I so enjoyed the 36th America’s Cup, but...

I so enjoyed the 36th America’s Cup. At times I was on the water, or watching from the glorious grandstand of North Head, and at other times watching on my 14-inch black and white television set. (I would have thought after all these free articles I’ve written over the last ten or so years for the Henry Luce of the North Shore that he might have splashed out and bought me a new television by now.)

Television pictures that were shown throughout the world showed New Zealand at party time, beautiful looking boats, families barbecuing and having the odd beer, jumping into the waters of the Hauraki Gulf, fishing, everything that makes New Zealand the envy of the world.

One thing I didn’t enjoy about the America’s Cup was one hour on TV1 prior to race days, when TV1 rolled out some incredibly bad so-called comedians and so-called influencers to roam the Viaduct trying to be funny. The yachtsmen they gathered on the couch were fantastic: Chris Steele, Jan Shearer and then Dean Barker, the iconic New Zealand yachtsman. 

Unfortunately the North Head stadium didn’t really live up to expectations. The Covid levels didn’t allow people to gather up there; therefore the racing wasn’t on Course C which so many people were hopeful for because of the viewing situation. But that didn’t stop Auckland Transport blocking off roads, and having security guards at the base of North Head when the racing was 10 miles away at the eastern beaches.

So where to now for the America’s Cup? Who knows?  All I know is that Grant Dalton, love him or not, has done such a magnificent job winning the Cup in Bermuda and defending it here in Auckland. I thank him from the bottom of my heart for what he has done for New Zealand yachting. I believe no one else could have done it apart from him; he liaised with central government, local government, local iwi and big business to have the event run here. 

My only regret is not seeing the armada of super-yachts that were scheduled to be here; the fleet of the magnificent 100-year-old J Class yachts and the thousands of overseas visitors who would have loved to have been here, including a swag of my friends from the USA.

What did I say a few articles ago about the Skypath under the Harbour Bridge? I told you months ago it was a dead duck, and it was never going to happen because of the engineering feasibility. I feel sorry for all the people at Northcote Point whose lives have been disrupted over the years with compulsory land acquisition notices, feasibility studies and just the general worry of what is going to happen in their area.

My men at the coal face tell me that either the Government or Transit NZ have spent quite a few million dollars to buy four properties to enable this so called Skypath to go ahead. I have also been told by another man at the coal face that the intellectual property was bought off a designer for $1m in regards to the engineering of the Skypath. Isn’t it time people became accountable for their actions in this sort of situation?

While sitting on Lake Road for an hour this morning trying to get out to my yard, I worked out a simple solution to decongest Lake Road, and it's real simple:  We build a causeway from the end of Bayswater Avenue to the area where the old toll plaza used to be, with an onramp to the Harbour Bridge and an offramp coming north sweeping over the southern lanes joining the causeway, thus delivering vehicles onto Bayswater Avenue, which is a good wide road, and delivering vehicles down into the Devonport area. If anyone has ever been to Coronado Island in San Diego and had a look at the bridge sweeping from the city to the island that was built in 1978, that’s a beautiful bridge and there’s no reason why we couldn’t build something like this. If we had this causeway, there could be a lock holding the tide halfway over, to enable sailing, rowing and other water activities during the weekends. This would solve the problem, instead of the almost impossible task of widening Lake Road. 

Although I suppose we could get Auckland Transport to look at this, engage a team of experts, acquire a few properties in Bayswater for millions of dollars, write thousands of pages in reports, spend a poultice of money, have public forums, all with ever-increasing budgets, and then just never go ahead with it.

We have been sadly and badly let down with our so-called city fathers over the years. The last person with any vision for this city was Sir Dove Myer Robinson; since then we have gathered nothing but clowns within our councils, and our beautiful city has suffered for it.


By: , Gundry's Grumbles

Issue 118 April 2021