27 November – Castlepoint, NZ
I went with Deidre and Rani, a friend of ours, to a place called Castlepoint, which is about a 2 hour drive northeast of Wellington. Today was a great day for photos…
We went to Martinborough first. This was a view over the valley…
Then we had brunch in a cafe, and I had to take this photo of an old piano that was there…
This is the Martinborough Hotel…
After leaving Martinborough we headed to Castlepoint. I saw a winery along the way and got this photo…
Finally, we arrived at Castlepoint! There was a surf up…
The lighthouse is the attraction at Castlepoint. Take notice of the top of the cliff to the left of the lighthouse, as there's a few photos further below taken from that point…
A view of the small harbour from the path heading up to the lighthouse…
The ‘horse whip’ case
There's been an interesting case I've discovered here in NZ that involved a boy being disciplined by his mother with a riding crop (which was turned into a horse whip by media). As a result of the discipline, the child's behaviour improved at school. This was regarded as suspicious by the school, who contacted CYFS (Children, Youth & Family Services). CYFS discovered the improvement in behavious was due to the 'corporal punishment' and removed the child from the parents' care. According to this article at the NZ Herald it went to court and a jury found the mother not guilty, which under normal circumstances would mean that the child would be returned to the parents. Not in this case, however, as CYFS ignored the court's decision and decided they didn't want the child returned to its family. Apparently the decision of a jury and a court of law was irrelevent to them.
The law overrules media freedom
Yesterday a court ruling was made that forced a NZ TV station to have two political party leaders on a televised debate. The 6 highest-polling party leaders were invited onto a political debate for the upcoming election, and two political leaders who weren't invited, because they weren't up there with the polling figures, went to court in order to force the TV station to let them into the debate. In a matter of hours, the court ruled in their favour, forcing the TV station to allow them onto the debate.
I immediately saw a problem with this, where the justice system (which includes the government, as the justice system is a reflection of government policies) now dictates who a private organisation can or can't have on their privately organised TV shows. Suddenly, a 'dangerous precedence' was created. This was the first article about it:
The ruling was also criticised by New Zealand Media Freedom Committee chairman and Dominion Post editor Tim Pankhurst, who said it was bizarre. "The courts should not be meddling in this area. It is a dangerous precedent for the democratic process when judges are allowed to dictate which politicians should be included in specific programmes."
Policies of NZ Political Parties
An excellent site showing summaries of the different policies with the major political parties in NZ can be found here:
If you're in NZ, I recommend you have a look at it to see which of the parties you would prefer to vote for.
Happy anniversary to me!
Today is the day that I've been here in New Zealand exactly 4 years. I arrived here on June 14 2000, and it's now June 14 2004.
Happy Anniversary to me!
Happy Anniversary to me!
Happy Anniversary dear Alan…
Happy Anniversary to me!
(Sung to the tune of Happy Birthday to me!)
I think this will be a small trip down memory lane. We're going to go through each of my entries from when I arrived, at this time each year, and we're going to see how things have developed.
16th June 2000
This was an update, advising of how I'd just arrived, met a few of Michelle's friends, and started working at an internet cafe straight away.
I finally got through into the arrivals lounge where I had a nice reunion with Michelle… It was great to see her again and to be here permanently – with her. She then took me on a scenic drive of part of Wellington on our way home. It was certainly breathtaking…
