Editorial: The quay to unlocking an unwelcome eyesore?

Imported cars lined up at the Ports of Auckland on the Captain Cook Wharf, with Queens Wharf above. File photo / Jason Oxenham.

EDITORIAL

Perhaps fitting for one of the least impressive of Auckland's waterfront facilities, little history is readily available about Captain Cook Wharf, except that it was built in 1922.

Patrons on the balconies of the eateries on Quay St will know it as a brutish, open wharf, thrusting bluntly into the Waitemata Harbour and covered in used vehicles, regularly replenished by huge ships disgorging their cargo.

There have been myriad proposals to put this pier to better use. Last year's grandiose scheme for a partially sunken sports stadium included demolition. Conversely, in 2015, it was mooted as a new cruise ship berth with an extension to put it into comparable length with the neighbouring Princes and Queens wharfs.

The latest proposal is to finally relieve the wharf of the cars, vans and small trucks - to instead barge these imports via Bledisloe Wharf to East Tamaki. The idea has apparently been welcomed by owner/operators Ports of Auckland. Little has yet been speculated this time around about what use could be made of the wharf, but should the vehicle transfer idea take hold, it won't be long.

One early account of Captain Cook Wharf holds that, way before it was extended and still under its former name of the Quay Street Wharf, it was the site of fish markets. That it might teem again with people, fresh produce or activity of any sort, is certainly an exciting prospect. Anything but those jalopies, jammed cheek-to-jowl like a clunker car convention - foreshore!