As anticipation ramps up for the imminent opening of the CRL, the areas around the stations are coming to life.
Larger than life, even! Yesterday morning saw the unveiling of a magnificent 7.2m high bronze sculpture of a tuna kūwharuwharu (longfin eel) at the intersection of Victoria and Queen Streets.
Horotiu is one of two monumental works to grace the entrance to Te Waihorotiu station. It’s the work of Chris Bailey (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Porou, Te Aupouri) and Sally Smith, and evokes the legendary protector of the Waihorotiu stream.
Horotiu is depicted spiralling downward from Puna Kauariki, the celestial spring. Its chin lightly touches the footpath, marking the place where the path of the Waihorotiu Stream is understood to have been diverted by a lava flow following the eruption of Rangipuke (near Albert Park) around 60,000 years ago.
Just look at this beauty!
Horotiu, unveiled: photo by Patrick Reynolds.
Co-creator Chris Bailey told RNZ that he hopes it will “serve as a meeting place and create lasting memories for future generations”:
“I was looking through some of our photographs. Some of our photographs at home, and we’ve got photos of me at the zoo with my sisters sitting on the mouth of this big dragon.
“I thought to myself, man, we’ve got to make one of these, but we’ll make it in our own flavour – an iconic piece or a wayfinder where people can come and take photos and say, ‘I’ll meet you at the eel.'”
He hoped tamariki growing up in Aotearoa would have memories of the sculpture similar to those he had of climbing on public artworks as a tamaiti.
Sure enough, as seen in these lovely photos of the dawn ceremony by David St George for Our Auckland, children immediately gravitated to the friendly creature, among them the artist’s own mokopuna…
The sculpture of Horotiu with children playing, at the dawn blessing. Photo: David St George, via Our Auckland.
Horotiu greeted by children. Photo by David St George, via Our Auckland.
…and so did adults, across the course of its first day in the light.
“COOL NEW EEL” rejoiced city-dweller and writer Tze Ming Mok on social media, capturing the surprise and delight of this fresh addition to the streetscape.
Horotiu by daylight. Image: Tze Ming Mok, via Bluesky
Shiny face of Horotiu. Image: Tze Ming Mok, via Bluesky
The second artwork unveiled yesterday stands slightly further up Victoria St, near the entrance to the station. Wāhine is a 3.7m high bronze sculpture, by master carver Arekatera (Katz) Maihi (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Ngāti Whātua ki Kaipara, Tainui, Te Waiohua, Ngāpuhi) and Beronia Scott (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei).
It depicts a woman performing a welcoming karanga:
Karanga is traditionally performed by women, embodying mana wāhine – the strength and authority of women. Artist Beronia Scott drew on her expertise in raranga (weaving), translating its textures and forms into bronze, to inform the design of the korowai worn by this timeless wāhine figure. (Our Auckland)
Wāhine, who will greet people emerging up the ramp from Te Waihorotiu station on Victoria St West. Image: Patrick Reynolds.
Wāhine stands in conversation not only with people emerging from the station, but also with another notable artwork in the city centre:
Katz Maihi conceived Wāhine as a contemporary counterpart to the 1960s sculpture A Māori Figure in a Kaitaka Cloak by Molly Macalister, which has graced Auckland’s waterfront for decades.
“Wāhine embodies the offering of a karanga to everyone coming from the underground realm of Te Waihorotiu Station into the light of Te Hā Noa and Victoria Street,” he says.
Wāhine, standing ready to greet people emerging from Te Waihorotiu station. Image: Kent Lundberg
As Maihi told RNZ, as well as greeting visitors, “the statue will allow Māori to see themselves in the centre of Auckland”:
“It’s important to have this type of mahi in the public spaces because we all hear the current debates around the country, and this is just a total reminder that you can say whatever you want, you can take away what you want, but you’ll never move us. We’re going nowhere, we’re here forever.”
What would public infrastructure be, without public art? The value of these works will be instantly obvious to most of us – they’re priceless. But just in case anyone’s wondering about the cost, Auckland Council explains:
Auckland Council’s investment in new artworks, Horotiu and Wāhine, was $632k for Horotiu with 72.2% funded by the city centre targeted rate, and $744k for Wāhine with 65.5% funded by the city centre targeted rate.
