Public Address | Cafe | Island Life: A bar of two halves

AndrewD

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:46:44 +1300

The bridge is beautiful...but brutal. Like a liposuctioned, botoxed,gym cut, dare I say it, German viaduct. A string of lace cutting a valley's air without care of context. My favourite French roads meander with 2 lanes through poplars or mimosas and then buildings of villages, and cost nothing to use.…

merc

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:40:22 +1300

Tout c'est vraimant ca. (sic)

kevin_montpellier

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:03:41 +1300

The week before the match, all of my French friends said, jokingly, "we're going to get you this weekend!" and I didn't believe it, and you could see in their eyes that they didn't believe it either.

Sitting in a crammed bar in Montpellier in the south of France, watching…

InternationalObserver

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:19:29 +1300

Yeah, just a fleeting month long visit. And another month in Italy. But my Uncle (who lives in Paris) has few complaints. Bureaucracy is a way of life in Europe. They agree their taxes are high but have few complaints (usually limited to immigration issues) and will point out every…

Jackie Clark

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:10:02 +1300

Not spent long in France then, have you, IO? Their bureaucracy is shocking beyond belief. To get anything done requires you to have complete mastery of their "system".

InternationalObserver

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:19:17 +1300

Which makes me wonder WTF we think we're doing talking about spending $3 billion on a new Auckland harbour crossing... THREE BILLION??

I've just flown in from Brisbane (and boy, are my arms tired!) and once again have been disheartened to be reminded (again) just how badly Auckland sucks when…

Paul Brislen

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:39:42 +1300

oil or no oil I'd still like to get from the city to the Shore in a direct line. Personally, I'd like to see more ferries (think Sydney) but that's not likely any time soon...

I found a book of photos of Auckland through the ages (well, OK, the last…

Jason Kemp

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:40:03 +1300

Forget the bridge – when oil gets to $300 per barrel we'll need something else entirely.

We need to rethink transport and whether anyone really needs to be driving around the city all day every day.

I hestitate to mention it – but France being still in the tournament is…

Paul Brislen

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:40:23 +1300

Ignoring the rugby for a moment (I grew up in Wales. Waddayagonna do? Just be glad we didn't lose to the Poms!), the bridge.

It's glorious.

23m taller than the Eiffel Tower, built for near enough as makes no difference E400m (that's Euros – roughly a billion Kiwi).

Which makes…

Russell Brown

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:16:21 +1300

The next day I got on the train to leave back for London. A customs official looked at my passport, and hung on to it. He glared at me and said "is no good!" I blanched, as you would. "Not after last night!" He chortled, patted me on the back…

Stephen Judd

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:12:03 +1300

I remember in 2000 being on the train back from the stadium in Paris after the All Blacks had just thumped France. ("Ou est Lomu?!" they chanted again and again throughout the match).

The carriage was full of locals (many of whom looked like they played, with broken noses and…

Charles Mabbett

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:57:02 +1300

yes, it does look like a magnificent bridge. I guess it says something of New Zealand that we chose to build Te Papa at the arse end of the last century.

Public Address

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:57:02 +1300

Discussion from blog post.