THUMBS UP & DOWN

■ Thumbs up for all the festivities in town at the moment, just made our family outing. Kids were so excited with the Lions train, the lights in the park and an icecream afterwards. Family bliss.

■ Thumbs up to Bike Taupo¯ for their quick rebuild of the Craters trails after the forest was logged.

■ Thumbs up. The newly formed pavement on the Lion's Walk is super smooth and can't wait to go down with my roller blades.

■ Thumbs up to the person who found my wallet that I dropped from my car when parked on Heu Heu St late on Thursday. I was pleased to get my belongings back.

■ Thumbs up to the kind grandmother who lives locally who saved the day on Sunday and paid for our trip on the Lions train. This kind lady not only paid for herself and her two grandchildren, but also myself and my two children.

■ Thumbs up to Vetora staff for the fantastic support, care and love, I received after my doggie had to be put to sleep. I was terribly sad and cannot thank you all enough for taking my doggie out of the car, looking after me and giving me water. Thank you, highly appreciated.

■ Thumbs up to Kootcakes from Master Two. The look on our two year olds face was priceless when he spotted his Batman birthday cake. Delicious cake and enjoyed by all.

■ Thumbs up. A year ago some very kind Contact Energy staff used a spade to clear away the debris from the stairs leading from Wairakei Village down to the power station. Little known before lockdown, these stairs provide people living in the village a chance to enter the Waikato River Trails and I believe they are now more widely used.

■ Thumbs up to the roading contractors that have provided a smooth off-ramp from the state highway to turn into Wairakei School. At last it is safer.

■ Thumbs up to Derek and the team at Corys Electrical. Great prices, lots of advice and friendly service. What more could you want? I will be back again. Thanks.

■ Thumbs up to Matt Adams from Town and Country Plumbing and Gas who arranged for his worker Jono to come out on Sunday June 28 to fix a major blockage in the sewer pipe leading to the Taupo¯ Bridge Club rooms. Jono arrived at around 9am to and had to call on Ash from Aqua Blasting to try and blow the blockage. This proved unsuccessful and finally the council workmen were called. These services were able to fix the problem, enabling us to hold our YOU Travel Midwinter Tournament scheduled for that afternoon. There would have been a lot of disappointed members if we had to cancel so a very big thank you goes out to all concerned and in particular Jono.

■ Thumbs up to Harrison at Mitre 10 Mega who showed enthusiasm and expertise in helping my wife and I match a faulty sink tap. He got it matched and operating, giving us exceptional service. He is a credit to our community and an example of a fine team at Mitre 10.

■ Thumbs up and a huge thank you to the lovely young man who stopped his car to grab my daughter's pink fox hat that fell off when we raced across the road before any traffic came.

■ Thumbs up and a massive thank you to Megan and the team at Taupo¯ Foodbank for helping support our students at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology. We really appreciate all your hard work.

■ Thumbs up to my mother for teaching me sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.

■ Thumbs down to the person who returned my wallet for first emptying it of all my hard saved for money. I had saved for a long time to enjoy a holiday in Taupo¯ with my grandchildren.

■ Thumbs down to those who wash their cars on frosty mornings and let the water drain all over the foot paths and turn into ice. I saw an older man slip over last Wednesday in town. Shame on you for causing this to happen.

■ Thumbs down to Taupo¯ 's greedy petrol outlets. Last week I paid $2.209 for 95 octane then I went to Napier and filled up a few days later for $1.839 for 95 octane. Taupo¯ residents are being ripped off.

■ Thumbs down, I cannot believe that our mayor and council chief executive could let a mere quote (that has been around for decades) repeated by a very competent councillor, result in a Code of Conduct complaint and dismiss the said councillor from the Chamber. Surely the action taken is reminiscent of actions similar to a classroom of school children making a noise and one being sent to the naughty corner. When are they all going to grow up! I feel an apology needs to be made to Cr John Boddy as I, together with many more, liken this to sheer bullying and should have been stopped the minute an apology had been made instead of making a mountain out of a mole hill.

■ Thumbs down to everyone blaming it on the dogs / dog owners when they see a mess on the side of the road. I saw a cat taking a massive dump on the side of the road and no-one picked that up. Who is responsible for the mess cats make?

■ Thumbs down to the Taupo¯ council for making such a fuss about a small pile of wood.

■ Thumbs down to the local cafe owner who responded offensively to a disappointing TripAdvisor review. Our group was wrongly accused of yelling at and abusing his staff when we were only ever pleasant and polite to any staff member that we were in contact with. Do you have a bouquet or a brickbat? Email your thumbs up/ thumbs down to us at news@taupoweekender.co.nz, text us on 021 241 4568 (insert the code TW at the start of your text message) or drop them into our office in Waipapa House, Paora Hapi St, Taupo¯ . Thumbs up/thumbs down may be edited or abridged. Personal attacks or thumbs down that refer to easily-identifiable people, businesses or groups won't be published.