On TV1 at the moment is the story of the 1968 Wahine disaster. My abiding memory of that day was simply the weather. It was just so bad, it was unbelievable. I remember the NZBC news on the on the day kept saying that everything was under control, while the BBC news (in those days they used to broadcast it over the radio - through all the static) was saying it was bad news.
I walked down to work through the rain and wind to work at the BNZ North End. After coming down from Auckland in 1963 I thought I had experienced all the worst of the Wellington weather but this was something different. The BNZ was opposite the old Reserve Bank in Stout Street and the weather was so bad it set off the fire alarms in the Defence HQ across the road. Although it was obvious there was no fire - not that it mattered as there were no fire engines available - they made the staff all leave the building to stand in the atrocious weather. Madness!!
So we went out and got them all to crowd into the banking chamber.
Another problem I remember was getting the combination holders in to open the strongroom.
We were lucky as ours managed to make it into work, but the Reserve Banks didn't, so we had to lend them some of our cash - not that they needed much as basically little work could be done.
The Zimbabwe "election". When we were there last year it was an economic disaster and it seems to have got worse. Probably, whatever the outcome it will lead to riots and deaths by the dozen.
