I was lamenting the loss of ‘the old fire’ here the other day, so I thought that I’d take time out to try and blog a little in ‘the old style’; less considered, less from the comfort of home, and little more drunken.
I’m sitting about in a pub waiting about for a mate to turn up, and it seems like the perfect opportunity to knock out a few words.
Trouble is, what to write about? With the movement into the public service the old love of lambasting political figures has disappeared (to be honest, I’ve actually become extremely cynical about the whole thing), and I’ve promise myself not to become one of those expectant fathers who spend the better part of their time talking about their impending lifestyle change.
So… I’ll leave it at that.
NO! WAIT!
SINK the HIKITIA
God, I’ve been wanting to write this post for ages. Every Sunday we walk past this damn tub on the way to the Waitangi Park Markets, and it’s been making me increasingly angry.
So I need to ask the question, why in the hell is this thing sitting rusting in our harbour?
I’ve a sneaking suspicion that it is linked somehow to the sentiment people have for the Bucket Fountain. It’s a horrible object that people secretly hate, but pretend they love because it’s been around *forever*, and therefore deserves to be spoken about in slightly reverential tones. And I can accept that. Except… Wellingtonians have only had access to the waterfront for a few years. I do not remember people getting excited about this wreck when I lived here in the 1990s for example. This suggests that the attachment much be recent.
But WHY? Damn this thing is ugly. It’s a great, big, floating, piece, of, crap.
I can also accept the argument that it’s much loved by youngsters. And who wouldn’t love a giant antique boat covered in rusty sharp edges to play on when they’re a wee tacker?
The trouble is, the youngsters aren’t actually allowed on it. Why? Because it’s some kind of hazard. And I agree. It is a big, barnacle and mussel-covered hazard that should be taken out of the water and put into a park where it can be maintained and have kids climb all over it. That, or dynamited.
I’m inclined to think the latter would be better.
Now I know that the bleeding-heart historical preservation societies out there would like to keep this massive pile of crap right there in the harbour because, well, because it’s “historical”. Oh, and because it’s a “working boat”. To which I say, “bullshit it’s a working boat. In two years the bastard has barely moved. If it was working it would have had it’s sorry arse performance-managed out the goddamn door and down to Work and Income to slowly molder and fret about the glory days.”
Actually… Looking at the state of the old crapper, this might have already happened. Doesn’t work. Sits in one spot for ages. I covered in warning signs. Never gets out and about. Is obsolete technology and not useful.
You do the math.
So join with me in shouting, SINK THE HIKIT!A! And do Wellington a big favour. If Kerry can’t do anything else more useful than build freaking roads, at least she can make a few pedestrians safer from falling iron.
30 October, 2008 at 8:53 pm
It’s not just about removing an eyesore, it’s about getting old blokes in overalls with beards to bugger off away from the waterfront and back to their garages and sheds where they belong.
30 October, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Watch it Richard, Che’s got a beard now! For all I know he’s got the overalls too.
31 October, 2008 at 1:30 am
Che’s got a beard? Crikey!
I have been thinking of you, and Second Chef, in expectant parent mode. In between entertaining thoughts of singing the Hikitea, perhaps you could throw a crumb or two to those of us who are wishing you well for the next few weeks.
November 8 is a good day (for sinking the Hikitea, of course). As is November 15.
31 October, 2008 at 5:55 am
i plead innocence on the overalls. and that beard has been retired until i’m actually in my 40s…
i had a vision of the wee tacker being born and crying for days because “dad is scarey”.
31 October, 2008 at 7:59 am
Aargh! I’ve got to be careful about what I say now, of course, and I don’t really know where to start. Here goes:
- heritage is not just about pretty twiddly Victorian buildings, it also includes industrial and infrastructural structures, and the Hikitia is a vital part of our maritime history
- a few bits of rust on the surface don’t make it a “crapper”
- it’s actually spelled “Hikitia”, as your photos show
- It’s. Not. UGLY!!!
31 October, 2008 at 8:10 am
Rust on utterly useless representational naked bloke art: beautiful.
Rust on honourably retired triumphs of engineering: ugly.
I’m not buying it.
You’re a philistine, Tibby. There is no romance in your soul. I bet you don’t like steam engines either.
31 October, 2008 at 8:27 am
the thing is useless, and ugly. it has no grace, and no redeeming features, other than “it used to be used to lift things”.
that said, spelling corrected.
and steam trains *ROCK*!! assuming they’re maintained and… actually do something. otherwise they sit in a shed and behave themselves without polluting our seascape.
maybe what we need isn’t to sink this monstrosity, but to move it round to evans bay where it can be with that other piece of crap everyone is so damn sentimental about.
