Tawa
Let me tell you about Tawa which is located just north of Wellington in New Zealand. It has a small population of about 13 000.
I grew up there and it was a pleasant place. (Isn't everything when you're a kid?)I never really thought too much of it until I became a teenager and started to become aware of my surroundings.

No Booze
You see Tawa was one of the last places in the country to be called a "dry zone". This meant that they couldn't sell alcohol. At all. Anywhere.
Or tobacco.
This proved to be a bit of problem. There were no bars, no liquor shops, nothin. The closest we got to alcohol was aftershave. (Which I didn't drink...just for the record)
Tawa became a "wet area" in 1999 ... thus it was legally able to sell booze n fags.
nise.

Prison
According to Wikipedia "Arohata Prison, located at the southern end of Tawa, was built in 1944 and was originally a women's borstal. It became a youth prison in 1981 and a women's prison in 1987."
As kids we were just told to "stay away from that part of town...there are wrongin's in that there part of the hood"

No traffic lights
Several hundred billion roundabouts but no traffic lights. The closest we got were the railway crossing barrier arms which came down at the wrong time, thus killing a teenager every other year or so.

Lots of Churches.
If you are a Christian you will like Tawa. There are 17 Churches in Tawa, 14 of which are on or just off the main road.

Tattoo Parlours
Last count there were 2 tattoo parlours in Tawa. Must've been full of local priests getting crucifixes tattooed on them.

Now that I'm older I visit my parents in Tawa and I still think it's a nice place ... sort of ... well it suits me ... especially considering I'm a train catching hardcore Christian who's into tattooing and piercing with parents in Prison*






* may not actually be true
(Markygee Surname: "Balls". First name: "Lick-mah", Thu 5 Nov 2009, 0:51, Reply)