Clarification re nudity on Wellington beaches

From the Wellington City Council press release:

Today's Dominion Post story, headed 'Capital's beaches open to nudists', is somewhat misleading. Wellington's beaches aren't 'open to nudists' despite the fact the City Council has removed and replaced an old bylaw relating to the requirement to wear suitable bathing costumes on beaches and other public places in the city.
[...] Earlier this year the Council reviewed a number of bylaws - including the old Harbour, Beaches and Foreshore Bylaw - which, in part, required all persons over 8 years of age who were on, or swam at, a beach to wear a swimsuit or clothes. The wording of the old bylaw was 'clunky' and not really suitable for the 21st century.
[...] Admittedly a review of bylaws is not something that usually excites the community greatly - but we received no submissions relating to beach nudity.

Well, 2000 years of Christianty finally gave way to a more natural approach and views on human nudity.

The removal of the old bylaw does not mean that people can freely remove all their clothes on any city beach.
If someone removes all their clothes on Oriental Bay beach, for example, and then offends other beach users, the Police could be called and could require the person to put their clothes back on.
Nudity is really not an issue on beaches in Wellington City - and we're not expecting a sudden rampant increase in nudity as a result of the withdrawal of the bylaw. Generally, for example, people do not go fully nude on Oriental Bay beach.

I would have thought that the biting wind the city is famous for would put any thought of taking your clothes off anywhere in Wellington, let alone on an inner harbour sand pit.

It is quite well known that the isolated north-eastern end of Breaker Bay Beach, on the South Coast, is Wellington's 'unofficial' nude beach. Because it takes a long and arduous walk through soft sand to get to the beach, relatively few people go there and so people generally are free to sunbathe nude without causing trouble.

In my experience, naked people never cause trouble. It's always the clothed ones that want to beat you up. And why am I not surprised the child beaters are against nudity in all circumstances?

Take my advice: take a nude holiday away from the bureaucrats and Christianists on our very own local (and official!) nude beach on Waiheke!

More rebel rabble rousing

From the C4FFF press release:

Waiheke Island commuters are about to find out just much food you can buy for $44. A protest organised by the Campaign for Fair Ferry Fares (C4FFF) will provide food for thought for the island's commuters on 1 October, when Fuller's new monthly ferry fare increases come into effect.
Members of the Campaign for Fair Ferry Fares will be at Matiatia Wharf, showing commuters and ferry users just how much will be coming out of their monthly food budget once they are purchasing tickets and monthly passes at the new increased rates.
Over the past six years, Waiheke commuters have faced dramatic price hikes of 52%. The latest increase of 12.7% has boosted the monthly commuters' pass from $300 to $344 and, for some Waiheke families, the household budget can't stretch any further.
C4FFF spokesperson Cathy Urquhart said, 'For some people on lower incomes, the choice is between fares or food. So we are putting $44 worth of food on the wharf to illustrate the impact for people and their families.'
C4FFF will be urging fellow commuters and community members to write to their politicians and request a reduction in fares.
'ARTA has powers under the new Public Transport Management Act to regulate the route and its affordability, but this will take a minimum of two years to be actioned. We can't wait that long to see the disastrous impact on families and local businesses as people leave the island. We need our politicians to act now'.
C4FFF held its first protest last month on September 1 after Fullers Ferries first announced the price hikes. A coffin full of petitions was carried onto the Fullers 8am sailing to protest against the death of diversity on the island.
The 'Food for Thought' protest will begin at Matiatia Wharf on Wednesday 1 October at 7am and continue until the 8am sailing.

Shirin Brown, one of the members involved in the campaign, will be on the Scrutiny programme (on Triangle Television 1 October 7.30pm, and Stratos Television on October 7 at 9.30pm)

Taupo and Kerosine Creek

A week off in the countryside saw us staying at a bach (the same one as last time) on the western foreshore of Lake Taupo, with an occasional brilliant view of the snowed under Central Plateau volcanoes, and a more occasional bracing westerly biting breeze, which whipped up some good waves. This year I took a Rupert Everett book "Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins" (last time it was Catch-22. A bit of a romp, but far too much name-dropping for my liking. And is it just my imagination but does everybody he associated with comes to a sticky end soon after he mentions them? Must be the Catholic in him. I haven't finished the book yet.
Highlight of the holiday was Kerosine Creek, just south of Rotorua (pictures here), a hot water stream accessible for free and now that they have cut down some forests around it to create a sunny spot for a picnic after your soak too.

A car-free Sunday

Not since the 1970s oil-crisis-induced carless days I have experienced a car-free day like they are now having in Europe. The Netherlands had its version last weekend with several dozen cities and towns taking part.
Amsterdam's car free area is shown here in orange:

It includes free park and public transport ride facilities.
This of course could never happen in New Zealand. Hell will freeze over before Kiwis get out of their cars or would tolerate impeded access to wherever they want to drive on a daily basis.

With that short note, I'm off to Taupo - by coach, I might add - to enjoy the mountain air for a few days.

The Lolcatz keep purring

Sarah Palin has picked out an All-American set of names for her children. There's Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow, and Piper.
Ever wonder, What would your name be if Sarah Palin was your mother? Well now you can find out here.

Mine's Strike Chipper Palin. Woohoo.

Link via Mulholland

Couldn't resist making this one

With thanks to Ms DeVere.

