Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

Tauranga is now New Zealand's third largest city. If you ignore Auckland. And that other one.

We've been ignoring Auckland for a good few years now and it's working out very well. Most of the South Island is with us.  So that makes the top three NZ cities by population and general coolness: Christchurch, Wellington, Tauranga. Not necessarily in that order.

Dunedin and Hamilton are close in the mix somewhere but unless you particularly like students and damp, they're a lost cause.  

Rotorua would like to think it rates but really Nelson and Gisborne have more X factor and less hot mud, which has become a bit seventies if you ask me.

We asked some locals, what in Tauranga stands out? They all said The Mount. I think they took that question quite literally.

They're right of course, it stands out geographically but also spiritually. It's the sort of natural icon a city is blessed with, so it doesn't have to erect a giant carrot or lobster or a sky tower.

Wear it out

The climb up Mount Maunganui is no doubt the most iconic walking track of the Tauranga region.

It's taking a thrashing at the moment with so many people attempting the Everest Challenge, in which they climb the Mount to match the equivalent height of the Himalayan peak.

You'd think it would be wearing out and might be getting easier, especially after the relentless trodding by local MP Todd Muller, who has diligently traipsed up there every day for the last umpteen.

But alas, it seems for us slackers, the climb isn't getting any easier. I know this, not because I have climbed it in recent years, but because from base camp in a cosy café on Marine Parade, I have spoken on the phone to people who are actually up there.
Apart from sounding a bit puffed, they inform me that it is a very healthy thing to do. And have confirmed that it is still as high as we, remaining sensibly near water level, have suspected.

More new research

Now you may think we are not taking exercise seriously. But we are in fact taking heed of recent research, which points to a possible major flaw in the exercise regime of many fitness fanatics.

And that is, they are failing to give their bodies sufficient rest time between workouts.  Minimum is 48 hours for the body to recover and strengthen, otherwise it is continuing to damage itself and doesn't get a chance to recover and repair.

I and many other drinkers of sugar cane derivatives, are erring on the side of caution and giving it a good couple of years between workouts, mountain climbing, trips to the letterbox etc. just to be on the safe side.

So far I've pushed the recovery period out to two, maybe three years. I think the last major exertion may have been running to catch a plane. I can't stress enough the importance of allowing the body sufficient time to get over such a workout.

Don't be pushed back into workouts too soon, allow your body its repair time,
keep up the fluids and enjoy that all important rest.

Particularly nasty weather

The recent couple of bouts of nasty weather and the response from some of our citizens has left me a bit perplexed.

The warnings were there. In fact, the warning signs may as well have been large and bold and flashing neon. Don't go out, was the message.

It couldn't have been any clearer if was tattooed on their foreheads.

But alas, in the last couple of storms, some folk decided it was a good idea to be boating on the ocean at 2am, camp beside a notoriously flood-prone river for a festival, and go tripping around the country… in the face of one of the most ferocious storm forecasts of the year.

So it was little surprise to the rest of us, sensibly tucked up at home with a cat on lap, that the Sundaise festival a few weeks back, was evacuated by the army and that two coastguard units were called to help a boat back into harbour. And that countless motorists were stranded, that cattle died a needlessly brutal death and facebook and our news sites ran rampant with floody photos… largely because quite a lot of people failed to take any notice of the storm warnings.

No sense of sense

Now at the risk of being a killjoy, it would seem that some people just don't know when to be sensible.

I guess we were all young once and flipped the bird in the face of officialdom and said, eff it, we'll do it anyway.

But some of these hapless folk are not young and exuberant; they're seasoned repeat offenders.

I'm be the first to get out and go adventuring. But people, we really have to learn to pick the time and place. Weather forecasting, despite the critics, has never been better.

Technology affords us the luxury of having unsurpassed levels of accuracy. Our forebears, trying to eek a living off the land, would have been ecstatic over the level of climate knowledge that abounds today.  It's there, folks. Use it wisely. Give the ambos, fire teams and emergency services a break. If the weather looks like rubbish, stay off the roads, the ocean and the riverbanks.

Parting thought:

Even duct tape can't fix stupid. But it can muffle the sound.