31 October, 2008 at 8:55 am
YES!!!!!!
I hate the bloody thing!
It remins me of rusty/gutted cars on the front lawn … sends a mssage of “we don’t care about this place”
SINK IT!
My son will be happy to help!
31 October, 2008 at 8:59 am
If you were to sink something truly ugly on the waterfront you’d have to start with Te Papa (after the contents have been removed for safekeeping in an orderly fashion, of course), and then place some minebusting dynamite along Waitangi “park” (except for the skateboarders area). The Hikitia is the last of your problems there.
31 October, 2008 at 10:07 am
i’ve never had to have fisticuffs with an italian.
put up your dukes, tiso!
31 October, 2008 at 10:09 am
They used the Hikitia to hoik something out of the harbour when I was still in Wellington, early 2000s. Not the old girl’s fault if there’s not much sunken treasure in Wellington…
31 October, 2008 at 10:35 am
put up your dukes, tiso!
Name a time, Tibby! The place will have to be my living room on account of the house arrest (a little something I got from the last fisticuffs).
31 October, 2008 at 10:44 am
Rusty cars on the front lawn. Ah, now it’s clear. You handwringing bourgeois types, with your box borders and your camellias and spaniels. Honest machinery reposing in peace is an aesthetic affront, eh? Up with the ugly, I say! Let us draw solace from the gentle decay of our ancestors’ work. Enjoy the visual interest provided by its complex lines and textures, far more stimulating than the uniform surfaces that surround it.
A couple of hundred years ago, what we now think of as beautiful unspoiled landscapes were abominated by civilised people as howling, unproductive wastes. If you thought a mountain range was beautiful, you were mad. It took a whole Romantic century for people to turn this on its head, learn to love the natural and start coupling words like “rugged” and “wild” with “grandeur” and “majestic.”
Similarly, you need to recalibrate your sensibilities so you can see the majesty and pathos of flaking iron and peeling paint and mighty steel ropes. Don’t be tidy-minded fuddy-duddies. Come join us on the avant-garde of perception.
31 October, 2008 at 10:53 am
PS: check out this guy’s work:
http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/
Click “ships” (stupid photgraphy sites with bad nav). Admire. Now imagine what he would make of the Hikitia.
31 October, 2008 at 10:56 am
With the help of some seriously heavy machinery, surely?
31 October, 2008 at 11:14 am
the irony is that this thing is one big hoik in the harbour…
but, i’m coming round. i can see now that its gentle oxidisation is a metaphor for modernity itself. brute force itself gradually passing with the turning of the seasons, transforming at the molecular level, aided by a couple of kg of nitroglycernine stuffed under the rotors by a frogman.
this time we might be able to blame the italians…
31 October, 2008 at 8:48 pm
It’s an educational devise. It’s contrast against hydraulics, inspires the developing minds to ask: how do’s it work, what makes it tick? Then there is the contemplation of ballast/displacement: how much water is displaced when it lifts 20 ton, that should be obvious to us crown ups, but will you remember to talk about this sort of stuff as you walk around the water front when you have a developing mind in tow. Please, don’t sink it, or I’l ring the cops on you.
31 October, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Oh, my brother is on the water side workers union and he’s got a really big beard, so watch out.
3 November, 2008 at 9:05 am
he’d say, “why aren’t more people photgraphing this thing? oh… that’s right, it’s a piece of crap.”
18 November, 2008 at 6:30 am
Who actually owns the Hikitea these days? Her sister ship Rapaki (which served as the heavy-lift crane for the Lyttelton Harbour Board from 1926 to 1988) now has pride of place in the Auckland Maritime Museum. You can go on board, view the workings – surely it wouldn’t be hard for Wellington to do the same? Maybe with a bit of upkeep to stop the falling rusty iron you wouldn’t find it such an eyesore.
17 May, 2009 at 4:21 pm
it’s going to Lyttleton for a makeover in June. It’ll be back looking brand new.
