The
controversy of Waipawaís duck has been long and furious with opinions
expressed on both sides of the arguments.
Whether to keep the duck or scrap itÖ
Whether the duck is cute and adorable or just plain uglyÖ
The arguments have gone on and on both in the press and on the airwaves. And
now these arguments have reached into the electronic age with the launching
of the duckís own website.
Over the last nine years, since the conception of ìPawa the Duckî,
its creator Jan Gosling has been collecting its story.
Every article written and published has been compiled in one place and made
into the basis of this website. The articles are often humorous telling a story
about how the duck was made, how it laid an egg and the resulting duckling,
the search for the missing father duck, and much more.
More recently articles have concentrated on whether to keep Waipawaís
now famous icon, and also include a survey which show that many people in Waipawa
do in fact want to keep the controversial duck.
Icons from other towns also appear on the website, perhaps showing that Waipawa
is not the only town who craves to have a point of uniqueness which sets it
apart from others.
And finally there is another section which tells a condensed childrenís
story of ìPawa the Duckî which is a book written and illustrated
by Jan Gosling to answer a question asked of her many times by children ìWhy
did you make the duck?î
The original idea of having a website came from Janís son, Brian, who
bought the ëwaipawa.comí domain name when he was visiting China
at the beginning of the year. He is currently in his second year at Massey University
studying computer science and has found that working on this website has been
a bit of light relief from study.
To reach this website, and perhaps have a good giggle, just type into your
computer the websiteís address www.waipawa.com.