Rants & Raves: Waitangi Day celebrations

Hundreds gathered to Bastion Point in Orakei for a Waitangi Day festival. Music acts like the Black Seeds and Hollie Smith helped draw in the crowds. Photo / Nick Reed

Rant

We enjoyed the group of willow trees in Tuff Crater, Northcote, with their nesting kingfishers and rosellas. Then the Parks and Reserve Tree Police came and poisoned them. That was two years ago. Since then we look at dead trees. How long must we suffer this until they rot and collapse? Why do the authorities do half a job and why kill and not remove trees doing no harm?

Lee

Rave

My cellphone slipped out of my pocket on a late afternoon ferry to the city. By the time I realised, the ferry had sailed away. The staff at the ticket office took my details. They phoned my home an hour later to say they had the phone. The following morning, I rang the ticket office and asked if they could put it on the next ferry to Half Moon Bay, and I would meet the vessel there. Fifty minutes later, I was reunited with my phone. Thanks, Fullers, for great customer service.

David

Rant

It would take the death of a member of the royal family to make ITV drop an episode of Coronation Street in the UK. TVNZ drops it every other week for the slightest excuse. If they're not interested in it, why don't they pass the rights to another channel?

David Baker

Rave

We attended Waitangi Day celebrations for the first time. What a great experience! The poignant flag-raising ceremony, the excellent air force band, and great performers during the day, who included fantastic kapa haka groups, the amazing sight of waka canoes on the water. Food and craft stalls everywhere and, most of all, a wide variety of people, New Zealanders and visitors, all having a wonderful time.

J Norton

Rant

We are both in our 80s. We live in a two-bedroom unit. Our power account from Mercury Energy for December 2014 was $205, and January 2015 was $191. These amounts include a $15 donation to the children's hospital. Our dilemma for winter is to either eat or have heat. We cannot have both ...

Jean Howie

Rave

Three cheers to Auckland City Hospital staff. Thank you to all in the admission and planning unit, the recovery room and ward 76 room 1. You guys know who you are.

Jennie

Tell us what you love about life in New Zealand - and what needs
to change. Email rantandrave@nzherald.co.nz.