A day for the humble dunny

An impromptu, al-fresco khazi sit gave new meaning to International Toilet Day in Wanganui yesterday.
On the building site of new motel "151 London", the work gang lined up on boss's orders for a quick test-sit on a gleaming new loo about to be installed.
Although, at first, motel owner Karen Rowe thought a day honouring lavs was some sort of a weirdo joke, she quickly got into the swing of things.
"Come on, everyone. I want you all down here for a toilet day photograph."
The workers stopped and stared.
"You what?" one man said.
"Come on, you can do it it'll be over with real quick," she promised.
As the chaps lined up for a seaton the throne they chatted about toilets they had visited over the years.
Unfortunately, most of the johns had ranged from very bad to totally horrendous.
Barry Barnes remembers camping up the Parapara when nature didn't call & it screamed.
"Yeah, it was like & you know & when you gotta go, you gotta go."
He sprinted off to the long drop up the track, only to find it full to overflowing.
"I had to set to and dig another hole. It wasn't good, I can tell you."
Andrew Gaskin was off camping in the Ruatiti when nature gave him a loud shout.
He dived off to the nearest bush thunderbox but had to scarper out of there fast, because a huge contingent of wasps was nesting there in the vital spot, he said.
"So I got out of there, damn pretty fast."
Another keen outdoors boy, Heath Lamont, remembers having to scare rats out of a long-drop hell hole in the bush once.
"Really, really not funny."
But Bruce Cook's memory of bogs he has known is pleasant, especially the men's public toilets in Taupo.
"Yeah, they had just finished building them. They were beautiful toilets. They really were & well, I think they still are."
Having the last word in lavatory tales, Mrs Rowe said the very worst for her was at the zoo in Guanzhou, China.
"They were long, shallow channels with flowing water and you stood astride the channel. But when you're desperate, it doesn't matter where you go."
The second shocking loo was on the train from Hong Kong to Mainland China, she said.
"It was a channel too, and when you looked down you saw the railway tracks racing underneath scary."
But be assured: the toilets in the new motels will all be in fragrant, tiled, small rooms with locking doors and great flushing facilities, she said.
"You will need to supply your own reading matter, though."
PICTURED: Come on, mate: Lining up for International Toilet Day are the boys on the job at a Wanganui building site. (from left) Heath Lamont, Barry Barnes, Andrew Gaskin, Bruce Cook and Lewis Ibell.