Christopher Cape: It's not my fault

4x4 Ford Ranger demolishes power pole in Dannevirke. Photo / Christopher Cape

Opinion:

House prices are skyrocketing. It's a common storyline.

According to Al Jazeera, New Zealand has the most unaffordable house prices in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the worst out of 37 member countries. That goes for power prices too. They're going through the roof, I mean, literally, if what happened two weeks ago can be taken figuratively.

It was just after midnight as I was working at my computer on a huge collection of archived photos from the last few decades, when suddenly there was a thud and everything, barring the glow of my Kent fire, blacked out.

The fire siren a block away sounded and a moment later the red flashing lights of a fire tender sailed silently past my window. I groaned a resigned sigh and made my way to the living room, by memory and touch, where I found matches and several candles.

I used to live in Pinehaven in the Hutt Valley, and spent nine years in Church Bay opposite Lyttelton, where power cuts were notoriously regular, especially in winter and bad weather.

So there I was. I could just give up and go to bed. My neighbour did that. I rang the power companies. Both of them – Scanpower and Trustpower. I turned down the insistent offer by Scanpower to send a technician to check out the fault. Last time I did that I had to pay a no fault fee of about $150. I wasn't going to fall for that one again.

Trustpower's reception was much more accommodating and phoned me back with information and advice to phone them first because they were my immediate provider.

Power was apparently out to a chunk of Dannevirke. The cause, probably a motor accident. I groaned inwardly. Do I follow up the lead?

I hauled on my shoes and a jacket, grabbed my cameras, said goodbye to my cats and hopped in the car, expecting to travel kilometres in pursuit of a fire tender and a cooling trail.

As fortune would have it the incident was one block, 100m away, outside Canterbury Spinners. Police, fire, St John and power company vehicles were there. The place was lively.

A 4 x 4 Ford Ranger had collided with and severed a concrete power pole. The pole had come to rest, point down, on the roof of the ute. The two occupants had, incredibly, escaped without injury, which is more than could be said for the ute and the pole, which were both demolished.

Following up details a day or two later with the power company I was told that the pole reinstatement cost around $7000.

The event cut power to 200 households and blew a main transformer fuse. I didn't get full power back at my place until about 8am. By 3.30am the air was chilled under a clear sky. I'd seen enough and headed home. After a lukewarm cuppa I final got to bed about 4.30am. Life can be fragile and unpredictable. It had been a long day.