For crane driver Colin Haynes, being involved in the construction of the Sky Tower was an opportunity of a lifetime.
The tower is celebrating its 25th anniversary, first opening in 1997 after two years and nine months of construction.
The tower rose with a crane clinging to the top – and that was Colin’s domain for two years.
“I was putting up the crane, maintaining the crane, and making sure it was working properly,” Haynes told 1News.
“It was pretty intense...it was a bit of a learning experience.”
A construction project like this had not been attempted in New Zealand before and it presented several engineering challenges.
“As we got up higher, we found out the prevailing wind from the west had an effect on the tower, it almost twisted the tower a bit, so we had to combat that,” he said.
“We had to respect the wind.”
Some Aucklanders were also not so sure about the tower itself when it was being built.
“It's not lined up, definitely not straight," one man told 1News in 1996.
“It looks like it's going to fall over.
And the shape had not escaped scrutiny either
“We had some funny comments from some of the women about what it was,” said Haynes.
“But it was great, on the way to work you’d think ‘yep, I’m doing that'.
“This is something that really stood out in the industry for us... I don’t think we'll get another one for a long time.”
And nothing has topped it, at 328m it remains the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere.
“The view – you couldn’t buy a view like that. The clouds were at your feet and felt like you could just walk on it,” he said.
SHARE ME