New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is shown around the bazaar by the province's Governor Habiba Sarabi, Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Credit:NZPA / Maggie Tait.

By Maggie Tait

Bamiyan, May 4 NZPA - On a hill overlooking Kabul, Aghanistan's capital, is the odd sight of a large swimming pool with tiered diving boards.

Homes on the hills of Kabul are concrete or even mud and such luxuries do not abound.

But the pool wasn't built by locals, it was constructed by the Russians who invaded the country in 1979 - leaving defeated 10 years later. In the 1990s the Taliban took power. Under their regime Swimming Pool Hill earned a reputation for terror as prisoners were forced at gun point to climb the stairs to the highest diving board and jump into the dry pool. If that didn't kill them they were shot.

When New Zealand media visited the hill during Prime Minister John Key's visit to Kabul two children swam in a few metres of water while a bunch of men lackadaisically worked on tidying up the area, in between having their photo taken.

It was a peaceful spot with stunning views.

Kabul was a city of such contrasts.

Travelling with New Zealand Defence Force personnel body armour and helmets were compulsory and the talk was of a recent bomb attack near the International Security Assistance Force HQ where the New Zealand delegation stayed.

Checkpoint guards were tediously serious about their work and life seemed very grim indeed. Even the picturesque sight of a laden donkey raised concerns -- the docile animals have been sent into crowded areas as unwitting suicide bombers.

But a drive through the streets the next day showed a bustling city of people busy getting on with their work, buying and selling everything from bananas to wheelbarrows.

Little children begged at the windows of cars, knowing the exact point in the hinges at which to yell their requests for chocolate and be heard behind the steel plating and thick glass.

Women, the few that were out and about, wore full burka in light blue.

A short Hercules ride away in Bamiyan province girls can now go to school. Women appeared more relaxed about covering up, headscarves appeared acceptable rather than the one piece costumes with a mesh covered opening for the face.

A young woman, Mursal Nadir, bravely stood up to tell Prime Minister John Key what her school needed. The 15-year-old was praised for her good English so NZPA asked her what she thought of the Prime Minister. "Yes I want to be a doctor" was her equally confident response.

Under the Taliban girls were not allowed to study.

Mursal's school is surrounded by the history of her troubled country - on one side is the Hill of Sorrows also known as the citadel where Genghis Khan set up a fort in which to base his execution of the local population for killing a favoured nephew.

To the other side are the remains of Afghanistan's famous giant buddhas, carved into a sandstone cliff in the 6th century.

The Taliban blew them up in April 2001.

The Government want to rebuild them but the task is mammoth and expensive and the ancient structures cannot be replaced.

It's hard not to see them as an analogy for the war ravaged country.