From our island chief rebel rabble rouser:

Hear-ye! Hear-ye! Hear-ye!

A public meeting has been called to discuss the solutions to the unsustainable increase in ferry fares.
Chaired by John Stansfield, Executive Director, Cleanstream Ltd.
Mike Lee from the ARC, Judith Tizard MP (Associate Transport Minister), Denise Roche, Green candidate for Auckland Central, Nikki Kaye, National candidate from Auckland Central, Jan Scott from FUG, Ray Ericson from the Community Board will all be in attendance. Fullers and ARTA have also been invited.

Public meeting 21st September, 2pm Ostend Memorial Hall

We need to ensure that Ferry Fares are sustainable for all the community. An increase of 52% over 6 years is hurting families, older people and young people. If nothing is done, Waiheke will become a place where only wealthy people can live.
We need to exert pressure to get change. One glimmer of hope is the newly passed Public Transport Management Act which empowers ARTA to get information from Fullers about its commercial operations. Pressure from our community is the only thing that can ensure that affordability becomes a criteria for our ferry route.
To be effective we need a full meeting, so come along have your say.

Oh, and the Fair Fares campaign has a website now.

More billboard fun

This one refers to selling assets, charging for roads and GPs and the infamous John Key quote "we would like to see wages drop".



I'm going to have to lie down after this one:



Oh, and don't forget to vote for the billboards here. There are some beauties there.

Now the NZ election campaign is under way

Unlike last time, the National Party has come up with a terribly blue and obscure billboard campaign, with themes, colours and typeface quickly adapted in a template to let your own political imagination run riot.
Here's my modest first contribution, referring to the tagger who was (allegedly) stabbed by an outraged resident with a knife.



The second one refers to Opposition spokesman Maurice Williamson's musings of charging Auckland commuters $50 a week for the use of private toll roads. He got slapped down rather quickly by his Leader, who is allergic to frightening the horses before the election.



More billboards here. Template here.

Are you integrated yet?

The hardest aspect of being a migrant is to become even more of a local than the natives are, without losing your cool about the lousy and petty things about your new society you've chosen to live in.
In some countries you can do "citizenship courses" that will teach you how to deal with local affairs and situations which may seem very alien to you but are apparently dead normal for your fellow citizens. On the other hand, my experience has also been that many locals hate a lot of aspects of their society but are at a loss over what to do about them, and are secretly pleased foreigners criticise and point out the obvious stupid things or dumb way of doing things, but hopefully without causing too much offence. My particular gripe with New Zealand is the local obsession with open doors and windows and consequently, damp and draughty homes. Double glazing, central heating and warm cozy homes are apparently un-Kiwi and only foreign poofs complain about that.
It's in my nature to be integrated well (I'm pretty much a Waiheke Islander now, considering the amount of moaning and whinging I do alongside my fellow islanders) and to make a point of striving to do so, and when I was living in Britain, I remember being immensely proud of being considered by foreign tourists as one of the locals.
The subject of integration into a new society came up on the Belgian news today when a new handbook for foreigners was launched to help them learn how things are done and life is lived in Flanders. Of course, the first thing you need to do is learn the Flemish language before you can do the online test. But I was curious whether, after 20 years of absence from the country, I would be able to answer those questions correctly. I only answered 6 out of 10 questions correctly, I guess I would have to do the course before ever returning!
We discussed a similar course and test in the Netherlands two years ago.

May the queer force be with you

We all like to enjoy a big bang from time to time and a tiny black hole on occasion, so I'm unconcerned by all that worry around the world about some particle collision machine. Doomsday it ain't.
I'd have fancied they called it the Voltaire machine, as that illustrious French philosopher lived in that very area. He flitted back and forth across the French-Swiss border to escape from the French authorities too keen to put a damper on his enlightning mind.

Picture credit: 4Chan

NZ election fun

You only have to watch a YouTube video to keep up with party policies.

Dog-sledding, moose killing, hockey dads, who can resist them?

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Boycott Subway

Here we go again. Porn meets the real world and the real world can't take much reality.
A Subway employee in St Louis, USA, married father of three, called Kurt Wild, was fired by his manager after a customer complained about him that he had seen him in a gay porn movie. Queerclick NSFW story here (and a definitely NSFW retrospective of our hero's oeuvre here).
It comes hard on the heels of the college wrestlers being barred from their college sports team for exposing too much teen meat online.

So come on: cut Subway off your list of favourite "restaurants"!
And thump all those self-loathing queens, happy to whack off to their favourite porn star but equally happy to see them humiliated in real life.

Are you glad to be in America?

Guns, beer, smokes, sagging shorts, unfenced pool, electric boombox... What is wrong with this all-American picture?

Sign here if you want to be gay at the ball

A rather odd news story occurred over the weekend involving schools wanting gay students to sign "contracts" if they want to bring a same sex partner to the school ball:

"Four Auckland colleges do not allow same-gender ball partners unless pupils sign contracts stating their sexual orientation."

I'm a bit confused as to what this contract is for and why on earth you would want to sign it. What does it actually say? Will the schools provide extra goods and services to contractors? A free condom and lube and Champagne, Champagne for everyone, darling? Complementary tickets to either Kylie or Becks?
And pray tell, is there also a contract for heterosexuals pledging they won't have unsafe sex, unwanted pregnancies or wear naff ball gowns? And not to turn gay after the Champagne, Champagne for everyone, darling!