A very sad moment on TV at 18:00 tonight: distraught local lady weeping over the damage that has been caused to "her" beach. Even though she - like me - is a fairly recent immigrant, the natural beauty of NZ is such that everyone is very protective of it.

Even though I'm on the other side of the North Island, I know exactly how she feels and how I'd feel - the personal sense of violation you feel when a place you love (like Cornwall was) is desecrated, violated by ignorant, stupid people operating complex systems with no real understanding of what they are doing.

And the local authority is still maintaining its principled stand against allowing "unqualified" people onto the beach, on safety grounds.

This one will run and run...