I first went to Dunedin as a 17 year old to box, way back in 1957, and I loved it.
In those days as our historic major city dating from the 19th century, every bank, insurance company and other corporations conventionally had their head office there.
But acknowledging reality, in the 1960s, bypassing Christchurch, they all shifted their head offices to Wellington. And again acknowledging the new reality they subsequently shifted to Auckland two decades later.
Throughout those years, Dunedin languished but over the past 20 years it became revitalised and today is many people’s favourite New Zealand city, albeit they not living there.
So all of this raises the question why God now hates it?
I say that given the terrible punishments the bugger has laid on it in recent years.
First inflicting Grant Robertson on its splendid university, this surely a brutally malicious act.
Then having the government scrub the long-awaited new hospital.
Not content with that, God then chose Dunedin to inflict on it an ominous great flood, something which Wellingtonians, lathered as they daily are with sunscreen, viewed with wonderment.
But perhaps the cruellest punishment God’s laid on Dunedin is the ghastly MP David Parker. Parker has run up an unmatched record for losing elections but, through the machinations of the MMP system, remains a Dunedin MP.
So the question remains of what bloody God’s up to in inflicting so much punishment on the city.
A happier possibility is he’s chosen Dunedin for the 2000 years long awaited promise of a second coming.
Having banged on the city a great flood as a preamble, perhaps Jesus will soon finally emerge there and the world will flock to it as the ultimate desired tourist destination. We shall see, but don’t hold your breath.
This article was originally published by No Punches Pulled.
