When Britomart became Görlitzer Bahnhof
Auckland's Britomart starred in one of the more memorable campaign ads of the 2005 election for any eager-eyed railfans - if not the only memorable train-related ad in NZ electoral history.
It came courtesy of Labour's "International Success" ad, which was clearly filmed at Britomart on Platform 2, and also on a ADL MAXX diesel multiple unit. The MAXX logo is obvious on the glass draft screen.
A copy of the ad was previously on YouTube but was removed at some point. I still have a copy of the ad saved though, and it's embedded below.
The 30-second spot shows a woman sitting on a train, nodding along to music from an MP3 player. As she sits there, text appears highlighting the New Zealand origins of various items around her: the dress from Auckland, the music by Dunedin band The Clean, wine from Hawke's Bay, and kiwifruit from Nelson.
As she arrives and gets off the train, we see the station sign for a Berlin U-Bahn station "Görlitzer Bahnhof" - except any Aucklander with a passing familiarity would recognise it was actually the dear Chief Post Office building, dressed up with some German signage.
Britomart itself was relatively new back then, having opened in 2003. Using our shiny new transport hub to double as a Berlin station carried a certain ambition about it - we might not be a world capital, but we could try to play one on TV.
It wouldn't be the last time before Britomart was used as a film set at the time.
The station was briefly used in the 2007 film The Man Who Lost His Head, purportedly meant to represent the London Underground, according to a feature on the movie at the time. But you wouldn't be able to tell from the single shot that was used on-screen. Perhaps there was more left on the cutting room floor.
Meanwhile, Robyn Gallagher in her excellent blog 5000 Ways to Love You - which explores the world of NZ On Air music video funding - has previously noted the wave of music videos featuring Britomart in the early-to-mid noughties while the station was still shiny and new.
The Spinoff also had a fun oral history for the music video production of Dei Hamo's We Gon’ Ride, which included a lot of Britomart exteriors.
There's also no way you can miss Atlas' Crawl!
There's been other uses of Britomart and Auckland's trains in TV and film over the years, but I'll leave that to another post.
