I've got a golden ticket!

Drawing inspiration from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, a handful of spots for members of the public to attend City Rail Link’s (CRL) final TBM breakthrough were awarded to ten lucky ‘Golden Ticket Winners’.

But instead of candyland and a chocolate river, guests recieved front-row seats to witness a 910 tonne tunnel boring machine churn its way through a thick plug of mud, earth and concrete at Te Waihorotiu Station (Aotea) – signalling the completion of the tunnelling phase for CRL.

The golden ticket winners were randomly selected out of the 600+ who entered, and joined the hundreds of workers, VIPs and project partners who attended the event. We spoke to two of the Golden Ticket winners about their experience on the night.

George had been following the project for a while before he attended the event.

“I really enjoyed it, it was nice to fee like you were part of the occasion and not just a spectator,” George said.

Dave said it was great to see how big the station was and meet the people who were doing the work.

“You see VIPs in the media but seeing the tunnel workers and the riggers celebrate the milestone felt very special and important.”