1 I don't understand commentators calling for the end of Auckland's port, & branding the facility ugly & burdensome. I think the port is suffused with history, & that it provides a continual & delightful aesthetic spectacle. (short thread)
2 To walk beside the port is to tread sacred ground. This is where two of the greatest political struggles in NZ history were conducted, in 1913 & 1951. It is the liminal zone linking NZ with the rest of humanity, the place where kings & smugglers & film stars disembarked 
3 In a NZ that has largely deindustrialised, the port offers us the spectacle of skilled, ritualised manual labour. The colourful crates that move continually above the port are like elements in an abstract painting. The ships that leave the port decorate, ennoble the harbour.
4 The great poet of working class Auckland, Bob Orr, has spent much of his life at the port. In one of his books, Orr describes a port crane 'lowering islands' onto the harbour. The image captures wonderfully the symbiotic & beautiful r'ship b/n Auckland's port & its environment.
