Meet the hospital’s crane Mr Krabs

All Black Codie Taylor and Flynn Morrison in front of Mr Krabs. Supplied.

Christchurch Public Hospital’s resident crane has been given a name — Mr Krabs.

As construction progresses on the third tower of the hospital’s Waipapa Building, a 90-meter crane has found a home on the site.

With a perfect view of it from many rooms on the children’s wards, dozens of young patients competed in a ‘Name the Crane’ competition.

Nine-year-old Flynn Morrison won the contest with “Mr Krabs”, announced by All Black Codie Taylor.

Patients up to the age of 16 have been picking their top names for the crane and colouring in a picture of it.

For B7 Charge Nurse Manager Natasha Greer, the competition has been a wonderful distraction for all of the kids, with those in the Children’s Haematology Oncology Centre and High Dependency Unit also able to join in the fun.

“It’s been really nice for the parents to have something to entertain the kids with when they are very unwell,” Greer said.

“Everyone is very intrigued by the crane and all the construction workers they can see hard at work, so being able to share fun facts about it has been a real hit. The support from Naylor Love and their contractors has been greatly appreciated, especially all the art supplies that have been donated to the ward,” she said.

The sentiment was echoed by winner Flynn Morrison’s mum Lori.

“It’s just been such a cool thing. It entertained him for hours and hours while he was a patient here on the ward. Flynn is just over the moon that he got to meet a real life All Black,” Lori said.

The construction of Tower C began earlier this year, and the new building will sit alongside Waipapa’s existing two towers, which were completed as part of the first stage of the campus redevelopment and opened in 2020.

Senior Project Manager at Naylor Love Brendon Keenan said the team has been very aware of all the little eyes on them and have really relished being able to give back to their community.

“All of the prizes for the competition were donated by the different teams working on Tower C. Work is currently progressing really well and the crane is levering all the steel into place that we need to form the structure of the new tower,” Keenan said.

At 62,000 square metres in total, the Waipapa Acute Services Building is currently the South Island’s largest hospital building. The additional tower will add a further 16,000 square metres. It is anticipated the third tower will be completed by the third quarter in 2025.