The city centre targeted rate is contributed by city centre businesses and property owners. It funds a programme of urban regeneration and events in the city centre throughout the year. (Our Auckland)
Moreover, the new sculptures weave in with the already impressive art and architecture of the stations themselves, which even before officially opening, are drawing the kind of attention that money can’t buy.
Here’s a nice video that goes along with an article by Home of Architecture.
All of this is whetting the public appetite to actually ride the trains. An announcement of the official opening day cannot be far away. Councillors did their best to winkle out an actual date on Tuesday, as Jonathan Killick reported for The Post:
“Obviously, it feels like my favourite [opening] day of August 30th is gone, but is there any way in the next couple of days that it can be announced just what month?,” pleaded [Councillor Richard] Hills.
“Some people are like, is it August, September or is it November, December?”
As Killick spells out, the maths would suggest a Sunday in mid-September as the earliest possible date:
It’s previously been revealed that the opening day will be on a Sunday and it’s widely understood that the public will get five to six weeks notice.
That’s because train drivers have to be given notice on changes to their rosters. Once they’ve been told, the cat will be out of the bag.
…
Well placed sources tell The Post that the HOP card system gets updated fortnightly, which leaves the consortium of rail agencies, One Rail, Auckland Transport and KiwiRail, aiming for a launch in two week increments.
August 30 had been viewed as a possibility, but sign off on safety recommendations failed to come through in time.
That leaves September 13 as the next best option.
If that were to be the case it would be accordingly likely that the announcement would be made some time next week.
CRL advent calendar, anyone? In the meantime, here are two opportunities to pounce on:
Firstly, as Matt noted on Tuesday, Auckland Transport is planning public “first looks” at the stations in August. The tours will be free, but tickets are required. You can pre-register here to hear as soon as tickets are available.
Secondly: our super cute station-name T-shirts are selling like hotcakes! They come in a rainbow of colour options, and are print-on-demand (no returns), so double-check sizing before ordering. And allow about a week for delivery.
Basically, if you want yours in time for CRL-istmas (ho ho ho), best to order ASAP. That way, whatever the opening date, you’ll be first up, best dressed! Meet you at the eel?
Fab four stations on a tee, as modelled by beautiful Rainer. Shop here! Photo: Patrick Reynolds
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“All of this is whetting the public appetite to actually ride the trains.”
Judging by Facebook and Reddit discourse, what it is actually doing is provoking anger, frustration, and alienation. Like, people are now rage-posting because they saw “yet another CRL ad when we can’t ride the thing”.
I am seeing a disconnect between “elite” (by which I mean “well-informed”) opinion and Joe Punter right now which reminds me of the division around the COVID response and it bodes no good.
If there is a serious delay, such as it doesn’t open until next year then you likely have a point. But if the opening in going to be September 20th instead of August 30th then it’s not really going to make any difference.
People rant about pretty much anything on Facebook and Reddit.
Agree, this is once in a lifetime project. All about balance.
Fully agree, this will be in use as long as there is a functioning city here, a couple of weeks is neither here or there.
I keep getting rung by journalists desperate for some kind of catastrophising or conspiracy theorising. And keep never making the cut, because i say there is literally nothing to see here, but our cumbersome safety bureaucracy working through its plodding paces.
Which is all probably for the best – no one wants a disaster, or perhaps more accurately, no one in these institutions wants to have been the one who sped through a step and therefore gets to carry the responsibility for any kind of fuck-up. Large or small.
Important to point out that urban rail tunnels are among the longest lasting and most productive pieces of transport infrastructure ever built. Overground (ironically) trains still zip through a tunnel under the Thames started in 1843. Original tiles line the walls.
A tiny bit of patience is not much to ask. But i guess internet fora are, if nothing else, impatience engines.
What I’m looking forward to?
CRL being ordinary, everyday, just there. Working away, people complaining about the next thing.
This will happen.
What I’m expecting?
PT ridership numbers steadily rising in response to investment, as we had pre-covid. Not returning to pre-covid pattern, that world has gone, but surpassing pre-covid volumes, and reshaping the city, as transformational infrastructure does.
The new AT should get a new name too, I suggest Auckland Metro/Tāmaki Makaurau Metro. And it being keenly focused of performance, and constant iterative service improvement.
100%. It’s not whetting the appetite, it’s a total miss publicising station tours before announcing the opening date. Or the new timetable. I’m over it. Any comms until we have a date is counter-productive. Really, just STFU. And for the avoidance of doubt, I support the CRL, the architecture and design, what it will do for the city centre and for transport across and around Auckland. It will be transformative. But even articles like this one, however well-intentioned are now beyond irritating, even to people me.
