Matt for Mayor

This afternoon I succumbed to the promise of fresh coffee beans - my supply has almost dried up so I took a deep breath, pointed the car towards town and drove......

Everything seemed eerily normal until I hit the Tahunanui traffic lights, beyond which few have travelled for almost a week despite it being one of the two main drags into town.  Signs said drive slowly - 30kms max......no stopping.......  There was evidence of mud along much of the road, some from cars that had driven the road, some the residual flow from the falls.  I didn't look up....just kept driving.  There was no traffic coming in the opposite direction as the south bound lane (passing immediately under the cliff faces) is closed.  It was eerie.  It still only took me 7 minutes to drive from home, along the restricted Rocks Road to my coffee supplier of choice though, so I was feeling quite smug about my decision to go to town.

The smugness wore off pretty quickly though when it took me over 2 hours to get back home.  The detour took all south travelling vehicles and funnelled them through a maze of streets until they all arrived at various junctions along the only available road south.  Gridlock.....an absolute crawl........people walking were overtaking the traffic!

Thank goodness I bought plenty of coffee beans!! 

This pic was taken crawling past this rather bright garage door.  Local elections are ramping up.....