Four Minute Showers.

As a way of conserving water, the management here at Paekakariki Motor Camp (where we are staying over the holiday period) has installed timers in the shower blocks to limit the hot water to four minutes. Then there is a four minute delay before the hot water will run again. The button to activate the flow of hot water has been placed on the outside of each shower. As imagined, this has brought about all sorts of reactions from different folks. Four minutes is ample time for us to attend to our ablutions but not necessarily for others.

Two children were in adjoining showers recently with their Mum hovering nearby. They were most concerned as they went about the business of hair washing and showering. “Mum”, they repeatly said, “you just don’t know when the water goes freezing, do you?”

The teenage girls are not worried by the four minute time limit. They usually arrive en masse and take over the shower stalls, with three ensconced in the showers and one outside on button duty. After their four minutes of hot water, they merely stand there inside the showers while their friend outside counts down the time and activates the hot water again.

Leaving the ablution blocks can sometimes be a dangerous procedure. You have to peer carefully around the door to make sure all is safe. Kids on bikes like to ride around and around the nice flat concrete paths at high speeds and are not worried about middle aged campers like us getting in their way!!