With the number of mobility scooters you see in Waikanae, we’ve mused about the idea of having an annual race for them along Tutere Street. 🙂

This is an example of the K8+2, seen in New Plymouth a couple of weeks ago.  Its top speed is stated as 30 km/h.  Website

Sue Lusk has discovered the website www.antipodesmap.com on which you can enter your location and discover where the other side of the globe is with the same latitude and distance from the prime meridian.

With Waikanae it is Collado de Contreras in Avila, Spain.  It’s a small place a fair distance from the ocean though, so it will be hotter in summer and colder in winter.

For a failed marina project at the time, see the earlier post about that.

This is becoming a regular occurrence going by similar other reports & posts we’ve featured here. Poisoning Paradise would be correct (see Graf Boys’ video of that name). Still our deluded leaders continue to promote us as clean and green. LGNZ is currently advertising a handy app to make it easy for you to see […]

Read the rest: Government Rains “1080 Hailstones” On Visiting Anglers – Welcome to Paradise Down Under — Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch

We well relate to this!  🙂

Several more similar NZ nature-inspired artworks are on her website

It’s been an eventful year and for Waikanae next year will be even more so with the opening of the Expressway — in fact it’s no exaggeration to say that we are approaching the end of an era and the beginning of another.

Your watchers will be ever vigilant.

As well as this blog, we intend to take advantage of the holiday break to put several photos on our Waikanae Watch Facebook page.  Although we have misgivings about the highly commercialised and thus cluttered Facebook, it’s nevertheless an effective way of reaching people.

A big thank-you to all our readers, contributors and supporters.  And to the handful of foes, we can only repeat the message seen on a Church in Otaki: “If you’re headed in the wrong direction — God allows U-turns.”

As snow still features heavily on Christmas scenes in this part of the world, here’s a picture of Eva in snow; taken in Silver Plume, Colorado, at the end of May when it was supposed to be Spring there.

Further to the earlier post about ‘manufactured news’ — here is proof of it.

Egyptian police arrested five people in Port Said [Egypt] accused of using children to make fake videos of the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, Syria.

According to Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior, the five people were arrested on Monday after a police officer witnessed photographs and footage being taken of a young girl walking among rubble while wearing a white, blood-stained dress. The footage, which was intended to show wreckage in Aleppo, was actually shot at a construction site in Port Said.

Those arrested include the videographer, his crew, and the parents of two children who were used to make the fake footage.

In a video released online after the arrests, a man is seen confronting the people behind the footage apparently criticizing them for using a child.

The Interior Ministry said that the five people arrested admitted to attempting to fake footage from Aleppo.

Aleppo has recently caught the attention of the media across the world, with Syrian-government forces recapturing the city from rebels. The government has been accused of committing mass atrocities against those in the city. A deal was reached, however, to allow rebels and civilians to leave Aleppo without harm.

Egypt has maintained a neutral stance toward the crisis in Syria [as has Israel]. In the international arena, Egypt has pushed for a political solution to it. Egypt has also sent truck loads of humanitarian aid to people in besieged cities and has supported attempts by the United Nations to provide humanitarian relief.

Source

On Tuesday the Department of Conservation said that the Caledonian Sky cruise ship would be anchoring and visiting Kapiti Island on Christmas day.

“Operations manager Jack Mace said the 91 metre ship would not be allowed to anchor in the marine reserve near the island, or discharge any effluent.”

stuff article

Although this only mentions a one-off, presumably if it goes well, there will be more visits.

“Does the amount spent by candidates in an election campaign get reflected in results?” is a question often asked.

The answer from several analyses that have been made, including by us, is a qualified yes.  It does influence some people, but doesn’t guarantee an outcome.

Below for interest is a table of the totals spent by the different candidates in last month’s US Presidential election:  Hillary Clinton spent more than double what Donald Trump did ($640 million to $302 million) — and considering Hillary Clinton was massively backed by arms manufacturers and big Wall Street dealers and managers, that’s not surprising.

But she didn’t win; although she got 2.8 million more votes than Trump nationwide, Trump knew which swing states would be responsive to his message and used the antiquated electoral college system well.

With the Kapiti elections in October, candidate expense returns are viewable on the KCDC website here.

The totals spent by the Waikanae Ward council candidates were:

Geoffrey Churchman  $1,169

Iride McCloy  $8,135

Tim Parry  $1,692

Michael Scott  $1,789

Pohutukawa trees are now in full bloom, but there are not too many this size: a 1950s postcard showing the famous example in Moana Parade in Te Araroa on the East Cape.  It looks like a Vauxhall towing a small caravan underneath it — ah, memories. 🙂

As far as we know the tree still exists.