The Weekender 08/02/2009

Welcome back, again. So now my holidays are all over. The past week and a half I've been in Melbourne enjoying some of their hottest weather ever (and just missing out on their hottest day ever!), enjoying the cricket at the MCG & having a great time - I'm about to find out what happened while I'm away & hopefully let you know some of the highlights! (while keeping one eye on the third ODI)

Sport

The first story, has to be the cricket. Mostly because I was there with the rest of the deliriously happy kiwi contingent at the Melbourne Cricket Ground cheering the Black Caps to the second win (by 6 wickets) of the Chappell-Hadlee series.
Once again (refer to the Rugby League World Cup final) the arrogant aussies some how awarded one of their own players on the LOSING team, the man of the match award.
Of course the first game in the series had a huge amount of controversy. NZ won with a boundary off the final ball from captain fantastic Dan Vettori but had to do it the hard way after Brendon McCullum was wrongly given out for 0, and the new guy Broom was given out when the bails came off as the the Aussie wicket keeper Haddin retrieved the ball (the ball missed the wickets).
Australia have now lost 5 ODI games in row after losing the series to South Africa.
In women's cricket, NZ beat Australia in the first game of the Rose Bowl series but Australia evened the score in the second one day game.
And Northern Districts beat Otago by 49 runs to win the State Shield.

The Halberg awards were handed out last week in Auckland. Valerie Vili won the top award as well as Sportswoman of the year, Scot Dixon won Sportsman of the Year, our favourite rowing twins (now retired) won the team of the yeear, and Valerie's coach Kirsten Hellier won coach of the year.

The Wellington Sevens was on this weekend and NZ made it to the final, and were 12 points ahead at half time, and were still leading with seconds to go - but the final result was 17-19 to England.

The NZ Breakers haven't been able to replicate their previously great away form and lost 102-91 to the Adelaide 36ers a night after losing 103-98 against Wollongong. They are now fourth on the table.

Dan Carter has injured his Achilles tendon and will be off for 6 months, ending his time in France. He played 5 games or 6 hours worth of rugby.

The Wellington Phoenix kept their play-off hopes alive with a 1-1 draw against Adelaide last month.

Kiwi rider Michael Shephard became the first Kiwi to complete the Dakar rally motorbike section finishing 94th after starting with a ranking of 234.

Marian Erakovic won her first-round match at the Australian Open the other week with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Czech Petra Cetkovska. She didn't make it past the second round, closely losing to Czech Lucie Safarova 1-6, 6-3, 7-9.

The A1GP has been in Taupo, Ireland won the sprint race and NZ came fifth.

The much improved NZ men's hockey team held Olympic champs Germany to a 2-2 draw at the Punjab Gold Cup tournament in India.

NZ News

The government has lifted the ban on selling unhealthy food in schools, meaning the schools don't have to 'police' themselves and removing confusion around fund-raising and school events. The clause requiring schools to promote healthy food and drink remains in place.
John Key broke his arm leaving a stage a couple of weeks ago, going on to shake the hands of a large number of scouts before getting it checked the following day. The cast was being auctioned on Trademe with proceeds going to the Fred Hollows foundation (it made $18,500). For more information on this famous NZer (!!) see the NZer of the Weekender.
New Social Development Minister Paula Bennett didn't sit back & call the police when she saw a fight going on in a West Auckland mall. She waded through about 30 young people and broke the fight up.
John Key, along with a number of others are urging the Remuneration Authority (the people that decide the wage for MP's) to freeze MP's pay at the current level.
Winston Peters may have some problems at the party's first post-election conference as people call for him to be replaced as head of Winston First ... ahem I mean the New Zealand First party.
And finally, a story that made it out of NZ, John Key was 'jostled' by a couple of protesters when he arrived at Waitangi on Thursday in preparation for the Waitangi Day celebrations. He really wasn't attacked & he really wasn't bothered by it, even the local elders stated that they were publicity seeking individuals to be ignored. By all reports the actual celebrations all went well.

Last week convicted murderer Antonie Dixon died in prison due to self-inflicted injuries. He attacked two women near Thames with a samurai sword and then shot a man in Auckland.

The bodies of four of the five NZers killed in the Air NZ Airbus 320 test-flight crash off the coast of France, were returned to NZ mid January. The fifth body was also finally recovered. The two flight recorders were badly damaged although data was finally retrieved off them, but it proved to be contradictory and the investigators are still struggling to figure out what happened.

In a shocking news story from a few weeks ago, the Police were chasing a dangerous man who had taken a few pot-shots at police while leading them on a chase around Auckland. The man's car was damaged on the motorway and police returned fire and accidentally killed a bystander. It was an unfortunate and tragic event and while the shooting was legal (for the police), the government is looking at some sort of compensation.

A New Zealander picked up a cheap MP3 player while in the US and when he plugged it into his computer, he found a number of confidential US military files.

Air NZ has shut down direct trans-tasman flights to "Hamilton International Airport", and while there are no regular international flights anymore, there are still 'frequent' international charter flights.

The Numbers Game

0.6: degC higher temperatures across NZ for January, and half average rainfall and twice the sun. The highest recorded temperature was 37.2degC for Waione in the Wairarapa
1: # ranked NZ city to live in is Dunedin
15: km queue from Warkworth to Puhoi for the long weekend despite the new Northern Gateway Toll Road near Orewa
20: or 400? Two news stories about a women who died after being dragged by a bus in Auckland reported that she was dragged 20m & another said 400m
23: people drowned over January - almost a quarter of last years total
37: degC days last weekend saw NZ cities with higher temperatures than any Australia cities (it was just -after- Melbourne's heat wave)
100: km drive for a 9-year-old boy who snuck out early in the morning in Taranaki & headed north
140: ha of forest & scrub burned in a fire on Mahia peninsular
168.9: c/L for 91 octane petrol - the weakening dollar has caused huge rises in petrol prices while I've been away!
250: Telecom contact centre jobs are being moved to the Philippines
20,000: $ fine and banned from owning a dog for 10 years for a Northland couple convicted for an "unbelievable" case of animal ill treatment
25,000: people were at the Parachute Music Festival
83,501: people on Invalid's Benefit, up 4.3%, Domestic Purposes Benefit rose 2.2% to over 100,000
100,000: $ from the government for flood relief in the Solomon Islands
450,000: $ internet banking fraud. A Hamilton woman has been charged by police & appeared in court
500,000: $ shortfall estimated for Oxfam this year
3m: $ more from the government to help Fiji with flood relief efforts

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.3591 (-0.0116)
EUR 0.4104 (-0.0012)
USD 0.5313 (-0.0150)
AUD 0.7861 (-0.0253)
(Since the last Weekender)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Frederick (Fred) Cossom Hollows, AC (9 April 1929 – 10 February 1993) was an ophthalmologist who became known for his work in restoring eyesight for countless thousands of people in Australia and many other countries. It has been estimated that more than one million people in the world can see today because of initiatives instigated by Hollows, the most notable example being The Fred Hollows Foundation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hollows

Joke of the Weekender

Control and Escape
The computer company my wife works for distributed a corporate clothing catalogue that included a pair of cuff links. One was inscribed Ctrl (control) and the other Esc (escape), just as they look on a computer keyboard.
"They would make a good present for any man," my wife commented to a colleague, "if only to remind him of the two things he can never have."

Weekender Photos

Check out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42

Darren Harrison: darren@harrison.gen.nz
The Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website: www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
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