Deadly Day on Waikato Roads

That is the title on one of the Google homepage news links.
The first paragraph went like this:

"Three people were killed and six injured in three separate crashes within 7 hours on Waikato roads."

Having heard of 2 of the accidents on the news I thought I would have a quick read to see about the 3rd.

1. Car v truck on a bend
2. Police car v car trying to escape them
3. Car v tanker

The only thing that suddenly stood out for me was this:

1. Driver of the car was 15yrs old
2. Driver of the car that crashed in to Police was ....15yrs old
3. Driver of the car was 17yrs old

Anyone else see a common theme in this story.......yea me too, the drivers were all young. The 15yr old female they say was driving too fast and didn't handle the car or road correctly. She also had a car full of other teenager passengers
The 15yr old male that ran into police was in a car packed with other youths and they were trying to escape the Police.
The 3rd driver I don't know anything about, just that he was young too.

Sadly it wasn't a good day on the roads for young drivers yesterday in the Waikato area

Police Building

Last week someone decided it would be fun, in their angry state, to drive into the reception area of the local Police station.
Unfortunately there were 2 sliding glass doors to go through when entering from the street, obviously this did not stop the car.

Today I noticed that the work men were installing 4 metal bollards outside the station, so that next time when someone fancies visiting they will have to park their car outside instead.

Rotorua

Rotorua, as many of you now know, is just over an hours drive from where we live.
As all my family are there then we go that way often, not as often as I would like, but it is easy to go when we have to.
The drive is very pleasant through the Waikato countryside and like any road in New Zealand through the countryside we are not talking of dual carriageways and straight roads. These roads go straight through farming land and so bend at every possible moment.
This can make the trip interesting but also very annoying when you get stuck behind a huge truck with double trailer that is travelling at 50ks an hour!

To get the Rotorua, you have to cross the Mamaku Ranges. Nice big hill with huge sweeping canyon to the side, and of course the road is as close to the edge, apart from the trees as they can get it.
The weather is also very unpredictable crossing the ranges because you go so high. It can be lovely in Hamilton and then you hit low cloud on the ranges.

Yesterday we went to Rotorua for Harvey's 4th Birthday party. It was foggy when we left Hamilton but in fact the ranges were ok.
Had a great time with all the relatives, even got to watch some of the Targa Rally, another story.

As we left, it started to rain and I knew we would be in for a slow ride home.
You may remember me talking about how I got stuck in Rotorua due to floods last month, and the fact I didn't want to drive home at night on my own in rain and fog, too spooky.

Well as we left last night I had that same feeling, although I knew we were fine as Steve was driving.
Visability was quite poor, the rain lashed at the windscreen and we drove at a rather slow speed, just like everyone else, or at least most people.
When we were down from the ranges and through the first town we pass then everything cleared and it was fine driving.
I am just grateful to Steve who drove very carefully and too the conditions and got us all home safely. It makes me feel safe to know he is there caring for us all.

Dress Update

On Tuesday I drove to Rotorua with the boys so I could go to a wedding dress meeting and then we could go to my cousin Lucy's 21st Birthday.

It rained all the way to Rotorua and the visibility coming over the Mamaku Ranges was really bad, like drop down to 50k, windscreen wipers going full blast and hope you can remember the road type of bad!

Rotorua itself was wet, wet and more wet for the whole day we were there.

The dress meeting went very well. I meet with the lady who is going to make my dress and showed her the patterns I had and also the pictures od dresses I ahd tried on and also liked the shape of. She was great, feels she knows exactly what I want and feels she can make it from the 2 patterns I gave her.

Now I have to find some material I like for her to make it with. Have decided on Satin and will be either cream or ivory, depends on what I find.

On the drive back to my brother's house in the afternoon the rain was still falling really fast and all the roads were flooding. Fairy Springs Road, the main road into Rotorua was so flooded we were driving on the centre median as our lane was a wash with water and mud running off of the banks.

I very quickly made the decision that we were staying the night in Rotorua and driving back to Hamilton the next morning.

Now Hamilton is only an hour away but the Mamaku Ranges road is dark and spooky, add to this the boys would have been asleep and I was driving on my own and with such poor visibility from the continuous rain and threat of mud slides from all the water I made a sensible decision to stay put.

The next day driving home I am glad I did stay the night, the residue of mud on the roads from water and mud running over the road was very clear to see and I am glad I drove it during the day and not in the dark.

Last Drive

For the past few Sundays I have had the pleasure of taking Steve back to Hamilton. This means that we plan the whole day around this one activity.
We pack the car in the morning, leave just before lunch, have lunch in the car, Alex sleeps on the way, then we spend the whole afternoon in Hamilton, have dinner, bath the boys, put them in pj's and then I drive back to Auckland with 2 sleeping bunnies in the back.
Today was the 3rd time I have done this and it is also my last.
Next weekend Steve will be back for the weekend but due to it being a long weekend (Labour Day) I have refused to drive him back on a Public Holiday, the traffic could be so bad!
So I am making him take the coach back, plus it is helpful to me as the packers are arriving the next morning.

The first weekend I drove back it rained all the way, yucky to drive in and took me slightly longer than normal.
The second weekend the weather was fine and it was a great drive back.
Today, I got stuck behind someone who wanted to do 80 all the way, this lead to their downfall though, because they seemed to have difficulty in reading speed limit signs on the road, when it said limit was 100 they went 80, when it said limit was 70 they still went 80?!
So whilst driving through one of the little towns on route home, I slowed for the speed limit of 70 but the car in front didn't, so as they got to be more than 100m ahead I was annoyed because it meant that I probably wouldn't be behind them when the passing lane came up and I really wanted to pass, but when I saw the flash of orange light across the road as the SPEED CAMERA got them for speeding, then I felt justice was done!
I was going just below the speed limit so was fine, but I had a great laugh as I finally passed them knowing what was coming in the post to them later this week.

So the next time I drive to Hamilton will be the last, we will go knowing we are staying and not coming back. Yea, the 3 weeks that Steve has been away have gone quickly, but have been hard work. It will be nice to be back as a family again in 1 house.