Sideswipe: June 14: Sky's the limit

Sideswipe - ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz·NZ Herald·

13 Jun, 2016 05:00 PM3 mins to read

I've heard of virtual house staging, but virtual suburb staging? Photo / Supplied

This property in McPhail St, Birkdale once had an unobstructed view to the east ... "That was until the Sky Tower was moved to Takapuna, increased in height to 3km and fitted with antigravity as it's clearly now floating in mid air!" explains a reader. "Did SkyCity get resource consent or allow for public notification? Or is this a special housing zone for floating casinos?"

AT one step ahead of SuperGold card holder

There must be an easier way? "I went to Britomart station to get a gold AT HOP card and to register my existing SuperGold card on it," writes Jenny. "No problem, I received a new gold HOP card and put $10 on it, to cover travel outside the allowed time. At Britomart I was told to go home and register the card online. I did this and started to use the card but then discovered that I still had to go back to the AT Centre to load my old SuperGold card number on to my new AT HOP card. In the meantime, AT extracted all my funds! Huh? Having done all this, I opened my email the next day to discover that I still had to activate my card! But having missed this notice by 24 hours the link no longer worked and the site advised me to call the AT number, which, after 40 minutes on hold, I finally gave up on. Is my card activated? Maybe, but I'm still $10 poorer and none the wiser."

Contemplating the enormity of Miss Universe

One of Warwick Rasmussen's favourite letters to an editor, Christmas Eve last year: "The mis-crowning of 'Miss Universe' hardly matters considering the very notion of Miss Universe is invalid. In truth there can be no real winners anywhere in the universe. We have no idea what other life, if any, might exist elsewhere in the universe and the finite speed of light ensures that we could potentially wait billions of years to know whether there is a [subjectively] comparative beauty elsewhere, by which time the contestants for a given year would be long gone. The existence of a Miss Universe contest says rather more about humans and their weaknesses than the contest instigators may have wished."

Prue's family might like reminder of famous Auckland tree

Sixteen years ago, the night before the tree was taken down, my husband, 3-year-old daughter and I climbed One Tree Hill along with many other Aucklanders," writes Joan Carll. "We met a family who were having camera problems and offered to take some photos for them on our own camera. Somehow we never managed to get the photos to the family and only have the mum's name - Prue. I wonder if they are still interested in the photos especially now a new grove has been planted at the peak."