Rants&Raves: Life in New Zealand

The new Grafton Gully cycleway. Photo / Chris Gorman

We want to know what you love about life in New Zealand - and where there's room to make it even better. Herald staff kick off our new Rants&Raves feature. Now we want to hear what you think. You could be cross about a carpark or stoked about the service in a cafe. Write to rantandrave@nzherald.co.nz.

Rant
Why do people throw their cigarette butts on the ground? They wouldn't just drop the cup when they finish a coffee (presumably). They should put them out and drop them in a bin. This morning I saw a street cleaner sucking up the butts on Queen St and there were HUNDREDS - most only a few metres from a rubbish bin.
Heather McCracken

Rave
The new Grafton/Beach Rd cycleway. I love it. The smooth, fast Grafton surface. The concrete islands separating you from the cars on Beach Rd. So much safer. But so short before it spits you into the worst of the downtown traffic chaos. And at the top end in Upper Queen St, the double red light kills Northwest Cycleway smiles - can't the traffic-light elves give priority to cyclists?
Martin Johnston

Rant
Why are supermarket shelves so bare and checkouts so understaffed on Saturday nights? It's incredibly frustrating heading to the local store only to find many products advertised as weekend deals already sold out and queues for the checkout stretching all the way back to the aisles.
Elizabeth Binning

Rave
I love Auckland but I love spending time away from it too. We're just back from a week unwinding at Whangarei Heads. We couldn't get over the beauty of Smugglers Bay at Bream Head, surely one of the finest of New Zealand's many fine beaches. It's got everything you want in a beach and, being a 20-minute walk from a carpark that's about 30km from the nearest big town, is quiet and unspoiled.
Chris Reed

Rant
The school holidays are here and, once again, we get free-flowing traffic. Something's not right when school days mean road congestion for most of us in Auckland. That's probably because everything starts at 9am - schools, offices, shops. Why can't start times be staggered - 8am for schools, 9am for offices and 10am for shops?
Lincoln Tan

Rave
The 35th birthday party of Kea Clubs on Saturday proved that even in this day and age, 6- to 8-year-olds can delight in simply throwing a gumboot, playing noughts and crosses with bamboo sticks and paint tin lids, and toasting marshmallows over a flame. The hit of the day was a portable mini-golf course - designed by Keas and made from donated wood - which neatly fitted in the hall at the Scouts New Zealand Motu Moana Centre, in Blockhouse Bay.
Wayne Thompson