The Weekender 23/08/2009

Sport

The big game of the weekend was the second Bledisloe Cup & tri-nations match between Australia & New Zealand. There were two interesting points to this game. The first is that Dan Carter was back from his injury - he's been building up but this was his first big game in 9 months or so. The second point was that because this tri-nations is only 9 games (play each other team three times), you can't just rely on winning your home games & NZ having to play South Africa at home twice were at the disadvantage with South Africa so strong right now. That meant whoever lost this game is effectively out of the tri-nations. The game was as close as they get and a Dan Carter penalty with 90 seconds remaining gave the All Blacks the game 18-19. Australia were unlucky with some ref calls & NZ were unlucky with two tries disallowed in as many minutes, but the win for NZ means we keep the Bledisloe Cup regardless of the results of the final two games - yay!
In the Air NZ cup, BOP won the battle of the Kaimai's beating Waikato 32-16, Canterbury held on to beat Tasman 25-21. Wellington hung on to the Ranfurly Shield beating Auckland 16-15, and Counties-Manukau had their first win of the season beating Taranaki 33-21. Northland beat North Harbour 26-23, Southland beat Hawke's Bay 18-9 and Manawatu beat Otago 19-12.
Table: Bay of Plenty 16, Canterbury 14, Southland/Wellington/Manawatu 13, Hawke's Bay 11, Tasman 10, Northland 9, Otago 8, Auckland 7, Taranaki/North Harbour/Counties Manukau 6, Waikato 5 (ouch!)

In the latest round of the triathlon world champs, Andrea Hewitt finished second by four seconds for a fantastic race.

The Black Caps have just started a cricket tour in Sri Lanka and in the first test match were crushed by 202 runs, when around 7 Black Caps were struck by a virus during the five day match.

Sarah Walker has won the second round of the Supercross world cup in South Africa.

The Warriors gave their fans something to smile about (finally) with a 34-20 win over the Canberra Raiders - although neither team is doing very well this season. NRL Table: Dragons 36, Bulldogs/Titans 34, Storm 29, Sea Eagles/Knights 28, Panthers/Eels 27, Wests Tigers 26, Cowboys 24, Rabbitohs 23, Raiders/Warriors 20, Roosters/Sharks 14.

NZ sprinter Monique Williams didn't make the 200m final at the athletics world champs and she is rapt. I'm sure she would have been even more rapt to make the finals but she did a great job to get as far as she did.

Valerie Villi confirmed she is a true champion when she retained her world shot put title this week - I think the first NZer to retain an athletics title. She also has the top 7 shot put throws for this year!

Emma Gilmour had her best international rallying result this week with a second (behind teammate Cody Crocker) in the Malaysian round of the Asia-Pacific rally.

NZ News

We've all heard stories of dolphins helping out humans in the water but some fishermen off Northland were able to return the favour this week. A dolphin was caught in a long line, and was feeble and close to death when it spotted a charter fishing boat nearby. It managed to move itself closer to the boat and waited patiently for 10mins as the deckhand & one of the fishermen carefully cut the line from around it's head & tail. It took another 10 minutes but it regained it's strength, did a lap around the boat and swam off towards 100 happy clacking & jumping dolphins!

NZers got to vote on a fairly badly worded referendum recently. The idea was supposed to be that recently Labour made it illegal to smack children and the referendum was aimed at forcing that law to be reversed. The actual referendum asked "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?". The end result was a huge 87.6% voted "No" with turnout at 54%. The No vote received more support than National, Labour & the Greens combined at the last election and the turnout was higher than the recent greatly-hyped Mt Albert by-election. National are looking at their options although they say the law is working.

It sounds like the Anzac force may make a return with John Key and Kevin Rudd discussing plans for a joint Anzac rapid-response force.

Greymouth is struggling with huge rent rises after the Maori landowner Mawhera, which owns almost all the CBD & a large area of residential property has reviewed their rental charges and is moving to market rates. The changes mean a 500 per cent increase for some people. Now the funny part of this story is that during the news story the reporter kept saying the landowner's name in a way that made it sound like "mafia" - which made the whole thing sound hilarious.

The Numbers Game

5.6: Richter scale earthquake off Te Araroa, East Cape
13: kea being monitored during a 1080 poison drop were all fine a month later - and no doubt they benefit from the large reduction in possums, rats & stoats
15: th swine flu death this week
26: New Zealanders wintering over at Scott Base, Antarctica, received supplies this weeks as flights resumed with summer on it's way
30: years since Fleetwood Mac have been in NZ but they are coming back - to the Bowl of Brooklands
40: % increase in Australian visitors to South Island ski slopes this winter
58: % support for National in the latest poll - up a couple, John Key has 51.6% support as preferred prime minister
60: th most powerful woman in the world is Helen Clark - presumably in her new role for the U.N.
500: $ handed in (the next day!) by a man who found it in a money machine
30,000: $ fine for getting within 50m of a whale (who would have thought!)
250,000: $ defrauded from an 89-year old woman by a family friend - but she fought back and he's going to jail - and she got back at least part of her money
250m: $ in savings identified for when Auckland becomes a super city
11.5b: $ bill for leaky homes expected

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4137 (+0.0033)
EUR 0.4768 (-0.0012)
USD 0.6828 (+0.0042)
AUD 0.8183 (+0.0029)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Jean Batten
HINE-O-TE-RANGI (DAUGHTER OF THE SKIES)
She was the manifestation of triumph and hope through the dark days of the depression. In 1934 she smashed the world record between England and Australia by six days. In 1936 she made the first ever direct flight between England and New Zealand. Jean Batten stood for adventure, daring and exploration.

Joke of the Weekender

Heredity
Father, Mother and their 3 sons, John (the oldest), Mike (middle) and Steve (youngest) are conversing around the table after dinner. The subject of traits of parents being passed on to children comes up.
The Father says, "John has my eyes, Mike has my creativity, and Steve has my intelligence."
Steve responds, "Daddy, what's intelligence?"

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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