Brian Holden: Answering back - we had it pinpointed

Making one's way through the Yorkshire Dales doesn't come without its challenges.

Hands up those who talk to their GPS. Having just fallen in the door back home after being away on holiday, where a rental car was used for the entire time - Europe and in Britain - I can tell you that there were many times when the And Another Thing team had a few terse words with our Global Positioning device.

Don't get me wrong. Without the reassurance of the wriggly green line displayed on the 79mm by 139mm screen and the pleasant but often mispronouncing female voice, we would have been right up the creek. Here are a few conversations.

"There's a good girl, get us out of this mess." "What? There's no way we're going up there." Or worse, "You've got to be joking!"

Believe me, there are some roads traversing the Yorkshire Dales that are so skinny, flanked with stone walls, wing mirrors have to be retracted, and cyclists can only ride two abreast if they breathe in. Well not quite, but you get the idea. Our GPS (we took our own, as hiring one was ridiculously expensive) did a sterling job in directing us through the labyrinth of roads in the area.

But what the lady in the little box doesn't take into account is that, not actually being there in person, things are often different. Sure, she is guided by infinite strings of algorithms fed by bucket loads of data. She can only bleat out in the form of crudely blended syllables, from the information that is on hand, right there and then.

Sad to say that, because our "updated Europe maps" seemed to be anything but - our little lady was telling us to "turn left in 200m" when that stretch of road had since been replaced by a brand new roundabout.

"Good grief, woman, you could have killed us," we yelled on more than one occasion. Sometimes we'd do a U-turn to check something out that looked interesting, which would result in a "Turn around where possible" instruction. All that being said, being armed with a GPS when on tour is absolutely essential and we don't know how we ever got by without one.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day the week before last, Britain lit a chain consisting of 100 beacons across the country. A star-studded concert was held in London, and a flypast of World War II planes was planned, including a Spitfire, two Hurricanes and a Lancaster bomber - one of only two left flying in the world.

What a splendid opportunity to parade together three of the most significant aircraft types of the era. But, alas, it was not to be. The Lancaster bomber had to bow out of the commemorations after the No4 engine caught fire the day before and an emergency landing had to be made at an RAF airfield in Lincolnshire.

Fortunately, there were no casualties but there was no way repairs could be done in time for the event.

More than 7300 Lancasters were built during the war but most of those that survived were scrapped in the following years. I guess that with the bomber - magnificent as it was - having fulfilled its gallant role and with the country wanting to put the memories of the war behind them, scrapping the planes was a good thing to do. How fortunate that a few still remain and that two are still airworthy.

The London spectators on the special day would have been so disappointed, not to mention the crew who were given the honour to proudly fly the Lancaster. They would have been gutted.

-Brian Holden has lived in Rotorua for most of his life and has been writing his weekly column for 11 years.