KEY POINTS:
For those making the pilgrimage to the dawn prayer service at Te Whare Runanga at Waitangi in the early hours of Tuesday, an empty carpark should have rung alarm bells. A black, late model Chrysler pulled up at the lower carpark and several serious, black-suited gentlemen alighted and made their way briskly to what they thought was the meeting house only to hit a dead end at the locked reserve reception building. A small group following with a torch realised something was amiss and found a track that led uphill to the grounds. It was only later that our torch bearers realised Brian Tamaki didn't know his way to Te Whare Runanga.
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A reader visited McGehan Close, Owairaka, yesterday. "I found a street clean of any rubbish and the residents seemingly well dressed. Some were equipped with flash cellphones and a Mr Whippy ice-cream van was besieged with people willing to pay for ice-creams and drinks in abundance. I even envied some of the cars parked in driveways. So would the person from Wellington masquerading as a National Party leader please stop all the nonsense about poverty in Mt Albert and get back to work."
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A Scot has been found guilty of careless driving after being caught shaving while overtaking a line of rush-hour traffic at 112km/h. The BBC says Edward Hutcheson, 39, was seen leaning forward to look in his rear view mirror as he used an electric shaver. Hutcheson said he was leaning so he could see past the dozen mannequins stored in the back of the car. Oh, his day job? A health and safety expert.
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Anne Perry, of Hamilton, has an explanation for the photograph of the unusual cloud formations in Sideswipe on Monday. "Autocumulus lenticularis clouds are named for their smooth, round, lens-like shape (lenticular means lens - or lentil-like). These middle-level clouds can form spectacular patterns that delight weather-watchers and photographers and have almost certainly been responsible for UFO sightings over the years."
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The incident involving a yacht racing on the Waitemata last week which unintentionally collected some fishing gear off a launch is causing some debate over who was in the wrong. Tuesday's correspondent says a sailing vessel must keep out of the way of a vessel engaged in fishing but another contends the rule only applies to registered fishing vessels. He says: "The regulations specifically exclude vessels fishing with trolling lines or other apparatus which do not restrict the vessels' manoeuvrability. In other words, pleasure boats out fishing have no special rights because they are fishing."
