Blown away just an afterthought

Still rooting for the All Blacks.

Deadlines in New Zealand often come and go without action - and generally unremarked upon. But you'd thing a big-assed sign right by the airport would be difficult to ignore.

Still, the whole Wellywood scandal that erupted last year and was even put to a public vote, has sort of been the 800 pound gorilla in the room for the last few months. The brouhaha broke out when the Airport Authority, which owns the land overlooking the runway, decided they were going to put a huge "Wellywood" sign up that would be the first thing to greet arriving international visitors. It would be hip and fabby and remind people of Wellington's growing movie industry.

It was immediately decried as derivative of the famous Hollywood sign. It was unoriginal, confirmed the stereotype that Kiwis like to steal other people's ideas, and was the very essence of tackiness, critics said. It sent out precisely the opposite message than the one intended: Wellingtonians were unoriginal copycats. There were even protests.

So the airport backed down and decided to allow the public to nominate and vote on other suggestions. Below was the less-than-inspiring (to me) winner. It is supposed to imply that Wellington is windy. I would suggest that newly arrived passengers didn't really need a sign to point that out to them; they'd find out as soon as they left the terminal building and their possessions were ripped out of their hands and launched off to the South Island by the ever-present gales. But that's just me.

Then we were promised that the new sign would be installed by the end of March. That came and went. At least once a week Ewan and I would wonder where the new one was. Nothing. We'd just shrug our shoulders; things move at their own pace here, after all. Radio silence persisted, as if the idea had blown away in a storm, if you'll pardon the poor excuse at humor.

Now comes news from one of Wellington alternative newspapers that the new sign - which has been delayed due to unexplained "construction problems" - will be in place by the end of July.

Now isn't that just peachy? As big a fuss as I made about this non-issue issue when it was going down, I may be one of the first people to be treated to a view of this spectacle as it was intended: from an airplane. I leave at o'dark thirty on August 1. Thing is, I have no expectation that this deadline will be met either.