17 July, 2009 at 9:18 am
Hey I guess you’re sad the rustbucket has gone – but fret not, she will return in October, but all nicely painted, surveyed, ready to work again and good for another 100 years. All credit to the teams at Lyttelton – I saw her out of the water there and you’re right about the mussels (and a starfish and lots of other things too). She will at last be an asset to the waterfront on her triumphant return!! Cheers…
28 August, 2009 at 9:12 am
I am the Chief Rigger on the “Hikitia” and have enjoyed reading this different perspective and accompanying messages about our dear old ship. The reason that it was so rusty was becasue we wanted to keep her afloat, so spent so much time working where the dockside punters couldn’t see it. We also concentrated on heavy lifting (300 lifts since it was saved by the Box and Ackrill families). Since the new owners, The Maritime Heritage Trust of Wellington took over, many local people and organisations have donated and lent money to get it restored and as mentioned by Stuart, above, she will return soon and will not be an eyesore to the delicate amongst you. When you see her again, just realise that you are in touch with Wellington’s maritime past and that the “Hikitia” is still needed by those who matter on Wellington’s Waterfront, both commercial interests and heritage interests.I am one of those oldies involved in her, no beard, I am sorry to say, and have been with her on and off since 1958. Thanks to Chi for this opportunity to state another perspective on the old girl.
28 August, 2009 at 9:39 am
You may need the refurbished Hikitia to hoik the remains of “whatever” out of Island Bay, you know the dive attraction which keeps breaking up and coming ashore.
30 August, 2009 at 10:03 am
Credit to those who have spent so much time and effort in maintaining this amazing vessel from the past which speaks so much of the contribution it has made to Wellington’s maritime history. Good on you all of you who are contributing to restoring it so that young and old alike can learn about the colourful stories she has to share. I look forward to seeing her return with her new paint job. For those who can only see her for the rust, look below the surface and you’ll find an amazing group of people who work hard to keep this unique vessel in working order so she can continue to provide Wellington with a maritime lifting capacity.
31 August, 2009 at 6:50 am
good on you guys, i admire your dedication to what is a great piece of C19th engineering.
i’ll reserve judgement until i see what the old tub looks like.
2 September, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Who is this mad guy? I work as a knotter and Rigger of Thames Barges in England (NO BEARD)
2 September, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Hi, I work on Thames Barges in England (NO BEARD) as Rigger,knot tyer and crew member. Two years ago I came to NZ and saw The Hikitia, I thought she was a lovely old girl, I know how much work goes in to restoring historical vessels and appreciate that things like that take time. All of the Thames Barges are over 100 years old, a country’s historical vessels are worth preserving, especially when they are still capable of carrying out the job they were built for. We have many comments from grockles (uninformed visitors) who say that the Thames barges are old-fashioned and have no place in a world of plastic gin palaces (which, incidentally, make very good fenders when they moor in the wrong place!) Instead of complaining about the Hikitia, be proud of her and of the people who spend so much time working on her. If you feel an overwhelming need to blow something up, there are some truly ugly buildings in London whose absence would make the world a better place! We are going back to NZ later this year to see the Hikitia, and I think more should be done to promote her as a tourist attraction – NZ is so much more than bungee jumping and sheep, so look at the wider picture.
20 October, 2009 at 9:19 pm
What was that about bastard barely moves?
http://www.3news.co.nz/Hikitia-rare-steam-crane-comes-out-of-retirement/tabid/423/articleID/126201/cat/64/Default.aspx
31 May, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Sadly Wellington with all its potential seems since the 1960′s to be hell bent making itself a very ugly city. And it had such a great start with the original Edwardian buildings too. Does anyone know anyone who doesn’t like Edwardian buildings? Exactly why this rather obvious error is happening without any protest is a mystery to me, can anyone shed any light up it?
16 October, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Hikitia goes to work tomorrow (Monday 17 Oct 2011) to replace a passenger walkway at the Interislander terminal… the top one in the centre birth.
The existing one will be lifted out and a new one will be put in its place.
Work starts at the terminal after the 7:00am ferry departs and we hope to be finished having put the old one on a truck on the opposite wharf by the time the ferry returns at 1:30pm.
There is lots of work like this around the Wellington wharfs. There is no access for a land-based crane, and where there is, the wharf is not strong enough to hold the crane, never mind what it is lifting.
Oldest steam crane of 80 ton capacity IN THE WORLD!
20 October, 2011 at 9:13 pm
Amazing vessel to still have operating in Wellington.
While of a past era the Hikitia has served us well over many years. Great to see the efforts to restore her to her former glory with all the improvents in the past few years. When we see events like the grounding of the Rena in the Bay of Plenty it is good to know we still have a local floating crane which is unique to New Zealand. Keep up the great work.