The first of these shots was taken late on a Sunday afternoon when there was virtually no-one parked in the railway station carpark at Takapu Road. The other shot was just before 9.15am the next day, from much the same position, when the carpark was packed with commuters' cars.

Lack of available parks is becoming an issue here, one that will need to be addressed in the near future. As it is, on any given weekday one can count several cars parked illegally, some might argue for 'valid' reasons, but mostly not so. Spot the car parked on yellow lines in the second photo!

Other drivers may simply have carried on into town when they saw the carpark full. There's no easy answer, but the situation is not likely to improve of its own accord.

[Click on pics to enlarge.]