almost more interesting than the Olympics on the other channel. Almost. Also, for almost…
Oil. Yes, oil. We all use it, but really, how often do we stop and think about it? I mean, really, what is it, and where does it come from? Answers? Come on, what’s your first thought? “it’s oil, it comes from out of the ground, we dig a deep hole and it spurts up, and why is the Fish asking this stupid question?” Well, yes,…
The 100 day time limit is up, and the very green-looking “blueprint” is out. This blueprint should set the city alight, in a good way I hope. At the most basic and obvious level, a new greened strip, an entire city block wide, wraps around the south and east sides. Hagley Park, of course, already sits to the west. The Avon River wraps its way lazily…
It’s on a day like this, with perfect blue skies, all day sun, and roaming round the crisp waters of Wellington’s bays, that you realise that our capital city lacks just one thing. A way to take the day time good times, and extend them on into the evening. Yep – there is just one thing it misses – some roof top bars. When oh when…
Given that this week has been Maori Language Week all week long, and that today is apparently National Poetry Day, I had great plans to create a beautiful poem in te reo, for your erudition and elucidation. However, I have discovered that: A) I have no poetic ability beyond third form haiku, and B) there exists no google translate for passages of Maori text, as it…
Many years ago, a modern popular music combo called themselves “Pop will Eat itself”, and indeed it has done so. So too has Reality TV. The count of Julie Christo has reinvented herself so many times that all the reality series just morph into one continuous hour long advertisement for placed products. Although the first episode of “The Block” was amusing, with the Wellington couple cheerfully…
A short post because I am fascinated by this proposal: the return of the neo-Gothic in Christchurch, just in time for the first showings of the latest Batman film. Is there some connection? James Carr, a “Christchurch architectural graduate and structural engineer” has designed a stone-clad neo-Gothic building for the Triangle between Cashel, High, and Colombo St, and he describes it as “like a medieval market…
In a somewhat surprising move, the London Zoo has proposed, possibly slightly tongue in cheek, that 33 St Mary Axe, known to London’s cabbies and therefore all the world, as The Gherkin – that it should be adapted to the latest penguin specifications. London Zoo’s spokesperson notes: “We know it’s audacious, but let’s be honest – penguins are a lot more interesting than gherkins!†Apart from…