On Tuesday morning this week the early morning traffic into Hamilton was beyond anything we could ever have imagined - bumper to bumper from the Flagstaff roundabout all the way into town. Long periods of sitting perfectly still and plenty of 'idiots' with nowhere to go, since the snarl up was going (or rather not going) in both directions. The Waikato radio station eventually filled us in as to the crisis - we had assumed it was some sort of crisis since there had been several police cars and 'unmarked' law enforcement vehicles driving like lunatics between the two lanes of traffic - all flashing lights and wailing sirens and all heading into town.
You have to also remember that the city lies on the 'other side' of the river so although the bridges into town are usually a bit of a snarl up at peak hours, Tuesday was totally beyond belief and once we finally got over the river, traffic was all diverted away from the usual main route.
Apparently, a body had been discovered in the middle of the road, close to one of the bridges and near to the Pizza Hut 'restaurant' at about 2.30am and the powers that be had simply closed off huge sections of the city so the forensics guys could do their jobs and any evidence could be preserved. We saw on the news on telly later that evening that a marquee had been erected around the body and it appeared that at least four blocks in all directions had been closed to traffic for the entire day. Evidently, there had been some sort of altercation in the area late on Monday night, but at this point we only know that this one fellow didn't come out of it alive.
It was just incredible to us to see how much disruption there was to basically the entire city and although we were only an hour or so late, there were people who were delayed even more than that. I would imagine that if you had been planning some sort of illegal activity, Tuesday was definitely the day to do it - it looked like surely every cop or 'almost cop' in Hamilton was involved in one way or another with the whole event and kept him or herself busy in the city centre for the entire day. It did make the national news in the evening, but we still don't know what exactly happened or any of the grisley details.
So, there you go, all is not perfect even in Paradise! ( I am referring here to the fact that my favourite morning chat show host, Paul Henry, signs off with 'have a marvellous day in Paradise')
Speaking of Paul Henry - he has a few real pet hates - one of them being the camper vans that are so prevalent in New Zealand - usually European tourists it seems, who, according to Paul Henry, drive like absolute idiots, hold up all the traffic, break all the rules any decent human being would keep to and so on and so on ad infinitum! He got himself into a bit of trouble the other day for saying on national TV - "bloody campervans - arrrrrses"
We gather that Paul Henry is really quite popular amongst lots of kiwis - although he is certainly controversial - I guess that's what makes for good TV! He was not too sure how to react about a week ago when his dear old Mum, who lives in the "home for the bewildered" in Auckland, decided that at 78, she was going to do the bungy-jump type number which all the madcaps do off the Auckland tower. I kid you not, there was dear old Olive Henry - kitted out in her bright yellow and red jumpsuit, her spectacles firmly on her nose under her grey/white curls and all sorts of strapping and cliphooks and goodymegads attached to her, leaping sedately off the Auckland tower, having downed a large glass of port at 7am! She was quite breathless and giggly when it was all over (not one of those upside down leaps, but a sort of graceful step out into the wild blue yonder whilst being held up by ropes and strapping and such like). Olive said it was "wonderful" and although she had said before she actually did it, that if she chickened out someone should just push her! she didn't need any encouragement and with one ladylike step into nothing, became a local celebrity in that instant. The "home for the bewildered inmates" (as Paul calls the old folks at the home for the elderly) were sort of attractively arranged in the background when dear old Olive did a follow up interview the next day and it looked to me like some of them were just plain pissed off with all the attention that dear old Olive was getting - and all for being just totally daft! So there you go - even if dear old Olive isn't a born and bred kiwi (she hails from the UK originally and still has a really broad English accent) it seems to me that being daft comes either with old age, or living in New Zealand - or, I suspect, a combination of the two! What is clearly apparent to me, is that Paul Henry is a product of a feisty old dame who never worried what anyone thought of her and so it goes without saying that her offspring could well be an outspoken and to-hell -with-all -of -you type of chap!
There were three Maori chaps on the couch in the studio this morning and because I wasn't actually sitting watching the programme, I was not sure what they were talking about when referring to being "Ay bees" - I stood around until the interviewer mentioned the "All Blacks" rugby team - hellooooo!
Dis al!
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