April 2010
The Weekender 25/04/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 25/04/2010 - 18:16Welcome to ANZAC Day. It was a great day to remember the ANZAC's who fought in both wars for us, thousands turned out for the dawn services around the country.
Sport
Well just in case you are sick of rugby & league, we'll start off with curling. The brother & sister team of Sean & Bridget Becker have won silver to claims NZ's first world curling champ medal in a thrilling 7-9 mixed doubles final against Russia. The champs were in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
It's not a normal week without a league scandal, however this week the biggest rugby league scandal ever, surfaced. The Melbourne Storm were found to have breached the salary cap by $2.2 million over the past five years. The glamour club has only been going for a few years but held two premiership titles and three minor premierships - now we know how they did it! They have been stripped of all the titles (with no replacement), they have to return the $1.4m in prize money they won (to be distributed amongst the other teams), and they've been fined $650,000. They've also been stripped of all points for this season and can't collect any points. It is deservedly the worst penalty in NRL history.
The Super14 continues and it seems that NZers just aren't very good at rugby this year. The Bulls jumped back to the top of the table thrashing the Lions 51-11, the Sharks beat the Blues 23-10, the Hurricanes won, but it was only against the Highlanders and it was only 31-33 - which is scarily close for a team that should be doing much better. The Crusaders were embarrassed by the Western Force of all teams losing 24-16, the Waratahs beat the Brumbies 19-12, the Reds beat the Stormers 16-13. The Chiefs had every chance to beat the Cheetahs but drew 25-25 after Stephen Donald and Callum Bruce missed all eight of their shots at goal.
The Wellington Phoenix have been granted a five year extension to continue playing the Australian A-League.
The ANZ Netball champs continue with the table looking like this: Vixens/Swifts 10, Magic 8, Thunderbirds/Mystics 6, Firebirds/Steel 4, Fever/Tactix 2, Pulse 0. So the kiwi teams aren't doing too bad!
NZ News
There was tragedy for the ANZAC day commemorations today after three Air Force officers flying to the Wellington services, died when their Iroquois crashed. John Key is cutting short his trip to Gallipoli to attend their funerals.
You might think that tar-sealing all of New Zealand's most major road would have been done long before now, but it was finally finished this week. While all but the last 21 kms of the 2,022km road has been completed for probably decades, those 21 kms at the top of the country have held out to remind visitors and NZers alike, what real roads are. Actually I think it was the locals who didn't want the road sealed, fearing even larger numbers of tourists heading to Cape Reinga. My wife & I went up there a couple of weeks ago and were very surprised to see most of it done with just a small stretch to finish - it's certain less dusty, and no corrugation!
The Air Force is considering buying Safe Air, an Air New Zealand subsidiary, to ensure it's Hercules are upgraded, after a Canadian company introduced delays of more than four years and the aircraft which have returned have bugs in the software. The delays caused Air New Zealand to announce that it would have to lay off the 100 staff from Safe Air.
116: m free diving record for kiwi William Trubridge winning the Vertical Blue competition at Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island (it took 4 minutes & 9 seconds)
15,000: people turned up in Auckland for the ANZAC day commemoration
1.4m: kiwis have made purchases over the internet in the past 12 months
15.9m: $ loss announced by the NZRU for 2009 - a record
615m: $ five year deal agreed to by Sanzar for Super rugby and Tri-Nations - a 35% increase
1.8b: $ "low quality" spending will be cut from Government departments and redirected to education, health and law & order
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4666 (+0.0050)
EUR 0.5361 (+0.0109)
USD 0.7174 (+0.0085)
AUD 0.7734 (+0.0059)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Sir Ian Axford
Sir Ian died at his home in Napier this week. In 1995 he was the New Zealander of the Year and a Royal Society fellow and he conducted ground-breaking research in planetary science, comets and solar physics.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10632525&ref=rss
Smuggler Prosecution
My boss is without peer when it comes to the rules and regulations that customs officials must follow. But when it comes to the law, well, that's a different story.
We were attending a court case in which we were prosecuting a smuggler. The judge asked the court, "Who is making these allegations?"
My boss stood up and proclaimed, "I am the alligator, your honour."
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/
{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}
The Weekender 18/04/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 18/04/2010 - 18:56Welcome back! I think that's one of the longest breaks The Weekender has taken since it started! I'm all married & back in to work again, there is a link to photos below.
Sport
Well it's been a while so I'll try to quickly cover a few sports, starting with the Super14. Last time we caught up it was the fifth week. Four weeks later and things aren't looking great for NZ teams. The Blues have been up & down, the Bulls & Stormers generally winning, the Crusaders winning except for a draw against the Hurricanes, the Chiefs, Hurricanes & Highlanders mostly losing. This weekend actually had to be one of the better ones for NZ teams. The Chiefs were thrashed 15-49 by the Stormers to dampen the Hamilton 400 weekend, the Hurricanes surprisingly beat the Brumbies 13-23, the Blues beat the Force 38-17, the Crusaders beat the Cheetahs 45-6, the Reds beat the Bulls 19-12 and the Sharks beat the Lions 28-32 with the Waratahs & Highlanders on a bye.
