Wednesday 6 February 2013

Waitangi Day 2013. Sigh.

We've now spent Waitangi Day on Waiheke for the second year in a row - but it was a brilliant day today, weather-wise, unlike last year. Otherwise, though, it was as strident and complaining and as divisive as usual, up there in the Bay of Islands. Everywhere else in the country, we've just got on with enjoying our national day public holiday and left them up there to fight amongst themselves while we disported ourselves at the beach.

Having recently seen the movie The Impossible and already imagined in moderately vivid detail what it would be like in our beachfront apartment if one came surging across the road and down our drive, it's been slightly alarming today to hear reports of the Solomons earthquake and a 'small tsunami' headed our way. That's small as in less than a metre, apparently; though people in Auckland were turned away from beaches, here at Onetangi Beach, which faces north, it was just another laid-back day with no official pronouncements or alarms or even alerts.

We got the news by text from the Firstborn, working on the story at the Herald - but have in just a few days slipped so thoroughly into the Waiheke ambiance that we were more concerned that she would finish work in time to catch the ferry over for our dinner reservation. So, to sum up, that's an official tsunami warning, and not only are we lying about unperturbed in a ground-floor apartment 20 metres from the beach, but we’re encouraging our daughter to commit herself to getting out on the water. Says it all about how relaxing this place is, right?

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