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Sir Bob Harvey at Karekare Beach, is a veteran of the surf lifesaving club \u2013 and he wants other Aucklanders and their visitors to enjoy the city\u2019s coastline just as much as he does. Photo: Dean Purcell\/Supplied<\/p>\nOpinion: I\u2019ve been dreaming of a waka.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
It\u2019s big and magnificent and is a spectacular wondrous\u00a0piece of architecture\u00a0for\u00a0the Wynyard Point.\u00a0 A New Zealand equivalent\u00a0of the Sydney Opera House or the Balboa Guggenheim.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And in\u00a02026, my dream is\u00a0that it will become a reality and something that Auckland can be proud of.\u00a0 Something that is so needed to inspire and celebrate who we are and what we have become.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
In 2013 when I was on the board of Te Papa I suggested it was time\u00a0for\u00a0a Te Papa North.\u00a0 I was chairing the board of Waterfront Auckland and it seemed to me the idea of bringing something important to the end of the Tank Farm would be an inspiring addition\u00a0to a city that had only managed a common sky tower to mark its centrepiece.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Auckland just needs something special and important and relevant.\u00a0I called a meeting of all the directors of museums across New Zealand to workshop what could be an iconic and glorious addition to the City of Sails.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Ten years later Lindsay Mackie of Archimedia presented his Te Waka Moana concept to a small group of us, as a must-see world class attraction. And I knew that this brilliant idea was what Auckland could dream of having and be renowned\u00a0for\u00a0on the end of Wynyard Point.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Te Waka Moana is\u00a0for\u00a0me my biggest personal dream, that I would like to see come to fruition in\u00a02026\u00a0and to be celebrated as a special and wonderful iconic tribute to the land and voyagers.\u00a0 The greatest human migration across the vast Pacific.<\/p>\n
The last five years have been bringing this concept into reality.\u00a0 We have worked closely with Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua, our Polynesian community and our maritime historians.\u00a0 We have refined the design and now we feel that it will comfortably sit on the new council park Te Ara Tukutuku.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sir Bob Harvey at Karekare Beach, is a veteran of the surf lifesaving club \u2013 and he wants other Aucklanders and their visitors to enjoy the city\u2019s coastline just as much as he does. Photo: Dean Purcell\/Supplied<\/p>\n
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Te Waka Moana will be more than a museum. Its five beautiful floors of wood and glass will be an immersive experience of visual wonderment, artefacts and history but its prominence will be seen as a welcoming and iconic destination\u00a0for\u00a0Aucklanders and international visitors.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
A must-see, a must-visit experience. It\u2019s time now to unveil its potential and its glorious future.\u00a0It\u2019s time to cheer on something important and next year is its unveiling.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That\u2019s my dream. It\u2019s quite a dream.<\/p>\n
If I had three wishes they would be\u00a0for\u00a0New Zealand to listen more to the voices of our youth, our next generation seems to be seriously missing in our conversation.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
My second wish is\u00a0for\u00a0more consideration\u00a0for\u00a0our disabled community \u2013 ignored, underfunded invisible.<\/p>\n
And my last wish is\u00a0for\u00a0more fun. I don\u2019t know when we last laughed out loud.\u00a0 Since Covid and the floods, a cloud of gloom as blown in from the Tasman like Australian bushfire smoke and has given us a seriously damp and gloomy outlook as a nation.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
A dose of happiness is seriously in need.\u00a0 Hey dude, lighten up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opinion: I\u2019ve been dreaming of a waka.\u00a0 It\u2019s big and magnificent and is a spectacular wondrous\u00a0piece of architecture\u00a0for\u00a0the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11220,373,111,43,7439,139,69,2114,81250],"class_list":["post-200018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-comment","tag-featured","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newsroom-pro","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opinion","tag-summer-newsroom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}