I should make it clear that I don’t have anything against Jolisa’s article. But I reiterate the parallels with COVID. We were taking (I have to underline this) *excellent and necessary* decisions which saved countless lives. “The great unwashed” were increasingly complaining about it. We ignored those people because they were clueless and reactionary. They were. But ignoring them just made them occupy Parliament and vote for the Right-wing parties and look where we are now.
You make a very valid point. I think the CRL is fantastic and a week here or there is not of importance to me. But communication needs to be better.
And well the covid, not sure it was just a few extremists. NZ was closed when the rest of the world had been travelling for a year (Mid 2021 risk groups were vaccinated), we opened again in April 2022 and that delay was questionable.
At the same time we could read that for example Sweden (run by a Labour government) interpreted the same data differently. They saw no need to close schools or small business and as time progressed we saw that data showed that those outside risk-groups could handle Covid just fine and that shutting down whole cities were the wrong decision. Its the same here, safety is good, just dont do to much of it.
This is an irresponsible rewriting of history. We had extremely short and mild lockdowns compared to other places, and were never required to stay in our homes, as happened overseas. Do you not remember that summer of 2020/21 when we were free to move around as we wished while people overseas were terrified, because death was all around them, and could not believe the pictures of us sunning on the beach? By delaying Covid’s entry, we were able to defend ourselves with a whole lot of tools the places hit earlier simply didn’t have. Comparing notes with people from other places shows we had unrivalled freedoms.
Good point, Derek. You might also add that Sweden has a number of allied countries within close proximity, so if hospital systems had reached overcapacity, patients could have been transferred to several different countries in less than 3 hours on a plane.
I think the merits of elements of the covid response were questionable. It was hard, it was complex, it was urgent. I get it. Good things were done, and not so good.
I really detest this dogmatic, polemical polarisation of positions on all manner of things.
We can stand back and try to objectively review things, and how we might do things differently in the future.
Same for CRL.
Doesn’t take much to irritate you then. What’s wrong with you people you all need hobbies or something whinging about nothing, I actually found this article really interesting about the sculptures. you’re the type that would moan and whinge if someone threw a bucket of water over you if you were on fire.
I agree. I don’t mind this article but it’s more of a “this is complete look at how great it is” vs the reality of “generic incompetence in various public agencies delaying CRL for months with no end in sight”.
CRL is great, and once open all will be forgiven, but pumping out PR/comms about it opening without it opening is just nuts. Most other projects they just go silent and prep their PR so they can launch it all when it’s go time. It should be go time, but it’s not.
You’re over it… ok. Be over it then?
Seriously what are you expecting them to do, go into secret radio silence media blackout util the exact opening date is set in stone? Why?
This is a case of “stop reading the internet”.
Having beautiful things is not a sin. Quite the opposite, it is how societies signal things that they deem valuable.
The “internet” votes and pays taxes.
Auckland Transport’s evasiveness on the opening date of the CRL is getting beyond ridiculous and is a salutary monument to the senior leadership cowardice and PR failures that has led to its partial dismantling as an independent CCO.
Each Iteration of testing though can mean more or less work before it can open. Chill everyone.
The evasiveness is not AT’s fault. The problem is that the paperwork is on NZTA’s desk and AT can’t do a damn thing until NZTA gets out the rubber stamp. I believe Sydney’s Metro announced an opening date but then had to withdraw it because the equivalent decision from the regulators didn’t come down in time.
Yes, I experienced that with the M1 to Sydenham extension.
In my case it was to open the week before I was in Sydney, however the delay meant that it opened while I was there.
Yep. AT should stop playing nice, and say “We would open it tomorrow if we could, all our bits are done, we’re waiting on NZTA and FENZ” or whoever is at fault.
The solidarity AT shows with other orgs just means AT (and by extension Auckland) gets messed around. Sometimes it’s time to be quiet and let your partners recover, but a lot of the time it’s time to let ATs partners own their screw ups rather than AT taking the blame. AT taking the blame takes away the pressure for ATs partners to sort out their messes, and often means the wrong people remain in roles and mess up again and again when they should have been rotated out.
AT does not (by its own choice) have a rail safety licence so there is no legal way that it can open the CRL to services. It is reliant on both KiwiRail and Auckland One Rail having their safety case variations approved by NZTA
What does this have to do with a statue being unveiled?
