At home I received a phone call on Monday from a mate in Wellington.
“Get in here quickly,” he yelled, “there’s a miracle happening in Taranaki Street. There’s six road-workers and five are actually working while only one’s on his cell-phone.”
I didn’t believe him and refused to come in, wisely as it turned out for as my mate subsequently confirmed, they packed up and vanished half an hour later.
A decade back Wellington commercial real estate identity Chris Gollins and I, would fly into a provincial region and thoroughly explore each town and city, rather than just drive through.
A supplementary activity was noting the roadworks purported activity. We covered Southland to Northland over a 3 year span.
The standard ratio was a party of six “workers” of which at absolute best, two were actually doing something while two watched and two were on cell-phones.
Most common however, was miles of pointless cones with no activity occurring or seemingly needed.
This is a unique New Zealand phenomenon and instead of bowing before our wets Aotearoa creation, Coneland would surely be most appropriate for a re-naming of New Zealand.