A feature of Google maps is the Streetview which consists of millions of 360 degree images taken along most streets and roads in geographical sequence a few metres apart.  Most people are aware of this, but some may not have noticed that you can select the most recent view or – in Waikanae’s case – previous views from 2008 and 2013.

Above is an example of two views, from 2008 and 2014, that show a change in the vista at 60 Sylvan Avenue caused by the owner chopping down a large native puriri tree and placing a fence in front of the streetfront hedge.  The sense of doing either escapes us (crown thinning the tree would have been a much better thing to do, and why waste money on a fence when you have a perfectly good hedge?), but you can’t always account for people’s eccentricities.