Your neck of the woods...

[kiwi1960]

...for some, its a no-no, so don't name the place you live... just tell us about it.

I'll start, its obvious I live in New Zealand, and I do live in what most of you would call a village. About 1100 people all up...

This place is the gateway to all going NORTH and SOUTH... and to the WEST lies a Gorge... a famous gorge with rotten rock that keeps on having landslides... not so long ago, it was closed for 12 months as the worst landslide ever happened... the road is on one side of the gorge, the railway on the other... and a slip there caused a loco to.. well... see for yourselves.

If you go east... you will get wet.

There is virtually no crime here... but the rescue services are kept very busy with the Gorge... if not slips, then Tourists getting into difficulties in the gorge... they cannot handle the sharp bends or very narrow road.... (its actually very scary when a truck comes towards you and there is only an inch either side of disaster....

Anyhow.... photos of Woodville.... and the Gorge....

(I make no secret of who I am or where I live... if anyone wanted to find me then its really easy....)

That is the Gorge down there... and wind generators on the top

another view, this time, from the water...

The loco didn't quite make it, but survived....

It was carrying milk... not a drop was lost.

Even some trucks find it hard going, this one was carrying animal blood... (it was hauled up intact!)

Some trucks don't make it, this one was brand new... and had a novice driver behind the wheel
The driver died.

Slips happen all the time... as you can see, the road isn't that very wide, this is one of the wider spots...

Here is the slip that closed the gorge for 12 months....

 

[Katzenfreund]

Very good photography, even if it's not about cats.

 

[NavyRet]

Nice stuff guys and a great topic Kiwi. I'll look for some stuff on Minneapolis this weekend and post it here.

 

[Katzenfreund]

I already said nice pics. The downside is, have you realized how much info about yourself you've given the NSA?

 

[kiwi1960]

Does it really matter if you "out" yourself.... they still need evidence that you pirate.... if they took these photos to the Judge and used that as evidence, the Judge would laugh at the Police....

Anyhow, I don't really like the accidents the Gorge produces....

BUT...

and how to put this.... OK, we have a Volunteer Fire brigade... and Ambulance... every time there is an accident in the Gorge, the fire siren goes off and everyone knows exactly what has happened... we might have one or two fires a year here.... but well over 100 accidents in the Gorge a year.... and that is being very conservative... in winter, with the rain, there are more... summer, fewer... and as I said in post one, its mainly tourists not used to our roads or weather conditions... my wife is Dutch... she took ages before she was confident enough to drive through the gorge...

...and she wanted to do it without me in the car because .... well..... I hate being a passenger in a car going through the gorge... honest... I yell... I cry.... and that is before we even get to it....

She is a Kiwi driver now.... Handles it like a professional driver.

 

[NavyRet]

:whistling: Isn't that an oxymoron? woman driver and professional in the same sentence?

 

[kiwi1960]

her reply... Navy.... is printed below.

"As a former Police Officer in the Nederland Police Force, I was trained to drive cars. The Gorge is different, we have nothing like that in my former homeland, so it was unique even though I have driven in other nations before, mainly, in the USA, Africa and of course, other nations of the E.U.

In all those years, while I have been driving, I have never once caused an accident, however, plenty of other drivers, all men, have had various accidents with my car.

[ CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED ] ....you male chauvinist pig. "


(me again)

Navy, I think you have been told.

 

[NavyRet]

her reply... Navy.... is printed below.

"As a former Police Officer in the Nederland Police Force, I was trained to drive cars. The Gorge is different, we have nothing like that in my former homeland, so it was unique even though I have driven in other nations before, mainly, in the USA, Africa and of course, other nations of the E.U.

In all those years, while I have been driving, I have never once caused an accident, however, plenty of other drivers, all men, have had various accidents with my car.

[ CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED ] ....you male chauvinist pig. "


(me again)

Navy, I think you have been told.

Why thank you Ma'am. I stand duly chastised.

 

[kiwi1960]

However.... she took one look at your avatar and reckons anyone that has that cannot be all bad... "he is forgiven"



Laroza, did you take those photos or were they found on the web?

 

[kiwi1960]

Waddya mean... there is nothing wrong with them at all... they are so good, I wondered if you took them because everyone I know takes crappy photos.... me included.

 

[Katzenfreund]

...everyone I know takes crappy photos...

I'll have you know, my photos of cats cannot be crappy by definition. As for the rest, which are rare, who cares?

 

[kiwi1960]

Now, that is not what I meant... the crappy photos are still dammed fine, just...

well... think of it this way, if we could not take photos and everyone had to paint what they saw.... then everyone I know would paint Picaso type painting... the experts would paint the Mona Lisa type pictures.!!! Either way, still a work of art... especially if its the "Mona Cat"!

 

[Katzenfreund]

Speaking of Mona Lisa, did you know the real reason she's smiling is because she was actually holding a cat?

 

[kiwi1960]

That cat looks like it hates having its picture painted....