Island Life by David Slack

yes, it does look like a magnificent bridge. I guess it says something of New Zealand that we chose to build Te Papa at the arse end of the last century.

I remember in 2000 being on the train back from the stadium in Paris after the All Blacks had just thumped France. ("Ou est Lomu?!" they chanted again and again throughout the match).

The carriage was full of locals (many of whom looked like they played, with broken noses and cauliflower ears in abundance). There were handshakes and smiles all round and good grace in general.

The next day I got on the train to leave back for London. A customs official looked at my passport, and hung on to it. He glared at me and said "is no good!" I blanched, as you would. "Not after last night!" He chortled, patted me on the back and sent me on my way.

The next day I got on the train to leave back for London. A customs official looked at my passport, and hung on to it. He glared at me and said "is no good!" I blanched, as you would. "Not after last night!" He chortled, patted me on the back and sent me on my way.

The French do seem like wonderfully generous victors. One of the correspondents on Morning Report today said he'd been approached by French fans apologising for dashing All Black dreams ...

Ignoring the rugby for a moment (I grew up in Wales. Waddayagonna do? Just be glad we didn't lose to the Poms!), the bridge.

It's glorious.

23m taller than the Eiffel Tower, built for near enough as makes no difference E400m (that's Euros - roughly a billion Kiwi).

Which makes me wonder WTF we think we're doing talking about spending $3 billion on a new Auckland harbour crossing... THREE BILLION??

here's my plan: let's budget for half that, fly Sir Norman and his team here, give them $500m for their own uses and let them loose. We'll save a fortune and if the result is half as gorgeous as the Millau Bridge, it'll be worth twice as much.

Come on Auckland. Show us yer vision.

Forget the bridge - when oil gets to $300 per barrel we'll need something else entirely.

We need to rethink transport and whether anyone really needs to be driving around the city all day every day.

I hestitate to mention it - but France being still in the tournament is probably a good thing and that Australia also got knocked out before us - also seems good, since I spend much time talking to Australians!

oil or no oil I'd still like to get from the city to the Shore in a direct line. Personally, I'd like to see more ferries (think Sydney) but that's not likely any time soon...

I found a book of photos of Auckland through the ages (well, OK, the last hundred years) that showed dozens of ferries heading in and out of Auckland CBD until fairly recently. I'm not sure why we can't have them back, but without the infrastructure at each end to get people to the ferries (whatever form that takes) it's all a bit silly really. Kind of like building a large railway terminus in the middle of town and saying "voila, our transport problems are solved."

Which makes me wonder WTF we think we're doing talking about spending $3 billion on a new Auckland harbour crossing... THREE BILLION??

I've just flown in from Brisbane (and boy, are my arms tired!) and once again have been disheartened to be reminded (again) just how badly Auckland sucks when it comes to infrastructure. We couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery without first getting umpteen reports on how the piss up should be organised, staged, and what harm minimisation steps need to be taken to alleviate the possible negative effects a piss up could have on some sectors of the community.

Brisbane have a direct link by train to the Gold Coast BUT ALSO have a four lane motorway because they recognise that people will use cars too. It's fantastic, the lanes are wide and the traffic flows smoothly. They also have more than one motorway to get you across the city. Compare that with Auckland who have essentially only one motorway dissecting the city. All cars must travel to the motorway to get anywhere.

And yes, the Transit Police have decided that the best place to put a second harbour crossing is right next to the existing harbour crossing, so that money can be saved by using the existing motorway as the approach to this second harbour crossing. Take a moment to reflect on that wisdom!

And because the Transit Police don't actually want to build a second harbour crossing (because they're actually anti car greenies) they've priced it at 300 BILLION so hopefully we'll be too scared to agree to it. Much better value to spend 100 billion on buses eh?

My apologies to non-Aucklanders bored with us talking about transport woes (but better than property eh?)

Oh yes, I went to France last year, god its beautiful, and made me very sad when I returned home. The French treasure their history but aren't afraid of building new infrastructure when required. They just make a point of making it beautiful ...

Not spent long in France then, have you, IO? Their bureaucracy is shocking beyond belief. To get anything done requires you to have complete mastery of their "system".

Yeah, just a fleeting month long visit. And another month in Italy. But my Uncle (who lives in Paris) has few complaints. Bureaucracy is a way of life in Europe. They agree their taxes are high but have few complaints (usually limited to immigration issues) and will point out every single thing that they can think of that taxes pay for ie schools, healthcare, retirement, parks, parks, parks, etc etc.

To get anything done requires you to have complete mastery of their "system".

Which is why I let my Uncle do a lot of the heavy lifting. Shame on me.

The week before the match, all of my French friends said, jokingly, "we're going to get you this weekend!" and I didn't believe it, and you could see in their eyes that they didn't believe it either.

Sitting in a crammed bar in Montpellier in the south of France, watching the second half horror unfold and seeing the excitement rise in the room was not as fun as winning Lotto.

When we lost, the whole room erupted. I shook a lot of hands, received a lot of apologetic grins, and not a single bad word.

This comes down to three things:

1) The French love the All Blacks (Don't talk about the Haka in France unless you want to do it).

2) The French expect to get demolished by the All Blacks.

3) When they don't, it is seen more as a miracle than anything else.

Once I'd dealt with a tearful call from a relative in NZ, a dozen text messages from French friends ("oops, sorry, who could have known"), it just seemed like the right thing to go out and have a crazy good time, with the lot of them. So I did.

Life goes on...

Tout c'est vraimant ca. (sic)

The bridge is beautiful...but brutal. Like a liposuctioned, botoxed,gym cut, dare I say it, German viaduct. A string of lace cutting a valley's air without care of context. My favourite French roads meander with 2 lanes through poplars or mimosas and then buildings of villages, and cost nothing to use. Hackneyed but delightful.

My friend just returned from France where he met up with Jonah Lomu and witnessed a large French riot of acclaim outside his hotel. They love us I tell you and even more since we gave them a wondrous night.