Auckland's Sky Tower turns 13 this weekend, and to celebrate adult passes will be only $13 today and over the weekend.
Over 7.5 million people have taken the trip up to the observation deck, 186m above the Auckland CBD.
The 328m tower is still the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere.
Here are some facts about the tower, supplied by the SkyCity team.
- Over the last 13 years over 7.5 million people have visited the Sky Tower.
- One of the four Sky Tower lifts has travelled approximately 17,208,370 km in the last 13 years which is around the globe at the equator 430 times. (based in lift speed multiplied by hours of operation per day multiplied by days in the year).
- Total amount of people who have completed the SkyJump since 2001 is 93,000 and the total number of people who have completed the SkyWalk since 2007 is 17,700.
- The Sky Tower is made from 15,000 cubic metres of concrete which is about 8,765,903 gumboots filled with concrete.
- At one stage there were approximately 1,000 people working on the Sky Tower construction site. A design team of 140, including engineers, architects, surveyors and others worked on the building at the peak of construction.
- During construction of Sky Tower and the SKYCITY complex, workers consumed 545,000 meat pies and drank 1,245,000 cups of tea.
- Along with the 15,000 cubic metres of concrete, 2,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel (enough to build 2000 BMW cars) was used as well as 660 tonnes of structural steel, including 170 tonnes in the mast and 260 panes of glass.
- In any one year of construction, the driver of the tower crane, in travelling from the ground to his cab (he did this by lift), would cover the same vertical distance as if he had climbed Mr. Everest 4.5 times.
- On a clear day you can see approximately 82km from the Sky Tower. That's as far north as Leigh Peninsula, as far east as Great Barrier Island, as far west as the Waitakere Ranges, and as far south as the Bombay Hills.
- The Sky Tower lights have changed colours many times over the years in support of various charities and events. Some of these include Earth Hour, Kidz First, NZ Breast Cancer Foundation, NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation, The All Whites, Matariki, Auckland Festivals, Auckland Rugby and The Blues, Vodafone Warriors, Chinese New Year, St Patricks Day, NZ International Comedy Festival, ANZAC day and the Festive Season.
- Since 2005 when the public Sky Tower race was discontinued and turned into the Sky Tower Firefighter Challenge to help raise money for the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation of New Zealand over half a million dollars has been raised for the charity.
- The Sky Tower has been used to create school holiday programmes including Santa’s Grotto, Enchanted Sky Tower and New Zealand’s Highest Sweet Shop.
- The Sky Tower has also played host to a variety of events including a Mohammad Ali photography exhibition, Star Trek movie premiere, Matariki charity fashion show, AJ Hackett bungee jump and Santa up the tower.
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