Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

Kiwi ingenuity is alive and well, RR researchers discovered in the weekend during a routine inspection of thongs on the beach.

Now, before you all jump to smutty conclusions that RR researchers have spent their weekends ogling the scantily clad rear ends of shapely beachgoers – you're wrong. Some of them are not shapely at all. No, we're not talking about bottom attire. The subject is casual footwear thongs, commonly known as jandals.

It was revealed that 52.7 per cent of New Zealanders in our extensive survey, of six people (with a margin of error of three) would rather repair their jandals, than fork out $6 for a new pair. It seems the challenge is more motivation than the cost savings, despite times being tough.

One jandal wearer, who we agreed to not name for fear of ridicule, says he gets so attached to his favourite flip flops and just can't be bothered buying another pair.

Mother of Phoebe, proudly showed me the button, carefully selected to fit the recess in the underside of the jandal, intricately wired into place.

Another jandal recycler, we'll call him Andre, uses bread bag clips neatly slotted over the round bit of the toe thong to secure the front of the straps in place. He says they usually last a couple of weeks, or at least, as long as a loaf of bread. Then he simply replaces the clip.

Tony, an old hippie from back in the day when you were careful about admitting to wearing a thong, says it was common for their jandals to be repaired with nails or paper clips. That worked fine till the nail pierced the jandal, and often, the foot.

It seems the days of number eight wire have been superseded by this new generation, who prefer to use cable ties and plastic bread bag clips for their ingenious Kiwi repairs on-the-run.

It got us thinking, that there are many clever do-it-yourself repairs happening every day, and we'd like to share those ideas with readers. Whether it's your favourite jandals or any other cunning Kiwi contrivance, send us your pictures. We'll share your ideas with our readers in a celebration of typical NZ ingenuity and dish out some prizes.
Email: [email protected] or drop a line to PO Box 240, Tauranga. If you are passing, call into the Sun office at 1 The Strand; we can grab a snapshot.

Crunch time

Panelbeaters nationwide will be jumping with glee. In a couple of months, all hell will break loose on local roads when the give way rules change. From 5am on March 25, 2012, this new rule will require all traffic turning right to give way to a vehicle coming from the opposite direction and turning left. This applies at cross roads, T-intersections and driveways where both vehicles are facing each other with no signs or signals, or the same signs or signals.

Of course, this only applies to those who bother to give way in the first place, which in the Tauranga region, is about five per cent of you.

The rest, I guess, will carry on their merry way, creating intersection mayhem every day they're on the road. Others, of course, who thought the new rule was actually the law now, will be pleased that their incorrect interpretation, will, overnight on March 25, suddenly become the lawful way to drive. The NZTA has launched an excellent publicity campaign, wisely booking with the largest circulating newspaper in the region. They've seen the wisdom of reaching every mailbox in the region, in The Weekend Sun, the best read paper by a country mile – 63,000 copies going to the homes of 140,000 people – so you can't do better than reaching the mailbox of every driver in the Bay.

Still, there will be a small number who don't understand it, or forget the rule change at the crunch moment. The first time they are likely to understand the new give way rules is when their panelbeater explains it.

Good luck out there. We're going to need it.

It might take more than a button or a bread clip to repair the March mishaps.

Coming up next week: How to use the indicator. It's never too late to learn.