Bumps sprout moans

Speed humps installed to deter boy racers at Piha have led to huge potholes on the sides of the road. Rowena Orejana tracks a complaint.
On the short stretch of dirt road from the gate of the Piha Domain to the bowling club are about five speed bumps.
At the sides of this narrow track are potholes. Today, they are huge puddles, thanks to heavy downpours the previous day.
Graeme Carrie, whose family have owned the house almost directly from the road, says the speed bumps were meant to discourage boy racers. They are a compromise reached by the council and the ratepayers' association two years ago.
"They put the speed bumps in but they didn't seal the road. And the result? People don't go through the speed bumps, they have gone to the left. They went along the sides of it, creating potholes."
When it's dry, the potholes throw up clouds of grit as each car ploughs through the makeshift diversions.
"So now we get twice as much dust," says Mr Carrie.
Mr Carrie has been campaigning almost every year to get the road sealed and the parking area upgraded.
"In the summer, it's just a huge dustbowl," he says. "I'm very keen to see the road sealed because it's a mess, it's dangerous and it's dirty."
When cars and tour buses use the road, a swirl of dust makes its way to the houses. "With cars going backwards and forwards, the dust would rise to these houses, up on their roofs and go to their tanks.
"The metal dust is not good for you," he says. "The tables would be layered with dust."
His wife Claire adds that the humps  have not stopped the boy racers from coming. "They do their wheelies and text their mates to come. And they all come here. They love to show off," she says. "It's dangerous."
Closing the gate to the domain at night helps a little.
"But there's nothing to stop them from coming during the day," says Mrs Carrie.
Mr Carrie says sealing the road and putting bollards alongside it would stop people from trying to avoid the speed bumps.
He has put his proposals before the new ratepayers' association and is hopeful that sanity will prevail. "I was given a good hearing," he says.
Waitakere Community Board chairman Kubi Witten-Hannah says the council is looking into the problem. "Council officers and the residents and ratepayers are working towards a solution that will meet the needs of the community and of this delicate part of the environment."
Mr Carrie says there are a lot of people in Piha who would like to keep the place as it was 30 years ago when only a few people come to visit. But he realises the clock cannot be stopped or turned back.
"Now there are thousands and thousands of people coming and so we have to do things a little differently," he says.
Hit the surf
Piha, the birthplace of board riding in New Zealand, played host to contestants and fans at  the International Surfing Association junior world championship and the national Surf Lifesaving championship early this year.
Board riding was introduced to New Zealand by two Californian lifeguards in 1956.