Rudman's city: Albert Park tunnel plans go to Parliament

For most of us the fact that beneath Albert Park are 3.2km of Second World War air-raid shelters is, at best, of passing interest.

But for 60-year-old Glen Eden butcher Bill Reid, these tunnels are something of a magnificent obsession.

For 13 years he has battled for the right to open them and create a subterranean tourist park. Now, $109,000 later, a bill has been introduced into Parliament which makes his dream possible.

The bill, now before the local government select committee, will remove the public reserve classification from the underground labyrinth, allowing Auckland City to permit development of the site.

For Mr Reid this means introducing such unique treats to the CBD as black-water rafting on an artificial water race, and glowworm viewing in a specially created grotto.

He first came to public attention in May 1988 when he put a proposal to Auckland City to open the tunnels for tourism.

The 22-tunnel complex was started early in 1942, soon after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour, when 114 council workers began the eight-month task of hacking through the hard papa, scoria and basalt under the park. The resulting shelters had toilets, first aid units and could accommodate 22,000 people.

In February 1946, the plumbing and wiring were ripped out and the whole lot filled in again with millions of unfired bricks.

Mr Reid's first proposal, in 1988, dwelt not just on the tourist potential of reopening the tunnels but incorporated a solution to the city's parking problems.

He offered a multi-storey car park below the High Court on Constitution Hill. This was adjacent to one end of the main 616m tunnel, which ran from Constitution Hill under the university through to portals at Victoria St, Princes St and Bacons Lane (off Kitchener St). He envisaged commuters rapid-railing from the new car park to these city-side exits. There was even talk of being open in time for the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

The council gave him permission to explore, at his expense and responsibility, the feasibility of his proposal.

Mr Reid's financial backers refused to get involved unless the council entered into a long-term lease, which it did not.

Eight years later he was back, with no talk of parking, but keen to build an underground Disneyland of rides, shops, markets, offices, a museum, underground rafting and other entertainments.

He rejected suggestions he was crazy, and councillors seem to have agreed, giving him permission to excavate the first 62m to carry out his feasibility study. There was talk of selling tickets by Christmas.

No sooner were his plans publicised than some architecture students proposing using the tunnels as part of a public transport system. Dr Garry Tonks, the senior lecturer overseeing the students, then became a partner with Mr Reid.

Their scheme combines a two-way bus service under Albert Park, with the tourist fun park.

Council transport planners toyed with the idea of running their proposed central rapid transit route under the park too, but this has been abandoned in favour of a line up Wellesley St and over Grafton Gully.

Another possible tunnel-user is the Art Gallery, which has considered using them for storage.

What, if anything, happens now, is still uncertain.

Mr Reid plans to be the one with the shovel when the gates to the tunnels are eventually swung open, but that won't be for some time. The bill is not due back from the select committee until May 7, 2001.

If Parliament passes it, any proposal will have to go through a Resource Management Act hearing. Of course, before that, Mr Reid will need to find a financier who shares his enthusiasm. Still, before we scoff, who of us at the time thought Kelly Tarlton's dream of an aquarium in some abandoned underground sewage holding tanks would work?