Too much wind… too many lights… and too much rubbish!

With Mr G having a lot on in January (???) he was unable to provide us with a column. He’s promised to be back with a very special column for March, though! So this month, the task was once again delegated to one of his old mates from down the pub. His mate must surely be related though as he’s also got a bad case of the grumbles!

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of the wind. For those of us who love to get out on the water, January was pretty lumpy. Let’s hope the rest of the summer settles down so we can all get out and put our rods in the water more regularly.

And I don’t know about you again, but I’m sick of those traffic lights that let cars onto the motorway. They tell me that they are designed to make the traffic flow better onto the motorway, but I reckon they just totally shag things up, making traffic worse rather than better. There are many examples I can give of where this happens, both on the Shore and on the other side of the bridge. Often the light phasing is very slow and all that happens is traffic banks up on the feeder roads to the motorway. Traffic light lunacy!
My challenge to the powers that be, the clever folk at Auckland Transport or NZTA (?), is to produce some proof of how these lights make things better. To me, they seem to be wasting a lot of time and result in vehicles idling for long periods, burning CO2 – not good for the environment. Try getting on the Northcote Road on-ramp going north by the golf course at 3.30pm on a busy day. Try getting on the Harbour Bridge at Curran Street in the city when the lights are on there. Often, these lights are causing the Esmonde Road back-up as well. GGGGrrrrr!

While I’m grumbling (like Gundry), the disappearing rubbish bins are really starting to get on my bits. There’s clearly a school of thought that people should be taking their rubbish home. I bet the grown-up people who make these decisions still believe in Santa Claus! One of the key reasons we pay our exorbitant rates is to have these services so our parks, reserves, beaches and neighbourhoods remain tidy.
My mail from a very reliable source is that this is happening just to save money, being driven by the bean-counters at councils as a "lever to pull." This is wrong, wrong, wrong! These councils need to get back to providing important core services like this and doing less of the flowery stuff. We must have plenty of rubbish bins in our parks, reserves and beaches!

On a positive note, how good was the SailGP event held by Westhaven in mid-January?! Mr Wind blew its bits off, and the city was buzzing. The massive temporary stadium provided a great vantage point for the sensational yachting. The only thing to disappoint was the performance of the New Zealand boat. They must have had something wrong, surely. On the Sunday, they were never in it.
The success of this event in the middle of the city lends weight to the thinking behind ditching Eden Park and building a national stadium down there. But I’ll leave that discussion for another issue, for the next time the very Honourable Simon Gundry goes AWOL!
Have a great February!


By: , Gundry's Grumbles

Issue 160 February 2025