Through traffic

Today's the day .................... for a dilemma

We were in Kawakawa today - a typical New Zealand small town - with a wide, main street with all the shops side by side. This town is famous for two things - the Hundertwasser public toilets and a narrow gauge steam railway.

The toilets, designed and built by Friedensreich Hunterwasser - the internationally regarded architect and ecologist - are a delight with their ceramic columns, garden roof and colourful and curvy exuberance.

Kawakawa developed as a coal-mining town in the late 1870s. A tramway along Gillies Street to the Derrick at Taumarere was used to haul coal and became the first steam railway in North Island.

I was actually in the toilets when I heard the whoo whoo of the steam engine - and anyone who knows me well - will know that for me, there is no more exciting sound than that!

So for today, the picture had to be the steam locomotive Gabriel as she whizzed through Kawakawa. The line goes right down the main street with no barrier of any sort between the train and the cars. You would think it would be a health & safety nightmare but it seems to work just fine ........................