Britomart / AFWT Serie #9 Traditional Geocache

THE CACHE

I know it is a risky location for a cache as this place is Muggle central almost 24hours a day! But with a bit of stealth this original cache could last long for many of us geocachers to enjoy. It can be done anytime of the day, but at night would be even better... Muggles won't pay attention to what you are doing anyway, hehe. 

The mechanism to retrieve the cache will bring us old good memories of our birthday celebrations.. :) Try to leave the plastic hose's end hidden under the building wall to avoid possible suspicions. Even you are not the most scrupulous person in the world I know you won't like to put you mouth in something that has been touching the ground, so just do an "O" with your fingers over the hose's end and it will work perfectly. You don't have to blow like a crazy person, actually a gentle continuos blow will bring it up to the top easily.
Put the lid back and try to leave eveything quite tidy.
HAPPY HUNTING!!

HISTORY OF BRITOMART

For many of us the funny name of Britomart just evoke us the new transport center... But the history of this place is quite rich actually.
For generations britomart has been a strategically important place of defence, transport and trade. it can also be considered the birthplace of auckland city. This place was once the site of Fort Britomart, an active base for British colonial troops in the 1860s. Its name was taken from a Royal Navy gunship, HMS Britomart, which carried out the first detailed survey of the Waitemata Harbour in 1841.

In 1840 Ngāti Whātua gifted 3000 acres of land to Governor Hobson for the building of a new capital city. It was on the headland at the centre of this land, soon to be named Point Britomart, that Auckland’s first Union Jack flew, marking the site of New Zealand’s first colonial capital.

Most of Britomart as we know it today was underwater until the 1870s. In a scheme to build improved port facilities for the growing city, Point Britomart was levelled and the land around it reclaimed from the sea.

In the 1880s this area of reclaimed land became one of Auckland’s principal business districts, eventually housing a railway station, dozens of warehouses and trading premises and later, the Chief Post Office.

A century on, however, Britomart had fallen into decline. The train terminus was removed to Beach Road in the 1930s and the Britomart station redeveloped as a bus terminal. In 1958 Auckland’s first parking building, Britomart Car Park, was opened next to the bus terminal. In the following years Britomart suffered from lack of investment and increasing decay, and for 30 years much of it lay derelict and forgotten.

A new proposal was developed for a mixed-use community at Britomart that would also preserve its special heritage, and in 2002 Auckland City Council put the development contract up for tender. The new Britomart is a place that both celebrates its history and embraces its future. In doing so, it will continue to provide vital links between the past and the present for many generations to come.

The train station is back to the city center, but underground this time, being this iconic cones in the middle of Britomart the new windows for the train tracks below.