The CRL is a very complex beast requiring very thorough and complex testing and commissioning of the many thousands of bits, that are required to work together. Under normal, and fault conditions. Good testing will reveal deficiencies which will take time to find adopt and then retest.
Sure not yet having an opening date is frustrating.
But far less frustrating then opening, and then enduring multiple shutdowns as failures occur. Or discovering that items of emergency equipment or emergency processes fail to work in an emergency. The Christchurch earthquake revealed emergency egress stairs that collapsed because original construction debris from years earlier prevented the sliding joints from actually sliding as intended, in an earthquake.
We are talking about billions and billions and billions of dollars of PUBLIC money and years and years and years of untold heartache, small business bankruptcies and huge disruption of the CBD. AT needs to get over itself, recognise that it’s been spending public money and that same public has a right to know, and stop being so damned precious about a reputation it doesn’t have.
AT have told us they are waiting for final approval from NZTA so they can’t confirm when opening date will be. If they don’t know they obviously can’t tell us.
In my view it would be a lot worse to name a date and then have to change it because sign-off is not complete.
I think a lot of people don’t realise (or more cynically, dont care) the sheer cost that holding all the debt and receiving none of the revenue or benefits has. Daily interest costs of $600,000 – $700,000.
This is part of why we have such high headline price tags.
I think AT should just hang up a “Mission accomplished” banner and declare everything done. That should fix it. You just need to bluster with confidence, rather than hedge. I think that’s what you’re asking?
Seriously, if they could they would have said. As per some other comments here, they can’t, but unless you have some actual inside information that delays are due to avoidable screwups, just chill. I agree – but in a different way than what they intended – with some other commenter above. This is an example of conspiracy theorising. What do you want them to do about that in the social media age? Put out more press releases? Maybe release some opposing conspiracy theories or something?
“Everything bad is AT’s fault, everything good is in spite of AT” is how you come across
Cool statues but it’s a shame nobody will be able to see them because there are no on-street car parks?
I don’t think you’d want to spend $700k on an artwork just to have someone park a truck in front of it.
Maybe visitors could make use of the 21,000 or so cheap, structured, casual parking options available to the public around the city centre instead.
That’s aside from the 26,000 apartment and office tied parking spots.
Cry me a river.
I must admit I assumed craw was taking the piss.
We live in a satire, but I still miss the joke!
”nobody will be able to see them” accept the tens of thousands of workers, residents and students who are stomping around the CBD pretty much every day.
We have all those park & ride car parks in the city centre though (buildings that were knocked down and nothing ever built in their stead). I think those will do. Maybe we could bowl a few more. I am sure it would be approved.
It’ll be the busiest intersection in the country. But if you’re sufficiently motivated you can drive your car to the statue, get out and enjoy the city. Then take an Uber to the tow yard, pick it up/pay the parking charges.
I think they were being facetious.
Probably but who knows? I saw Jezza’s post before posting, but we have genuinely parking must exist everywhere posters as well as the sarcastic ones.
they will be blocked by delivery trucks and uber drivers anyway, don’t worry
And eventually knocked so they tilt a bit.
As a City Centre Resident, I adore that I am contributing to these amazing statues, permanent statues are difficult as so many are seasonal, and my tamariki love these too.
It will do us well to remember that we have been waiting since the 1940s for the CRL. The destruction of our tramlines was a sad time in retrospect. Also remembering that in the 1970s we had a mayor who would have built this for us too.
Another month or two is nothing on the time scale of Taamaki Makaurau, but the CRL will be the greatest infrastructure to open in my lifetime, my tamariki’s lifetime; finally providing some real ammunition to use against the car lobby, as the Manukau to Swanson Line should easily outrun everything else.
I have noticed train drivers accerating when they can, and in a hardwired twentyfive thousand volt train, neither a car nor aeroplane can induct adrenaline like flying on or out of GI tunnel; so if you need adrenaline, our trains will provide it.
bah humbug
Since 1923, even.
I love the sculptures and yes, they’ll be great landmarks and meeting spots.
Drury and Paerātā Stations opening Sunday… Was there a dawn ceremony? Friends of mine out that way have been asking me if I know when they could celebrate. Are the Q&A sessions at each station on Saturday going to be a celebration, or as low-key as they sound?
