Letters: New Zealand like living in 'paradise'

I carpool with a foreign dude who went to school in Asia with a lot of people who are now mostly rich and famous. He's not, though.

The other day he said to me "I don't worry about that, because I live in paradise.." We chuckled to ourselves as we drove through Reporoa on the way to work, passing the charmingly green fields, driving along the incredibly smooth, beautifully-made road.

We didn't have to think about bandits attacking our car, as we used to do in our previous countries. We didn't have to think about corrupt police pulling us over and killing us either.

Our biggest moan was a particular spot on Settlers Rd, where a little bridge has sunk a bit and there's a bump that you have to be careful of.

When we get home to our respective houses, we sigh as we turn on the tap and pour a glass of water, drinking it casually, reflecting that nearly everyone else in the world would be certifiably insane to do that... Most global tap water is full of parasites, bacteria, heavy metals and Heaven only knows what.

GJ PHILIP
Rotorua

That article by Bryan Gould (August 15) just goes to prove that racism is alive and well in this country. While he doesn't name drop, we all know who he's talking about. The accompanying photographs tend to confirm who he is talking about anyway.

A Maori girl struggling to keep her house in order while trying to better her living and employment situations takes a few extra shillings from flatmates so her lifestyle doesn't see her out on the streets.

A Pakeha who had prime-ministerial type of ambitions and was at the time of his offending a politician, rips the taxpayers off for $900 a week. Not just one week but enough to feel guilty enough to pay back $32,000. He just brushed it off his thick hide and probably said "I don't want to discuss this" as he has recently done on the subject of text messages. ​

Now here's the bit that gets up both my nostrils - he's still a politician. Not on a back bench either. I hope old Winston Peters would pursue the "texting issue".

Even if the politician says he's deleted the texts, they will still be on his phone. Only if he got someone to go into the technicalities of the phone would they be erased. That person would be as bad as the politician if they did manage to cover up what those texts contained.

I'd love to know what the texts contain and be assured, Winston is not the slightest bit racial about it but it looks like he's let the Pakeha off the hook.

ROD PETTERSON
Rotorua

Readers on the Rotorua Daily Post Facebook page share their views on a proposal for a rapid rail service between Rotorua and Auckland

- I have been hanging out for something like this. I freelance and most of the work is in Auckland. it would be very beneficial to have a way to get there that's faster than driving.
- Yes, this would be fantastic. I wholeheartedly support it.
- A must for tourism and should never have been stopped.
- Yes please I miss the Silver Fern.
- YES, it was awesome being able to sit back on the train and relax and you knew you would reach your destination in safety.
- Two and a half hours from Rotorua to downtown Auckland!? Yes please!
Means you could easily go up for concerts at Spark Arena and then catch a train home afterwards. Trains are so much better as you can read, or have a nap without having to focus on the road. Let's hope the politicians take this idea and make it happen!
- It will never happen, not in my lifetime. It's a blueprint, they get filed for many years.
- Yes that would be wonderful. I have memories of my mother and myself travelling this line when I was younger.
- Yes, but I would like to see something similar to the hyperloop technology. Vacuum powered and magnetic propulsion system, very similar to air hockey in a tube. If the ones that are being tested in California are anything to go by, the costs can be substantially cheaper. we could look at alternatives to solar to power them.
- Yes a culturally-owned railway as well! How about a culturally owned Hyper Loop from The Cape to Bluff!
- Yep be awesome but need to weigh up if it's going to get used all the time. We had transtasman flights from Rotorua to Australia but because that service wasn't getting used that often it wasn't worth keeping going.
- Yes! Zero traffic. Exciting.
- Reinstate transtasman flights into a centralised BOP airport with connecting train links.
- That would be awesome, but why did it fail last time around?
- Oh yes. It's about time!
- Yes! I wonder how much of the old line is in place or at least has not been built over. Railways when lost hardly ever come back.
- Yes please it would be nice for tourists.
- Should sort out the public transport within the city before they go out of the city.
- Absolutely makes a lot of sense.
- Well it's a good idea but it has to be executed properly like other countries of the world who rely on trains for commuter transport.
- Yes I would like to see it back in Rotorua
- Yes not enough rail used in NZ.
- YES, YES, and YES. It would be used by a wider group of people, and used far more, than the infamous white elephant, the cycle track. The secret is making sure that it will service the needs of the people. Not like the Airport, using Sydney as it's destination, and not Brisbane, where the majority of the travellers wanted to go.
- An extension from Rotorua to Taupo would be cool too, with a stop at the Whakarewarewa mountain bike park