Ask Phoebe: Look under bridge for literary gems

Bridge pillars show examples of our literary heritage. Picture/ Steven McNicholl

Poetry painted on pillars under harbour bridge to enhance area

On a number of the concrete support pillars under the Harbour Bridge at Northcote, there are lines of poetry. Can you tell me anything about this?
- Pauline Law, Birkenhead

I can, thanks to my colleague Mathew Dearnaley, who wrote about this in the Herald a couple of years ago:

"Poetry and other ponderings of eight notable New Zealanders are adorning the underbelly of a well-known Aucklander, the harbour bridge, in a $300,000 project.

"The Transport Agency used words writ large of such literary luminaries as Janet Frame, Bruce Mason, Frank Sargeson and A.R.D. Fairburn to make Stokes Pt beneath the northern end of the bridge less gloomy after an $86 million steel structural upgrade.

"Passages from Maurice Duggan, Kendrick Smithyman and Robyn Hide are also wrapped around bridge supports, as is a quotation from the Waitakere chief Te Waatarauihi, talking in 1860 of his relationship to the area."

Are there any moves afoot to collect all the old UHF aerials yet or do we head to the nearest metal collector?
- Henry Wirihana, Auckland.

Approximately 900,000 VHF (analogue) TV aerials in Auckland were made redundant on December 1 last year after New Zealand switched to digital television. A scrap metal dealer is your best bet, but you won't get a lot for it. It's a better option though than just taking it to the tip.

I have read that the long lengths off the old aerials make good tomato stakes ...

Credit where it's due. Glen Hill-Willis writes: "Recently I've cycled along the stretch of Chapel Rd between Botany and Meadowlands, and wow, what an improvement. There were probably about 40 previous patches with raised bits and sunken hollows plus metal plates which are now resurfaced, giving a really even and satisfactory surface.

"However, there are still dozens of road surface irregularities on the roadside under where there's probably more than 100 tradesmen's cars and vans parked for the Ryman Home (Bruce McLaren village) construction happening nearer to the Meadowlands end of Chapel Rd.

"Probably attending to that section of the road will depend on the retirement village construction works finishing, with the road then no longer being taken up with all those parked trade vehicles.

"I'm writing to pass on 'kudos' and my acknowledgment of the resultant considerable improvement to the road surfacing. Great work!"