>>I did have an unusually smooth ride to the supermarket though. They finally fixed those potholes.
That's big of them. ;-)
Local scandal is that the local Council, after imposing rates increases and a regional fuel tax to help make ends meet, commissioned a circular mirror "sculpture" to be slung between two historic buildings for $80K, then unveiled it last week after cost had blossomed to $260K... and just days later, cracks were already appearing. Seven years of bad luck for the mayor, quipped a few wags while others predicted these cracks would be fixed more urgently than any on the roads beneath.
Having said that, NZ is a very benign political environment and I've few complaints.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
