By Stephen Hewson, Sports Editor, in Rio - stephen.hewson@radionz.co.nz
A visitor talks on mobile phone at a fake beach on the entrance of The Olympic Village on Barra da Tijuca neighboorhood, in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: AFP
First Person - Rio is half ready for the Olympic Games.
That would be fine if the Games were a couple of years away.
The problem is they are now just couple of days away.
And they have the look and feel of a Games done on the cheap.
Construction workers are still toiling around the clock to finish things off ... although it's more than just finishing touches that are required.
New Zealand chef de mission Rob Waddell was among the first residents to move into Olympic Village and found more work needed to be completed than he was expecting.
Poor plumbing and dodgy wiring has caused issues for some teams.
Some of the official media accommodation sports half finished bathrooms - shower water emerges from a hole punched in the wall (there's not even a spout to be seen).
Doors without handles are also an inconvenience. It all certainly seems a work in progress.
New Zealand Olympic team chef de mission Rob Waddell in the athletes village. Photo: NZOC
Unfortunately for Rio, the timing couldn't have been worse.
Awarded the Games in 2008, the city has been affected by the global financial crisis and currently Brazil is in its worst recession since 1930.
That is more than likely a large contributor to the city's general indifference to the Olympics.
There are plenty of hoardings and signs around venues to tell you the Olympics are about to happen, but in other areas, generally, you could be forgiven for not realising Rio is hosting the Games.
The financial situation also explains why locals haven't been snapping up tickets - the Rio organising committee was forced to sell tranches of tickets meant for the Brazilian market to international visitors.
For many the Games may be an inconvenience, although the locals do seem to be taking notice of the dedicated traffic lanes for the Olympics - there was plenty of concern they would simply ignore them.
Rio athletes village Photo: Twitter/Mahe Drysdale
There have been a few traffic issues though.
The New Zealand rowers spent over two hours getting to their venue at Lagoa when it should have taken 45 minutes.
Yes, teething problems that are being worked through - although getting stuck in a metro subway for an hour was a 'teething problem' I could have done without.
Using the public transport card provided by Rio organisers, I tried to move between the metro system onto the BRT bus service.
Unfortunately they are operated separately - one by state government and the other by the city - leading to problems when the card didn't work properly.
The very helpful woman from the Metro tried to persuade the BRT people to let me through but to no avail... things were finally resolved when someone higher up the food chain appeared on the scene.
Security is obvious with heavily armed soldiers out in force at Rio's airport, army convoys on the motorways and impressive police cavalcades on motorbikes reminiscent of 1980s TV programme CHiPs.
As for Zika? I haven't seen a mosquito yet. Winter keeps them away. Although at 25°C I'm not sure I can truly call it winter!
And the Games are coming - whether or not Rio is ready.
