happy medium

Looks like the story isn’t over yet…

Had a phone call from a Detective Tony Bruce, and that the woman is indeed insane, but if she proves fit enough to go to trial, I’ll probably be called as a witness.

Here’s a couple of news stories on the incident:

NZ Herald

Stuff.co.nz

“I can’t actually say anything till we can confirm it. I was told that a woman was seen running from the shop. But I was also told there was some video footage showing her doing that,” Mr Fuller said.

A member of the public caught the incident on film, showing a woman leaving the burning drycleaners and turning to throw the empty petrol container into the flames.

I’m not going to forget yesterday in hurry.

At about 4:45pm I headed down Parnell road from Bunker to get a bite to eat. Just after ordering, a couple of girls sitting at the window started screaming and shouting at something happening across the road.

Grey smoke was passing by the window, at first I thought it was just a car breaking down / engine fire or something, but in the seconds it took to get outisde, this was the scene:

The laundrette across the road was fully engulfed in flames and thick black smoke. The whole building was on fire, in just a matter of seconds. The woman standing next to me was on the phone to the fireservice so I started taking these photos.

It’s then I noticed a woman across the street shouting and swearing. She walked back to her car and took out a petrol can, walked to the fire and threw it in. People from above the laundrette were just getting out of the building, and the lady on the phone had started screaming that the woman had stared the fire with a petrol bomb.

The woman lit a cigarette, got into the car and drove off. No-one tried to stop her, probably due to the fact it happened so fast and people were trying to figure out the situation and were in shock.

I had started to film the event from pretty much the beginning, and so had footage of her, her actions, car and number plate, driving off, and the police arriving 10seconds after.

All this in Parnell, one of the more richer, well-to-do areas of Auckland. Complete with mock-victorian buildings and hanging baskets. Think of all the people who’s clothes have gone up in smoke…

By this time the whole place was teeming with cops and firemen. I gave my details to a policeman, including the footage on disc after popping back to the studio.

Gerrard worked at C4 and Channel3, so we decided to ring up the news if they were interested in the footage for a fee for the 6 o’clock news, in about half an hour. They were, and we were told to get down to the station as soon as possible (i.e before 6!) Not easy when the whole of parnell is gridlocked due to the fire.

After some backstreet shortcuts, got to there just in time for the footage to be edited and shown on the National News within an hour of the incident taking place…

Update
I was contacted today by 3News, for an eye-witness account on camera. After some good advice, I’ve decided not to do it. Incredibly, despite the police knowing the woman and having the plate’s number, at this time she’s still at large. I work in Parnell, and it’s just not worth the possible repercussions. Especially when someone who’s capable of petrol bombing a laundrette in the middle of the day is involved. Hopefully she doesn’t read this blog…

Update 2

Well they caught her. Throwing used tampons at random people in the street

That’s one crazy woman…

Video
At this time, I’m not going to put the footage online. Those who know me just drop me an email first.

You may have heard back home about the passing of the Maori Queen – Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu. She died on Tuesday last week, 75 years of age, just 2 weeks after her birthday. She was crowned in 1966, at just 34. The 40th anniversary of her coronation took place in May.

Today her eldest son, Te Arikinui Tuheitia Paki, was confirmed as her successor.

There have been now 7 Maori monarchs, the first being crowned in 1853. A head Maori was introduced as a way of combating the loss of land and unity due to the British settlers, who in turn tried to destory the monachy as it was deemed a threat to the British crown.

The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are not natives however, having settled here between 800AD and 1130AD, from as far as the Easter Islands. In fact New Zealand is one of the last places on Earth to have been settled by Man.

The island was “discovered” by a dutch man named Abel Tasman 1642 and named it “New Zeeland” after a province in the Netherlands. (The Tasman sea between NZ and OZ is named afer him), although settlements in large numbers only took place with the coming of the British in the late 1800s. This lead to the landwars around the time of the first Maori King.

Someone of White British descent in New Zealand is known as a “Pakeha”, although the term is now used for anyone of non-maori descent but it is deemed as derogative by some.

Before the Europeans settlers, they had been no written form of the Maori language. European Christian missionaries developed Maori as a written language, and the first printed material in the Maori language was published in 1815. It’s actually a pretty difficult language for a Brit to get his head around, especially pronunciations, as although the characters are recognisible, the way in which they are pronounced is not.

The language consists of five vowels:

A – pronounced “ah” as in lava
E – pronounced as in the word pet
I – pronounced “ee” as in the ie in families
O – pronounced “or”
U – pronounced “oo” as in boo!

There are just 8 single consonants – H,K,M,N,P,R,T,W, and two digraphs:

NG – pronounced as in the word song.
WH – generally pronounced roughly as `f’ or “ph”

You’ll notice there is no “S” in the Maori language, and is deemed offensive if you pluralise Maori words by adding an “s”. For example, never say “Maoris”, always “Maori”

Very rare to see them on the beat at all…

All four electrical power cables supplying the Central Business District failed on 20 February 1998, causing the 1998 Auckland power crisis. It took five weeks before an emergency overhead cable was completed to restore the power supply to the Central Business District. For much of that time, about 60,000 of the 74,000 people who worked in the area worked from home or from relocated offices in the suburbs. Many of the 6,000 apartment dwellers in the area had to find alternative accommodation.

There was a blackout only a few weeks ago…

This is Grafton Bridge, which spans the valley (and motorway) which cuts through central Auckland between the University and the Domain Park. Due to it’s location, height and originally low barriers it’s known locally as the “suicide bridge”. Because of the high rate of jumpers the council installed a safety barrier from 1996 but took it down in 2002. Maybe they thought people were no longer commiting suicide anymore. Sadly this wasn’t true and the barriers went back up the same year. Rather ominously there’s a graveyard below the bridge at it’s west end.

Grafton Bridge in 1910:

Another example of how changable the weather is, one side of the bridge:

and the other:

I know the blog has been fairly quiet this past week. It’s been a case of sorting out a place to live, sorting out bills, opening a bank account (not that easy in NZ) and finding work, so the sights and sounds of New Zealand have been put on hold. My little nest egg is starting to eb away, so finding a design job is high on the list. Can’t wait to move into the flat on Monday. My birthday is coming up, so I’m thinking of doing a day trip somewhere along the coast.