Paul,
I used to come up to Ashburton as a young kid, we have family here and I could never get over the Horizontally-Polarised VHF Aerials, considering that all of our Aerials in Temuka were Vertically-Polarised.
Being an Aerial Technician, that has worked with both Polarisations, you have a 20dB "out of Polarisation" loss, regardless of where you point the Aerial.
In Temuka these days, the UHF Signal is Vertically Polarised.
Ashburton is a real nuisance as far as TV Signals go, we are half way between the "Sugar-loaf" Transmitter in Christchurch and the Cave Transmitter west of Timaru.
160 km's each way
