A short history on the giant Santa...

Lets face it, a Christmas in Auckland CBD, wouldn't be a Christmas without the giant Santa! Since 1960, Santa has been bringing joy to Aucklanders with his jolly face and round belly.  

Thousands watch the 1983 Farmers Santa Parade

By the early 2000's Santa had earned a rather unappealing nickname - 'Creepy Santa'

But by the early 2000's, after nearly 40 years, Santa's face was looking anything but jolly and had earned a rather unappealing nickname - 'Creepy Santa'. So in late 2008, when the future of Santa was in jeopardy, we ran a poll asking Aucklander's whether Santa, should stay or go. The over-whelming response was that as an Auckland icon Santa should stay. So in early 2009, we started the arduous task of giving Santa a much needed makeover. 

Santa in 2010, accompanied by giant reindeer

Compare and contrast. Old Santa Vs New Santa

After almost a year 'under the knife', Santa's new look was unveiled in time for Christmas 2009 and this time he wasn't alone. 2 giant reindeer accompanied Santa.

So to celebrate the giant Santa going up for 2011, we have put together some interesting facts you may have previously not known about the big red jolly guy. 

• Santa is 51 years old
• He weighs approximately two tonnes & stands 68 ft tall (or 2072.64cm)
• He was constructed in time for Christmas 1960
• Santa started blinking and moving each morning at 7am and was turned off, 16 hours later at 11pm. During this time his finger beckoned people to Farmers 27 times a minute, or 25,920 times a day. His eye blinked seven times a minute; 6720 times every day. He was originally perched outside of the Farmers building on Hobson Street (now the Heritage Hotel) until 1990. 
• In the mid-90's Santa moved to his current home, onto of the Whitcoulls Building (Cnr Queen & Victoria Streets)
• In 2007, Heart of the City purchased Santa from Whitcoulls for $1
• In 2009, Santa received a makeover and received 2 new 'mates' 2 giant reindeer

Installing Santa and the reindeer on Whitcoulls Corner is only one of the many Christmas decorations we install around the CBD. To find out what we have planned for Christmas 2011 click here...

The results are in...

...from the We Only Get One Chance poll we ran. These results make up part of our submission on the Auckland Plans. You can view a snapshot of the results below or download the complete submission.   

Of those who answered, 88% do not want public spaces at Wynyard Quarter to be covered with offices, shops and apartments. This result, and many of the comments made, show strong public support for more open space ahead of offices, shops and apartments. 

Of those who answered, 85% do not support the Port’s reclamation plans or an increase to four times the number of containers handled now. 

While comments indicated an appreciation of the importance of New Zealand’s trade, there was a general view that the Bledisloe reclamation plan was just too big. We have suggested looking at alternatives, as indicated elsewhere in this submission. 

We note that POAL have attacked this question. For the record, the proposed reclamation of Bledisloe is massive - it is a broad reclamation that will stretch another 250 metres into the Waitemata, covering an additional area greater than 15 rugby fields. And as far as container quadrupling goes, current numbers are 890,000 now. We question the Port argument that ‘quadrupling’ is a gross exaggeration because their projection is ‘only 3.5 million.’ 

We have not suggested a “no port” future, and elsewhere have raised a sensible alternative approach to what the Ports have currently proposed.

Of those who answered, 90% support the City Rail Link.

Respondents were offered the updated Economic Evaluation (May 2011) produced by Auckland Council and Auckland Transport for their appraisal.

Of those who responded, 80% do not support Auckland sprawling ever further into the countryside.

To read the full Heart of the City submission on the Auckland Plans (PDF 1.976kb) click here...