People come from all over to see the biggest tourist attraction in Auckland. Paris has a tower, San Francisco has a bridge, Auckland has an old sewage tank. Down under the ground you go, and for 30, 40 dollars you get to take a good old look around. Of course, it’s a bit more than a sewage tank. It has penguins. It has a gift shop. It has a perspex tunnel that makes it feel like you’re under the sea. And, it has sharks.
People love Kelly Tarlton’s. I couldn’t count how many times we took our daughter and she stood patiently in line for an hour or more. Much more patiently than me. Years later, she told me the look I sometimes get is, “your Kelly Tarlton’s queue face.”
But what a great object lesson. With a bit of imagination you can go so very far. I want to go from one side of the harbour to the other. My great dream of nearly 20 years now is an underwater tunnel between the picturesque seaside village of Devonport and the city. An under-harbour tunnel connecting us to the bottom of Queen Street, with one of those travellator things you get in big international airports. And all under a perspex cover, like Kelly Tarlton’s.
I have been banging on about this idea forever. I enthused about it to the mayor of Auckland. His eyes glazed over. I proposed it in a debate with our Prime Minister. She didn’t say no, reader, she didn’t say no. I live in hope.
And, I offer this as a little object lesson in how a rough little nub of an idea can turn into something more through the magic of collaboration. As soon as I first wrote about it (at this point all I imagined was an underwater travellator in a tunnel) people were helpfully suggesting how to make it better.
