The Elusive Carter Fountain

It was elusive. The Boss saw it and then didn’t see it.
Sometimes it was there looking wonderful and the gear got packed up and it was gone. 
Finally he asked Mrs G and all was explained so……. 


The iconic Carter fountain in Oriental Bay had an unusual and rather tragic beginning.
Wellingtonian Hugh Carter wanted to give something back to his city.
Mr Carter spent $75,000 to build a fountain off Oriental Parade, modelled on a similar one he had seen in Geneva, Switzerland.
It was built by a local engineering company, with council input, and switched on in March 1973. Mr Carter dedicated it to his parents, George and Ella, and named it Oriental Parade Fountain.
Tragically, only days after the fountain was dedicated, Mr Carter died.
He slipped from his launch, the Kualani - which he had sailed from Nelson for the opening ceremony - and drowned in Wellington harbour, aged 55.
The Carter fountain was renamed in his memory.
The Wellington Harbour Board maintained the fountain until the Wellington City Council took over in 1989.
Council project manager Peter Hemsley said he tended to only get calls about the fountain from people complaining it wasn't going.
The Carter fountain is active in two-hour bursts four times a day, shooting seawater up to 16 metres into the air.
Oriental Parade residents complained that salt spray from the fountain lashed their properties on windy days.
To prevent that, a wind sensor installed on the nearby band rotunda cut the pump when breezes reach eight knots.
The band rotunda also houses the on-shore electrical components of the fountain.
Once a month, an electrician rows out to the fountain to perform checks and repairs.

 The moral of all this is “If in doubt…Ask a lady” and Mrs G must be a lady ‘Cos she multitasks something chronic.

Pawscript  He is threatening to go back again as he had a tech issue again  The Battery went flat on his camera 'Cos he hadn't charged it for.........Sorry data fault information not available.
I am really not at all sure about all these early morning starts.


TT