Hikitia Floating Crane

Every day thousands of commuters and visitors walk right by The Hikita, without really seeing her. On the google map, this landmark may not be named, yet she is present in all her glory.

Floating upon the sea, yet part of the landscape, part of right now and with a firm place in history, the one of a kind Hikitia happens to have been a twin. Downtown, but working at the port, pulling more than her weight and yet puffing half the steam she did in her heyday, the Hikitia is a wonderful paradox upon Wellington's waterfront. Tied to the wharf in the foreground of the city's set of icons, Te Papa, Macs, Circa and Wharewaka, she remains understated in demeanor while defying all with her continued functionality.

All of the paradoxes of the Hikitia are easily unravelled and each goes to further refine her status. Built in 1926 in Glasgow, the Hikitia Floating Steam Crane was sister ship with the Rapaki, of the same heritage. The pair travelled to the antipodes to work our ports, but only the Rapaki has hit her retirement phase, winding up at the New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland. The Hikitia remains in functional condition, with her steam boilers having been updated twice, the latest set being 'package boilers' which churn out less steam that the originals. Nevertheless, when the Hikitia chugged to Lyttleton for maintenance in 2009, she managed to haul a 20 tonne freezer plant from one wharf to another without missing a beat, and also passed a 100 tonne test to maintain her lifting licence. The original tonnage she and the Rapaki were designed for was supposed to top out at 80, but there are stories that the wreck of TEV Wahine was in chunks of up to 140 tonnes, and the Hikitia made light work of it.

There are jobs sometimes, that the Hikitia is needed for, and she may chuff away from her uptown berth at the Taranaki Street wharf, to the port or the Queens Wharf, or further afield. Sought after for salvage, and for hauling racing yachts to dry dock, she also sometimes assists with interisland and international freight. The BT Challenge series relies on her work in Wellington harbour as does the City Council when the season calls for fireworks in the harbour. Currently managed by the Wellington Maritime Heritage Trust, the income from her jobs does not quite meet her costs.

Is this glorious old girl waiting for the work that will surely fall to to her when promised future earthquakes turn this waterfront to rubble? Or will she one day fall out of function and become a museum piece? Inching gracefully towards her hundredth birthday, there is a surety about her presence that makes it seem she will likely get there. As the world's only functioning floating steam crane, she is a sole candidate, the rightful and graceful bearer of the title.

Image Credits: DB Thats-Me