This headline being posted to GA on the same day Chris Transport announces the signing of the Warkworth to Te Hana PPP ranks high on the dramatic irony meter
Oh shit, you are right. James gets his way and can kill people on local streets before driving of to *checks notes* the north of the Auckland region.
Also, because everything is absolutely fine, they will demolish a wetland forest: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/661426/women-devastated-wetland-forest-could-be-felled-to-make-way-for-highway
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/warkworth-te-hana-ppp-signed
Must have missed the ‘build more motorways’ part of the government’s fuel response plan
What I have found very interesting is the government just put out a press release and didn’t call a press conference in an election year to confirm the biggest ever road project in NZ.
I think this project might have moved from being a political benefit to a political risk as people from other parts of the country realise how much it is going to cost and how they will be paying for it.
Also interesting is Chris has apparently forgotten that this is the second section of the Northland Expressway, Puhoi to Warkworth was the first.
Er yes, that particular stroke of timing was certainly not on my bingo card!
[averts eyes from this evening’s headline, mutters last night’s calming mantra: COOL NEW EEL, COOL NEW EEL…]
Wonderful stuff. It’s brilliant. It’s also ultra ultra expensive. People are being cared for in the corridors of hospitals.
I am going to embrace this, but…. I am also going to say this should be a one off
No, it’s not expensive. It’s peanuts in comparison with the expensive (and destructive) road widening paradigm, which has been happening all around the city. Using road reallocation instead would have saved tens or hundreds of millions of dollars per project. Projects like A2B, Eastern Busway, Drury and Paerata Stations. Even smaller projects like Carrington Rd could have been done for a few million dollars with modal filters and road reallocation, instead of the $130m+ for widening.
Comparing with ridiculously expensive roading projects is a straw man argument.
Have you actually been in a hospital recently?
My daughter was, for two nights, and it wasn’t good.
It’s time that some of you woke middle class people actually woke up and saw how people are really suffering out there. And where public funds REALLY need to go.
The article’s about the art work. I therefore thought you were complaining about that cost, which is really neither here nor there when we’re discussing all the things we need to fund and the other things we need to stop funding. But perhaps you’re not talking about the art work.
I’m glad you’re woke about health though. I’m sorry for your daughter’s experience. It’s all too common.
The sculptures cost the equivalent of about 21 minutes of the annual health budget.
That Auckland Council decided to spend this on sculptures is largely irrelevant to what the government decides to spend on healthcare.
This is nothing to with middle class people being woke, this is all to do with people like yourself completely loosing perspective.
Whangārei hospital redevelopment (stage 1) = $700,000,000
Eel statue = $700,000
So 0.1% of the cost of one (1) stage of a hospital project.
Or – 1 year of ACC claims for crash injuries = $700,000,000
https://www.acc.co.nz/newsroom/media-resources/road-injury-statistics/
Your hospital experience sounds terrible, Zen Man.
However the government has decided not to fund the health system properly to overcome post-Covid shortages of nurses and doctors worldwide. Cancelling the CRL project would not have made any difference to that.
Grown-up societies can manage both health and public transport.
People can talk about the joy that beauty brings and still care about the suffering many face.
Absolutely astounded by the faux outrage and anger at the opening not happening TODAY, what is wrong with people, is it just social media warping peoples’ minds?
In 10/20/30 years these “delays” won’t even register, but if they rush the opening and it gets closed again or there are problems, then we will be back on the outrage bandwagon
Great artwork – should be more of it.
If I had my way, when the Wynyard Point park is done, I’d put a 70m high pacific warrior there, facing out to the sea, guarding the city. Lit up at night it would look amazing.
That, or our own Guggenheim…
I wanted a Pacific Media and Performing Arts university there, ringed with walkways and public stages, but that’s too ambitious it seems.
I think the lack of a pre-announced opening date is yet another example of the unwillingness of NZ public servants to take responsibility to deliver on the objectives they have accepted, the courage to fess up when things don’t go to plan and the honesty to share the details with the public.
The stunningly low performance standards being displayed here by whomever is in charge is showing everyone involved down to the newest starter that performance objectives don’t count. On time delivery doesn’t count. Informing stakeholders doesn’t count.
Is it any wonder that we can’t deliver ANY infrastructure on time or on budget in this country when our biggest ever infra project with probably the largest ever project planning team can’t even set and communicate a go live date.
They can’t even seem to be able to set a date with caveats as in “provided WK issue the necessary approvals on time”. Woeful.
This is incredibly dramatic lol