Tricky Hartley: The Conservatory Owner on the reopening of the footbridge between the Viaduct and Wynyard Quarter

A sigh of relief for businesses at Auckland's Wynyard Quarter.  

The footbridge between the Viaduct Harbour and Quarter has reopened to pedestrians this morning.  

It had been closed for repairs since March. 

The Conservatory owner Tricky Hartley told Heather du Plessis-Allan it's been an extremely tough nine months. 

He says business has been down 60% since the bridge closed, making the tough winter period even tougher. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fantastic news, as I told you earlier for businesses along
Auckland's Winyard Quarter, because the foot bridge is finally up
and running again this morning, and it's been out since March,
which has been a real pain in the butt. Tricky
hardly owns the conservatory and is with us now. Hey Tricky,
good morning. Have you had a wander across the bridge yet?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I haven't had a wonder yet, but I've had multiple
texts and messages this morning telling me it's back out
open finally.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Are you relieved?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Incredibly relieving, and to be honest, we're all incredibly excited.
And then they drives to welcome everyone back to look
at your quarter.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Do you how many people have you lost as a
result of that bridge been down?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Business has been down sixty percent since it closed. We
winter down there as tough anyway, but this has been
incredibly hard for all of us.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Do you think, though, because it's been down for such
a long time and we're talking nine months now, are
you going to need to remind people that you guys
exist or they're just going to start coming back over
do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I say I think both. I think definitely there definitely
needs to be some some work out there in the
community to make sure everyone's aware that in its back open,
which is appreciate you doing so this morning, because it's
been a very long and frustrating year for every business
and their staff in the area.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, totally has. What do you make of the fact
that it was sort of like it was done without
much fanfare this morning. We weren't even sure until about
six fifty three that it was actually going to open.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
No, they didn't fill us with a great deal of
confident and in world and it was me today. I
want to have picked Friday the thirteenth personally as a date,
but no, when we were away it was possibly going
to be today. But I think they were just safeguarding
themselves as usual.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, probably just hedging their bits, which does worry me. Tricky,
Thanks man, and best of like. And hopefully the bridge
keeps working, because even that's not a seriously tricky hardly
the conservatory. So if you are down in the viaduct
and you're wanting to spend some dollars, give them a
go at the windyar Quarter. Are they really really if
this is an Auckland obviously, do.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
We need to explain to the rest of the country
that this is like a draw bridge. Yes, it goes
up and down, which is because I think we just
keep calling it this bridge there.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Oh yeah, as open probably do need to explain it.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
The whole situation is a bit stupid that you've got about,
I don't know, sixteen boats or something that have tall
masks that wouldn't fit under a bridge, that sometimes go
past it and sometimes don't.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
And well, I mean there's also the aspect that you
could just walk around, couldn't you, or you could just
get a new bit. But no, no, we've got to
have this bridge. It's a very complicated, it's all. It's
just absolutely I mean.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
If this is Queenstown, that'd be a zip line or something.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Probably something of the sort. For more from the Mic
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