Top 5 iconic lifts in Tāmaki Makaurau

As a wheelchair-user, I obviously have a special fondness for lifts and good lift etiquette (stairs = boo). I still get a buzz seeing the lift button light up after I press it. I love the way your destination floor reveals itself when people move out of the way. And there’s also the relief of seeing the lift doors finally open after it’s been sitting still for a millisecond too long before you panic that you’re stuck inside. There’s no feeling like it. 

But there’s also a lot of awkwardness around lifts: the close proximity to a bunch of strangers with nowhere to look; the uncomfortable eye contact with those inside the lift as you arrive just as the lift doors are closing (bonus awkward points for the ‘guilty’ face they make when they realise you don’t have the option of taking the stairs); and my favourite – the range of weird comments you get like, ‘Ooh I like the way you spin around in that thing’.

Considering I’ve taken many lifts in my life, I’ve collected lots of lift memories and consider myself a bit of a lift connoisseur. So here are my top 5 iconic lifts around Tāmaki Makaurau. Some may be memorable for the wrong reasons, but from the dire to the delightful, all have their place in our Lift Hall of Fame.

5. The Basement Theatre

I always feel a bit nervous when going to shows at The Basement Theatre. One, because there are lots of trendy, cultured people there who dress really artsy and I’m the opposite of a hipster. I always feel a bit out of place, intimidated and awkward (but that might just be a ‘me problem’). And secondly, because whenever I seem to go there are issues with the lift. Creative spaces actually show a lot of effort to be accessible and inclusive, but they’re also underfunded so that might be why the lift keeps breaking. Or I’m just really unlucky.

The first time I saw a show at The Basement, the lift was not working when I showed up. I was told the maintenance person was coming the next day, but in the meantime they had a really long ramp that I could roll up. While I was waiting awkwardly among the hipsters, two of them helped carry me up the steps. By the time the show finished, the lift managed to start working again. Hooray!

The last time I went, I mentioned I used a wheelchair when I booked my tickets in advance. Then I was informed the day before the show that the lift was broken again and they weren’t sure if it would be fixed the next day. Part of me was grateful they let me know in advance, but then I killed that ‘accessibility gratitude’ that started rising in me and I thought ‘Of course they should let me know!’ 

4. The Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium lifts 

The last time I was at Kelly Tarlton’s was a decade ago, but these iconic lift moments are forever. 

Kelly Tarlton's has not one but two notable lifts. One lift to the underwater tunnel goes up just eight steps; it’s one of those open mechanical lifts. That means if you lean to the side of the lift you’re actually leaning to the side of the outside wall. So don’t touch the side or you might get jammed! 

The other iconic lift is at the exit. It has those olde worlde manual doors to open and close before you can move between levels. You gotta make sure the outside door is properly closed (for safety reasons, I think?) before you can press the button and get to your destination. 

I recently contacted Kelly Tarlton’s to check if these lifts have been updated, and they have not. But hope of all hopes, they will soon. 

3. Academy Cinema

Any lift that requires you to call someone through an intercom so they can give you access to the lift gets demerit points in my books. (While we’re at it, any lift that needs key access and then said establishment can’t actually find the key when you show up gets double demerit points. This wasn’t the case at the Academy, but another hospitality venue. Thankfully the wait staff were very muscley). 

The Academy Cinema experience is a doozy. If you can’t take the stairs down to the cinema, you  actually have to take the Auckland City Library lift. If it’s after library hours (which is when you’d usually watch a movie) the cinema asks you to call in advance to make it more convenient for them. Honestly, all this extra admin puts me off going to the Academy. My only good memory of going here was for the 48 Hour Film Festival screening when I made a movie in high school, and I was more excited about eating the Pringles than the whole debacle of getting there.

2. The Sky Tower lift 

I couldn’t make a list of iconic Auckland lifts without including the gem in our lift crown: the Sky Tower lift. Part of the experience of taking the Sky Tower lift isn’t even to do with the actual trip in the lift. There’s the ridiculous prices of the SkyCity carpark when you arrive, the waft of disinfectant chemicals coming from the casino and the queue to even get into the lift to travel up the tower. 

But it’s worth it because the Sky Tower elevators travel at 18km per hour, which probably also makes it the fastest lift in Auckland. Apparently it only takes 40 seconds to travel from the bottom to the top of the tower, although it feels much longer when you’re Instagramming through the glass window. 

1. Sky World Indoor Entertainment: the Rocket Lift

The Rocket Lift was my childhood dream. Where else could you look out the glass and imagine you were taking off into space, while also thrilled by the knowledge you were about to watch a movie? 

Nowadays Sky World Indoor Entertainment is pretty depressing. Empty stores and a sparse food court make it a ghost of its former self. And now that I have to make my own way around it, rather than just following my parents, I never realised what a mission it was to get around. It might take going into three different elevators to get to the right movie theatre if you’re watching a film there. 

But despite Sky World’s downfall, nothing can take away from my memories of the Rocket Lift glory days.

What iconic lifts are missing from this list? Let us know by sending an email to kiaora@thedlist.co.nz.