The Case for Cities of the Future

Another one of the “catching up” posts – the final, for now.

At the same time of the Hobbiton trip, mentioned in posts past, the opportunity was taken to pop on into the city of the future, Hamiltron. Transit NZ has decided that this teeming metropolis can and should be bypassed by constructing State Highway 1B that stealthily sidesteps the Waikato’s capital by veering from the “regular” State Highway 1 at Cambridge to rejoin the main road to Auckland just south of Huntly. However, I was ignorant of this improvement to the roading system and thus had planned the trip up the country through that great city, with a particular pilgrimage in mind.

I am not sure if Hamiltron stands out in the minds of many for a variety of reasons. There is a nice river. There is a shopping mall complex. The road in and out of the city is slow and torturous as the shopping precincts and suburbs follow SH1 north of the city, adding to distance one has to take at sub-100 kph speeds (probably the reason for the bypass, reason tells me).

But there is one thing that one cannot drive past. Or rather, one can, but probably shouldn’t. And that is the monument to that monumental movie of momentous proportions: the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Standing proudly and darkly over looking a not-so-busy inner city Hamilton street, a statue of Riff-Raff glowers over pedestrians, nonchalantly aiming his tridential laser pistol at those who would dare take the name of Transylvania in vain.

A great statue – though someone should really tell Hamilton’s founding fathers that putting a bright white wall directly behind a dark statue really does not assist in the taking of fanboy photos. The bright background is in such stark contrast to the sombre statue that even my eyes had a hard time looking upon Riff-Raff’s features.

But gaze I did, if just for a little while. And then it was time to get outta there…

Verdict: I definitely felt I was in a timewarp, but I may wait awhile before doing that timewarp again…