The Weekender 29/11/2009

Sport

The All Blacks finished their Northern Hemisphere tour with a final game against France this weekend. There was lots of talk & lots of hype with the All Blacks wanting to finish the tour with a decent game (as well as a win!) and worried that their 'bogey' team might conjure up a win. But in the end after all the games they've (only just) played, this time they handed out a thumping & beat France 39-12. It wasn't just that they won, they played well & for the second consecutive northern hemisphere tour they didn't concede a try in a test match - so their defence was great. (In fact in end of year tests, they haven't conceded a try since 2006!)
After the game AB's skipper Richie McCaw won the game he also collected the IRB Player of the Year award.
There were some unusual weekend rugby results. Italy beat Samoa 24-6, Argentina beat Scotland, the Springboks lost to Ireland 15-10, and not a surprise but the Wallabies beat Wales 33-12 much to Robbie Dean's relief (Last weekend Australia lost to Scotland 9-8!).

Marina Erakovic continued her tennis comeback after injury with a doubles win in a US$75,000 WTA competition in Japan.

Paige Hareb continues to do well in the women's world surfing champs by reaching the quarters of the penultimate event of the year in Hawaii.

The Black Caps aren't known for winning real cricket games - it's been over a years since they won a test match & have only won three of their last 24 against major cricket nations. However that was briefly forgotten this week as the series against Pakistan kicked off in Dunedin. The Black Caps started well reaching 429 with Ross Taylor getting 94 & Captain Dan Vettori reaching 99, then they restricted Pakistan to 332 despite the amazing Akmal brothers putting on over 200. Then there was the common batting collapse so only added 153 (four ducks & only three reached double figures!), but the bowlers had a great final innings to give the Black Caps a 32 run win.

Lisa Tamati ran through Hamilton on the weekend - heading north as she runs the length of NZ in 33 or so days to raise money for Cure Kids & CanTeen. That's 52 marathons worth. Check out http://www.nzrun.co.nz
An Auckland man Mal Law will run seven of NZ's "Great Walks" in seven days to raise money for the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation. That's 359kms, almost nine marathons worth. Apparently today was his first day!

The NZ Breakers had a comfortable 94-77 win over the Cairns Taipans at home.

Team New Zealand were beaten 2-0 in a bit of an upset in the final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy against Italian team Azzurra.

NZ News

Yesterday (Nov 28) was the 30 year anniversary of the Mt Erebus disaster when an Air New Zealand DC10 crashed into a mountain in Antarctica during a sight-seeing flight killing all of the 257 people on board. There were ceremonies in Auckland, Christchurch and Scott Base, along with a ceremony in France to remember the seven who died a year ago on the same date in an Air NZ Airbus crash.

Prince William is coming to NZ in January and his state dinner will be a barbecue - complete with lamb chops, tomatoe sauce & salads!

Dame Margaret Bazley had completed a report on the justice system and has claimed that there are more than 200 corrupt lawyers who are rorting taxpayer funded legal aid & are grouping together to defraud the legal aid system. She said every court was affected but that Manukau District Court was worst affected with up to 80% of lawyers affected. In a reply hardly worth adding, the ex-president of the Criminal Bar Association said the claim could not be substantiated & was absurd.

Police have completed their investigations into ex National MP Richard Worth and have said they will not bring any charges. Richard resigned after the allegations - & when John Key said he would fire him as his conduct did not befit a minister.

The UN presented Dunedin police officer Malcolm Parker with the UN Courageous Service Award after he saved an elderly man from a rising river while stationed in East Timor.

The government has repealed the use of provocation as partial defence for murder despite not having wide spread support from the legal community. ACT was the only party to oppose the repeal bill with an Auckland lawyer saying that it was knee-jerk reaction after the defence was used in some heavily publicised & unpalatable cases.

Phil Goff must have been worried about his profile because this week he played the race card. He jumped up & down & claimed that repealing the foreshore & seabed law would make "wounds fester" & that it would lead to a country with "one New Zealander turned against another, Maori against Pakeha". Funny thing was he didn't mention that when Labour pushed through the law that Maori were hugely up in arms against the deal - perhaps the cause of the "wounds"! Anyway, no one believes it especially with John Key standing next to Maori party co-leader Pita Sharples saying; no, we all agree it needs to be axed. Phil Goff had every right to be worried about his profile - the latest poll shows his preferred Prime Minister ranking is down 4 points to 5%.

The controversial emissions trading scheme was passed in to law this week with a vote of 63-58. It is significantly watered down from what the Labour & Greens put together but Climate Change Minister Nick Smith claimed it was affordable & workable.

Kiwi Chris Liddell (who I heard speak earlier this year) had announced that he is leaving Microsoft at the end of this year. Chris was the chief financial officer - basically in charge of all of Microsoft's money & (huge) cash reserves!

Thieves have hacked payment machines in Auckland's Downtown car park & have stolen credit-card details of thousands of people.

NZ passports have had a high-tech makeover with 50 separate features but most noticeably a nice looking silver fern on the cover.

The Numbers Game

1: st Female head of one of Britain's top public schools for boys is a kiwi - Felicity Rusk
1.6: L tubs in Tip Top ice cream after they reduced the size by 20%, but not the price
2: years of peace for Auckland commuters after bus drivers agreed to a wage deal
5.2: % increase in average household income for the year to June
5.9: richter scale earthquake of the east coast of the North Island this week
7: successive weeks of falling dole sign ups
100: years since the first ascent of Mt Aspiring by guides Jack Clarke & Alec Graham and client Bernard Head
148: scallops (seven times over the legal limit) a Northland man was caught with earlier this week
2,000: more jobs added to the Jobs Ops scheme by the government (a $5,000 wage subsidy over six-months for low-skilled young people)
6,000: health workers across NZ went on strike on Friday to protest a pay freeze by district health boards during the recession
250,000: people packed Auckland's streets for the Santa parade
1.125m: bees were stolen (that's 28 hives) from a Matamata beekeeper
8m: $ in military spending is going towards equipment designed & built in NZ
30m: possums in NZ these days, down from 60-70 million in the 1980's
1b: $ rail electrification project is back on track for Auckland expecting to start running in 2013

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4312 (-0.0080)
EUR 0.4748 (-0.0129)
USD 0.7115 (-0.0132)
AUD 0.7855 (-0.0069)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Nancy Wake
THE WHITE MOUSE
Nancy Wake was the Allies' most decorated servicewoman of WWII, and the Gestapo's most-wanted person. They code-named her 'The White Mouse'. She led an army of 7,000 Maquis troops in guerrilla warfare to sabotage the Nazis. Nancy Wake was born in Wellington in 1912.
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/wake.html

Joke of the Weekender

Three Day Silence
My wife has not spoken to me in three days. I think it has something to do with what happened on Sunday night when she thought she heard a noise downstairs.
She nudged me and whispered, "Wake up, wake up!"
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"There are burglars in the kitchen. I think they're eating the tuna casserole I made tonight."
"That'll teach them!" I replied.

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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