Places

New Zealand makes Tom laugh.

The demarcation of the species

Humor.  It verifies mankind's commonality.  By presenting comedy, the goal is a humorous response.  Humans laugh when they understand each other.  The laughter may be directed toward themselves or toward other persons, places, or things.   Chasing the sensation of humor offers some of us the existential directive.

New Zealand supplies easy access to laughter.  Over the first seven months of Tom and Cheryl's touring, working, and observing, the opportunities to laugh have been plentiful.  A connection to the place grows.  An attempt to understand the Kiwi humor is offered through a photographic compilation since arrival.  The subject involves flushing out a basic human function.  Going.  You know…going 1 or 2.  'The public places Kiwi's pee and poo' pictures.

Due to New Zealand's magnetism to foreign visitors, a user-friendly public toilet system awaits full-capacity travelers.  Tom and Cheryl have yet failed to find identical facilities from top to bottoms of the country.  All are unique.  Frequently no potty gender designations occur, which differ from American cans.  Only single thrones may exist in lavatories.  An array of locking devices require some practice .  Occasionally noice pollution becomes an issue in establishments with flimsy doors.

Forest crappers

The public toilet system of NZ are works of art.  Cheryl and Tom realized they had entered a land wanting to impress users  and ensure yearnings would be fulfilled cathartically.  Shortly after arrival, a trip to Rotorua and the nearby Whakarewarewa Forest Park led to a cluster of contemporary conifer-colored crappers.  It was another "ahhh" moment realizing that man and nature so intimately co-exist.

Matakana heads

Purging themselves of responsibilities and schedules in the Northern Hemisphere, Tom and Cheryl felt relief with the multiple comfort stations under the equator.  By far the most captivating are the Exeloo toilets.  Scattered throughout the land, locating an Exeloo represents discovery of a brown nugget gem.  The Exeloo talks and sings to its gassy guests.  Documentation of the Exeloo in action may be viewed on You Tube, but transpires as follows...



Guest approaches.  Pushes button to open door or waits until light turns green and previous guest leaves.
Door automatically opens.
Exeloo, "Welcome."
Exeloo, "Please push button to close and lock the door."
Guest pushes 'Lock' button.
Exeloo, "Your maximum time is ten minutes."
The Exeloo stereophonic system then serenades with Burt Bacharach's rendition of "What the World Needs Now is Love".
Guest does their business, leaves a loaf, drops a bomb, drops some friends off at the pool, takes the Browns to the Superbowl, etc, etc.  Another button is pushed and the perfect 6 segment paper sheet rolls out of the dispenser.
The tunes continue.
The soap, water, and dryer all operate by motion detection.
The 'Exit' button is pushed.
Exeloo, "Thank you."
The toilet flushes.
The experience ends.  Tom was initially nervous that his deposit would be gift-wrapped.

Decorative dunny

Gum digger's long drop

The humor of toiletry simplifies from the other end of the spectrum.  The outhouse, the dunny, and the long drop have the same feature.  No plumbing.  Not even in NZ.  The most rustic of Kiwi powder rooms often have a wink of satirical gas.

Hundertwasser Kawakawa Public toilets

All countries have national treasures.  Austrian artist Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser moved to Kawakawa, NZ near the Bay of Islands in 1973 and lived the simple life.  After beautifying many areas of the world, something happened in Kawakawa to stimulate him to create the nation's most famous toilet.

Inner workings of the Hundertwasser

Hundertwasser believed that the curved lines of nature should dominate the art and architecture of the world over the straight ordered lines of squares, rectangles, and high geometry.  He employed grass roofs, gold balls, ceramic tiles, bottle glass peep holes, and wavy floors in the design.

Men's view point of the Hundertwasser

A relieved Hundertwasser guest

Friedensreich himself said something like "a toilet is very special because you mediate in a toilet.  Like a church."

The Hundertwasser toilets are a destination place.  Bus loads of constipated Chinese arrive daily and snap pictures of who knows what.  Unfortunately Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundeertwasser died in 2000 and cannot greet the Chinese to his can.

Whether faced with Reason 1 or Reason 2, one can expect a combination of slapstick, satirical, droll, and fartical humor when dealing with the basics down under... the equator.