For days, it's been all (and I hope this doesn't offend you!) ...
... with lots of calls to forget the Rugby World Cup now happening in NZ and get dealing with the real issue!
However, last night I caught only the tail end of the news and apparently it's all gone terribly wrong ...
... and the ship has cracked open, is listing almost over, spewing crates, possibly those carrying toxic materials, and the oil slick was heading for the beaches ...
... and Lois, who lives on The Bay of Plenty, is currently touring around the more rural parts of North India and hearing only snippets and is sending e-mails pleading "What's happening?"
I've spent all morning trying to find out and I'm being told by everyone it's looking bad, although I did have a laugh at this:
John Keyes, NZ Prime Minister!
Needless to say, he didn't actually say this and it's just the Kiwi sense of humour in action, but nonetheless everyone I've talked to has been overwhelmed by the awfulness of this "invasion by outside forces".
Horrible, horrible, horrible! Those beaches are ... sorry, were ... so very lovely. Wish I knew where Keith has stored those photos so I could show you.
And the wreck is inside the Exclusion Zone, part of the Nature Reserves for fish life all up that coast so I guess those are done for! And since those reserves were all meant as fish breeding grounds, I guess that'll be a huge dink in the future of the Kiwi fishing industry. And all those absolutely delicious shellfish all up that coast!!! Guess those are gone too!
Anyway, I'm trying to find out just how bad the damage is, but all I'm getting is "It's bad! It's really bad!" which doesn't really say a lot, does it?, because "bad" covers such a wide, wide range, so what I really want to know is "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Hiroshima-level entire devastation, what level of bad is this bad?"
But nonetheless, no matter the level of bad, all I can think of is how sad this is! Tauranga was a beautiful beach! No, make that stronger, because it isn't just sad. More like Sad! Sad! Sad! SAD!!!
Poor New Zealand. I know I'm seldom nice about it, but I have never denied that it's undoubtedly one of the world's most beautiful countries - endless "chocolate for the eyes" - with everything so wildly visually lovely and beyond-just-right. And now this! It's such a GENUINE TRAGEDY!
It's going to take serious effort and serious money to put this to rights, especially considering they're still rebuilding Christchurch after it was devastated by the earthquakes.
And thinking of what it's going to take to mend this - the cost and the technology etc, etc - I'll just put it out there that we actually saw Bill Gates and Tom Cruise together at one of these beaches - Omaha Beach, from memory - several years ago, the Easter after Tom made "The Last Samuri" in NZ. They spent the afternoon wind-surfing. It was a brutally cold day with very blustery winds but they didn't seem to mind. The beach was pretty much deserted, but there were over a dozen folks walking that chilly beach who all saw them ... and we all thought that they were both very nice since they said "Hi" to the beach-strolling passersby, like us, who pretty much left them alone to get on with it ...
... so here are two guys with great wealth and great influence who know this area of NZ ... so perhaps they could get involved somehow!
Just a thought!
Kathy has just sent me some links:
Thank you, Kathy! Most kind of you!
And updates are found here: http://news.yahoo.com/containers-fall-off-stricken-ship-zealand-002400344.html
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