Mahurangi Matters, 17 March 2025 – Off the Record

Under the hammer

We can only sympathise with the local real estate agency that found itself running a house auction last week, on the same day, and about the same time, that a gang member’s funeral was taking place next door with a large police presence. “Maybe you’ll get a cash offer,” one person quipped. Thankfully, the auction was a virtual one.

You lose

It was sad to see Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting in the arcade behind the Wellsford food court had been replaced by a change machine recently. One diner was there with his family and lamented the fact the popular ‘90s game beloved by Gen Xers was gone. It begs the question – what good is change if there’s no ‘streety’ in which to deposit the coins?

Safety first

Why use temporary traffic management signs when you can just change the existing ones? Some outside-the-box thinking was on full display recently, with the advisory speed limit signs on the corner just after the Oyster Shed on Leigh Road changed from 50km/h to a very conservative, and perhaps overly cautious, 5km/h while the road was being resealed. Not many vehicles heeded the warning.