So that leaves the table like this: Crusaders/Bulls 34, Stormers 33, Reds 30, Waratahs 29, Brumbies 26, Blues 25, Hurricanes 22, Sharks/Chiefs 21, Highlanders 11, Force 10, Cheetahs 9, Lions 5.
The last four are not surprising at all, but the Reds are a surprise & it's been a while since the Brumbies were so high.
In rugby league (NRL) the Warriors have been their usual erratic selves, this week being beaten 24-18 by the Titans.
The NRL table is: Dragons 10, Storm*/Roosters/Wests Tigers/Titans/Panthers 8, Sea Eagles*/Rabbitohs*/Warriors 6, Bulldogs/Knights*/Cowboys*/Raiders/Broncos 4, Eels*/Sharks 2 (* 5 games, 6 for all other teams)
In other news Steve Price has announced this will be his last year of rugby league, he will retire at the end of this season.
The other trans-tasman competition in full swing is the ANZ Netball Championship & the table is: Vixens/Swifts 8, Thunderbirds*/Magic 6, Steel/Mystics 4, Firebirds/Fever/Tactix 2, Pulse* 0 (* 5 games, 4 for all other teams)
A Hawaiian rookie Carissa Moore has won the NZ leg of the women's surfing world championship tour at Taranaki last week. Fifteen year old kiwi Sarah Mason knocked out Aussie three-time world champ Stephanie Gilmore and then fellow kiwi Paige Hareb, but was knocked out herself by Moore.
David Tua cruised to a 120-108 points win over Friday ("the 13th") Ahunanya in a Good Friday boxing match.
Northern Districts cemented their spot as the best cricket team in the country after winning three trophies and with two champion teams. They won the HRV cup as Twenty20 champs, picked up both the one-day title and the Plunket Shield.
In International cricket, after the Chappell-Hadlee series against Australia Tim Southee jumped 15 spots in the world cricket rankings to his career-best ranking of 38th, and Ross Taylor jumped four places to 18th on the batting ranking.
In the Hamilton 400 Aussie V8 round, Jamie Whincup won both races for the second year in a row winning the Mark Porter Trophy. Shane van Gisbergen was the top Kiwi in eighth place.
NZ News
The drought in 2008 was the worst the Waikato has seen. The next year wasn't a drought but it was a poor to average year. This year was supposed to be the year the farmers recovered but there are many places that are back to drought conditions again this year. Since December 8 last year, one farmer from Ohinewai has had just 128mm of rain. The MAF spokesman said the average cost of this year's drought to Waikato farmers is between $100,000-200,000.
A Chinese consortium are lining up to buy the Crafar family farms which are New Zealand's biggest privately owned dairy farming business for a reported $1.5 billion. The family company has recently hit the headlines for environment, animal welfare and debt ($200m) issues and the receivers have said they are in discussions with a number of parties.
The Labour party has been on the attack after hearing of National's plan to allow some permits for mining on conservation land. Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee has accused them of hypocrisy after discovering the Labour party approved 218 permits for mining on conservation land themselves.
A man spent a year in court to have his conviction for a $30 speeding ticket reversed. He was caught doing 55km/h in a 50 zone near a school. He argued that a tolerance of 8km/h should have been used so he should have been let off. The court of appeal justices who declined the appeal noted that in law there was no tolerance to driving in excess of the speed limit - we generally get tolerance from the police but we can't rely on it!
The government has finalised the plans to deliver 5Mbps broadband internet to 97% of rural households with the remainder reaching at least 1Mbps. Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce has signed off on proposals.
16: years will be the new minimum driving age as approved by cabinet
18: people died in a horror Easter weekend on the roads this year - the worst in 17 years
53: tonne trucks are now allowed on NZ roads - an increase from the previous maximum of 44 tonnes
18,000: $ fine for an Auckland car dealership for misleading customers over a "zero per cent interest" finance rate
40,000: people (at least) registered for the Ports of Auckland Round the Bays fund raising fun-run
Finance NZ Dollar
(Since the last weekender)
GBP 0.4616 (-0.0004)
EUR 0.5252 (+0.0150)
USD 0.7089 (+0.0067)
AUD 0.7675 (-0.0001)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
William Atack
REFEREE WITH A FLASH OF INSPIRATION
William Harrington Atack of Canterbury was the first sports' referee in the world to use a whistle to stop a game.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/atack.html
Correction
Frustrated at always being corrected by my hubby, I decided the next time it happened I would have a comeback. That moment finally arrived, and I was ready.
"You know," I challenged, "even a broken clock is right once a day."
He looked at me and replied, "Twice."
The wedding photos are in a few folders, check them out!
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/
{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}
