The Weekender 06/12/2009
Submitted by weekender on Mon, 07/12/2009 - 10:44
Welcome to this week. Check out my personal news in the photo section at the bottom!
Sport
The All Blacks finished their tour with a loss after the "second" team were beaten 18-25 by the Barbarians, mostly due to three Bryan Habana tries!
In other rugby, NZ won the first round of the IRB Sevens World Series in Dubai this weekend beating Samoa 24-12 in the final.
Pakistan levelled the test series against NZ after beating the Black Caps by 141 runs with over a day to spare. NZ did well (we thought) to bowl Pakistan for 264 but then our batsmen showed their skill being all out for 99. Knocking over Pakistan for 239 in the second innings meant a win was realistically out of reach but they did manage 263.
Iain O'Brien has announced his retirement to spent more time with his wife in England.
The All Whites coach Ricki Herbert is happy with the Football World Cup draw this weekend. We are in a pool with Italy, Slovakia, & Paraguay.
Kiwi sailor Adam Minoprio has won the world Match Racing champs along with his Blackmatch team. He is just the fourth Kiwi to win the champs behind Chris Dickson, Russell Coutts & Dean Barker.
Sophie Pasco continues to add to her medal tally, picking up her third gold medal and third world record at the IPC World Swimming Short Course champs in Brazil this week.
The NZ Breakers took a step backwards in their season march when they were beaten 93-91 by the Wollongong Hawks who shot to the top of the table. The Breakers are back to even with a seven win - seven loss record.
Chris Birch (KTM) won the annual Roof of Africa extreme enduro in Lesotho for the second year in a row, but this time around he had fellow Kiwi Rory Mead (Yamaha) in second place. Out of 102 riders to start the race only 23 finished.
NZ News
Prime Minister John Key has changed his mind and will now attend the climate change meetings in Copenhagen. He has noted that is is unlikely a binding agreement will be achieved.
The Maori Party have backed down on their strong stance against the antics of MP Hone Harawira. He has apologised again and has been allowed to stay with the party.
New laws came into effect at the start of December and now street racers can lose their licences and their vehicles. The act also allows local authorities to create bylaws that prevent vehicles from repeatedly "cruising" city streets.
A flotilla of icebergs that were heading towards New Zealand have been pushed away by westerlies.
NZ's first private space launch was completed last weekend with the 6 metre Atea-1 rocket taking off from Great Mercury Island. The rocket was expected to have reached at least 100km and while the booster rocket has been recovered, the rocket's payload has yet to be found.
The families of the victims in the Erebus crash in Antarctica 30 years ago were unable to visit the crash site, after all the publicity recently! The six relatives were taken by Air NZ down to Scott Base to mark the 30th anniversary but had two failed attempts to reach the crash site due to bad weather & high winds.
1: km swim towing his submerged boat, for a Tauranga man who didn't want to give his boat up
5.1: richter scale earthquake in Hawke's Bay early this week
150: drivers licences forged by Auckland student Marcus Lim who plead guilty in court this week
1250: $ tickets for the Rugby World Cup - and you have to take a draw for the 25,000 seats available
52,000: $ spent on flowers for the first 11 months of the National government
220,000: $ being spent by Auckland City councils to hire private security guards to get homeless people off the streets (or restrict anti-social behaviour)
15.4b: $ in tax gathered for the four months to October - $1.6b or 9.4% lower than forecast
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4356 (+0.0044)
EUR 0.4829 (+0.0081)
USD 0.7172 (+0.0057)
AUD 0.7848 (-0.0007)
The Weekender NZer of the week
Keith Park
SAVIOUR OF BRITAIN
"If any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I do not believe it is realised how much that one man, with his leadership, his calm judgement and his skill, did to save, not only this country, but the world." Lord Tedder – Chief of the Royal Air Force, February 1947.
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/park.html
Golf Friendless
"Bob, why don't you play golf with John anymore?" asked a friend.
"Would you play golf with a guy who moved the ball with his foot when you weren't watching?" Bob asked.
"Well, no," admitted the friend.
"Neither will John," replied Bob.
This week is something unique, photos of my engagement! We popped down to Queenstown for a friend's birthday & the location was too good to pass up!
Check out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42/20091205Queenstown#
Darren Harrison: darren@harrison.gen.nz
The Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website: www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
{If these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll take you off the list | The Weekender is not a verified news source, sometimes it's even just an opinion}
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