The Weekender 28/09/2009

Hello, and welcome to day light savings! We all got 1hr less of sleep last night, so don't forget if you are calling NZ!

Sport

First off, a story from last weekend. Our roving reporter from near the home of surfing (well the Beach Boys at least) pointed out that the ASP Women's World Tour has added Taranaki as a venue for early next year, to the dream tour. The rookie & current ASP World No. 3 Paige Hareb will be able to have a stop off at home in her busy schedule!

In Air NZ rugby, Auckland continue a shocking season being beaten 12-8 by Tasman, Otago had an upset 26-17 win over Bay of Plenty and it was business as usual for Canterbury with a 31-21 win over Northland - although the scores were tied after 68 minutes! The lead changed seven times but when the final whistle blew Hawke's Bay beat Manawatu 35-30, and Waikato countered a drop kick with one of their own in the 78th minute to beat Taranaki 15-14 & jump into the top eight. North Harbour beat Counties-Manukau 28-19 and Wellington got their season back on track with a 32-13 win over Southland.
Table (top eight): Canterbury 22, Southland 28, Hawke's Bay 26, Bay of Plenty 25, Tasman/Wellington 24, Auckland 22, Waikato 21.

The rugby league season is just about over with the Melbourne Storm joining the Parramatta Eels in the grand final. The Storm thrashed the Brisbane Broncos 40-10 to make their fourth final in a row. The Eels beat the Bulldogs 22-12 in the all-Sydney semi final.

Irene van Dyk celebrated her 100th test for NZ with a 52-36 thrashing of Australia in the final trans-tasman match for the series. Australia had already officially wrapped up the series but they still played their strongest team. I heard someone ask about the series score after that game. Well NZ got 228 points to Australia's 217.

The NZ Breakers started their season well with a 95-75 win over the Cairns Taipans.

Greg Henderson finished the Tour of Spain with a great seventh in the final stage in Madrid.

Brendon Hartley finished second in the F3 World Series race at Nurburgring in Germany.

NZ News

Sir Howard Morrison passed away this week. He died of a heart attack in his family home at Rotorua. His health had been up & down recently. The 74 year old was a legendary entertainer.

Prime Minister John Key has made the Late Show with David Letterman this week! He was a bit nervous to start with and the top ten (reasons for visiting NZ) were scripted by the Late show writers & not quite accurate, but it all seemed to go well.
John Key also called in to see former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark to drop off some Vogel's bread.

Air NZ is going to send five representatives of the victims of Erebus down to Antarctica to commemorate the 30th anniversary of NZ's worst air crash.

While NZers often give Australian's a hard time for stealing all our great things, like Pharlap, Crowded House (& now Jean Batten), we can never say they don't give us anything in return. Yes that's right, there are white tailed spiders and possums, and now there is dust. Dust from Australia's great dust storm has reached NZ & was noticeable at Auckland airport and in Taranaki. A number of flights to Sydney were delayed or canceled on Wednesday due to the dust.

Green MP Sue Bradford has resigned from Parliament. She was upset after losing the race to become co-leader.

The Foodtown & Woolworths brands are going to be phased out in NZ & replaced with the 'new-generation' Countdown branding.

The Numbers Game

4: c/L drop in petrol from BP
5.1: richter scale earthquake down at Fiordland
8: French made helicopters are replacing the 14 Iroquois the Air Force have used since 1966
8,509: people in jail nation-wide - the highest level ever
52.7m: $ funding for 28 tertiary education providers next year to create 2000 new places for 16 & 17 year olds
14.8b: $ NZ Superannuation Fund has returned to pre-recession values (it dropped to $11.2b)

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4513 (+0.0150)
EUR 0.4901 (+0.0075)
USD 0.7198 (+0.0100)
AUD 0.8296 (+0.0110)

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.
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/batten.html

Joke of the Weekender

Parking Confusion
After driving up and down several lanes, I finally found a parking spot at the shopping mall. I noticed another man driving very slowly in the same direction, and, since he was closer, I gave him the "Are you going to park there?" look.
His responding gestures were very confusing. First he shook his head. Next he pointed at me, then at the parking space and then at himself, his watch and the mall. Finishing off, he frowned, raised his palms upward and shrugged. Once I parked, I walked over to the driver to make sure he didn't want the space.
"You must be single," he replied. "If you were married, you would've known that was the universal sign for 'Go ahead and take the spot. I'm waiting for my wife.'"

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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