Thursday, February 2, 2012

Welcome to the Viaduct

Happy Wednesday everyone! As promised, I took some pictures of the Viaduct. Yesterday when I had planned to take them it was extremely gloomy and ended up pouring rain. Thankfully though, today was bright and sunny... much more suited to photographs. The Viaduct is actually one of my favorite parts of the city and is, in my opinion, part of what makes the Auckland city center wonderfully unique. Ready for a tour? : )

This is a shot facing Queens Wharf, taken from the top of the tidal steps. You can see the brigde just on the left that allows pedestrian access from Queens Wharf to the Viaduct. I had to wait almost twenty minutes to cross today while the bridge was up for a boat to pass.


Here is a better view of the tidal steps from the end of the bridge.

This photo, again from the bridge, shows the over sized lounge chairs and an info center constructed from re purposed shipping containers (See that tower in the background?).

Shifting the view ninety degrees to the left, you can see the Viaduct Event Center, where the seafood festival was held.

Another view of the events center. Those are commercial fishing boats that you can see tied to the dock just in front of it.

This is just beyond the event center looking away from the city. There is a row of restaurants to the left, collectively known as North Wharf. The expansive line of benches on the right are made from remu that was salvaged from the railways. You can still see the rail road tracks in the cement that were once used by trains to carry shipping containers from the boats to other parts of New Zealand. 

Just past the restaurants is a playground and this Japanese sculpture called "Wind Tree." Continuing the shipping theme, the bathrooms at the playground are housed in a shipping container.

The pool beneath the sculpture serves as summer time heat relief for both seagulls and the occasional small child.

Beyond the playground is the lawn used for the fish market on the weekends. There is a great view of the Auckland bridge, which is seen above. When I've gone sailing, we left from West Harbor, and you have to sail under the bridge.


The city from the tidal steps.


Here you can see the North Shore and Rangitoto (the mountain in the background).

I really love looking at all of the boats!

The masts of the sailboat from the picture above are SO tall.

I'll be back tomorrow evening to talk about the Lantern Festival : )
Until then,

Lots of love,
A

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