There I was, walking along one of Tai Tokerau's beautiful beaches. Just me and the seagulls, with hardly another soul to be seen. A small cluster of baches visible over the dunes to my left.<\/p>\n
On my right, some gentle rolling waves and the great blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n
And then a buzzing … what is that? A giant mosquito?<\/p>\n
Read more: Vaughan Gunson: Will teacher strike action force the government to concede further ground?<\/a> Advertisement Advertise with NZME.<\/a> <\/p>\n I swivelled my head back and forth in agitation, before looking upwards to the source of the noise.<\/p>\n Maybe 40 metres up – it was hard to tell – was a spindly-armed drone hovering directly above me.<\/p>\n I recognised the sound now as distinctly metallic, like a high-pitched dentist's drill.<\/p>\n I stood there, doing my best pissed-off stance and scowl. After 10 seconds it zoomed off.<\/p>\n I've never before wished I had a shotgun but then and there, if one were in reach, I would have blasted that thing out of the sky.<\/p>\n As it was I had a quick look around for a suitable projectile I could hurl at it.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n 14 Nov, 2018 11:30am 3 minutes to read <\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n 7 Nov, 2018 11:30am 3 minutes to read <\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n 24 Oct, 2018 11:30am 3 minutes to read <\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n 19 Oct, 2018 4:55pm 4 minutes to read <\/a> <\/p>\n One can understand how crimes of passion occur. The anger bubbles over and before you know it you've committed property damage.<\/p>\n I can see the headline: ''Man appears in court after destroying drone''. Not quite the noble protest cause I fancy appearing in court for, but worth it perhaps.<\/p>\n Drone rage is sure to become a thing. Luddites, like myself, unable to control themselves.<\/p>\n I try to be understanding about what different people get enjoyment from. I really do. But I'm afraid my tolerance, in this case, was broken down.<\/p>\n Standing under a buzzing drone on a beach, where we should be safe from such technological intrusions, I only wanted to yell ''Get a life!'' to whoever was holding the remote.<\/p>\n I'm almost motivated enough to make a submission to the Whang\u0101rei District Council requesting drones be banned from beaches.<\/p>\n To fly them over a reserve or park owned by the council requires you to fill out a form – to get approval. I don't know if the request is ever denied, or on what grounds.<\/p>\n But not so for beaches, you can just rock on up.<\/p>\n I've found out, though, you need consent to fly a drone above a person on the ground.<\/p>\n That's interesting. Perhaps we need a signal, then, easily understood by the drone operator looking at their camera screen.<\/p>\n A one-fingered salute or a Homer Simpson-like fist-shaking would mean consent withheld.<\/p>\n We could signal our consent with a friendly wave or perhaps a carefree pirouette.<\/p>\n But what if there are lots of people on a beach? Some are indifferent, others are raging drone-phobes. How is consent calculated in that situation?<\/p>\n Does the drone operator go up to everyone on the beach? Then steers the drone expertly around the dissenters?<\/p>\n Defining what constitutes ''above'' sounds contentious. Are we talking a tight one-metre radius of the subject or an expansive 50 metre no-fly zone?<\/p>\n Doesn't seem very workable really. Maybe just don't fly drones on beaches if anyone else is there. Sounds fair to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There I was, walking along one of Tai Tokerau's beautiful beaches. Just me and the seagulls, with hardly another soul to be seen. A small cluster of baches visible over the dunes to my left.
Vaughan Gunson: Let the battle begin<\/a>
Vaughan Gunson: Unwinding of Jami-Lee Ross pure tragic theatre<\/a>
Vaughan Gunson: Climate change threat needs political leaders willing to talk about the end of economic growth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nA lot at stake in teacher pay battle<\/h2>\n
Free universal dental care remit brings hope<\/h2>\n
Lesson for all of us in unwinding of Jami-Lee Ross<\/h2>\n
Vaughan Gunson: Let the battle begin<\/h2>\n
\n On my right, some gentle rolling waves and the great blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
\n And then a buzzing … what is that? A giant mosquito?
\n Read more: Vaughan Gunson: Will teacher strike action force the government to concede further ground?
\nVaughan Gunson: Let the battle begin
\nVaughan Gunson: Unwinding of Jami-Lee Ross pure tragic theatre
\nVaughan Gunson: Climate change threat needs political leaders willing to talk about the end of economic growth
\n Advertisement Advertise with NZME. I swivelled my head back and forth in agitation, before looking upwards to the source of the noise.
\n Maybe 40 metres up – it was hard to tell – was a spindly-armed drone hovering directly above me.
\n I recognised the sound now as distinctly metallic, like a high-pitched dentist's drill.
\n I stood there, d..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}