Letter: Where's that exactly?

Moving Out host Tamati Coffey at Lake Rotorua. Or is it? Photo/Supplied

I see TV One's Moving Out with Tamati programme, with te reo assistance, has succeeded in moving my home district of Mapua from Tasman Bay over the Tasman Mountains to Golden Bay.

All the players in the programme, plus the compere, kept repeating how nice Mapua was and how great living in Golden Bay was going to be. The subject of geography seems completely neglected.

I could say why I think this has happened, but don't want the best little paper in the country on libel charges.

One attractive television lady boxes the compass while announcing the weather. For most it's "Up here, across there, down Invercargill and up Auckland, and over in Gisborne." Does it matter?

I think te reo matters in Aotearoa, but English is essential. Maori speakers are usually masters of English also.

With computers, it's easy to find information if you have a general knowledge and know where to find answers.

I guess as schoolboys during World War II we spent some time with maps seeing where members of our families were fighting around the world.

I have watched primary school pupils' lights come on as they observed an easy-to-see major mountain faultline in western Golden Bay, where Mapua isn't.

A Google Earth and a Merry Atlas Christmas to all.

SAM McHARG
Kerikeri
South-East of Kaitaia