The Weekender 28/02/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 28/02/2010 - 23:16
Welcome to the last day of February! We had a great swim in a water hole yesterday, since the weather has been so hot & today a great afternoon birthday party at Te Pahu!
Sport
Australia are in NZ for a month long cricket tour and they looked like they were continuing their untroubled run of cricket this summer, when in the first Twenty20 game they bowled NZ out for 118, and then reached the target with six wickets and four overs to spare.
But in the second game Brendon McCullum stood & delivered, reaching a massive 116 off 56 balls, to lead NZ to a fantastic 214. Australia did well though and reached the mark on the last ball, setting up the game for the "Super Over". Australia batted first and Tim Southee did some incredible bowling to restrict them to six, he got a wicket and two dot balls. Then with Brendon and Martin Guptill batting, Shaun Tait bowled terribly including two wides and Martin sealed the win with a four off the (second) third ball. NZ tied the 2 game series - yay!
In women's trans-tasman cricket the White Ferns may have lost the one-day series 5-0, but they came back to win the Twenty20 series 3-0.
In Super 14 rugby, the Blues beat the Reds 27-18 in a wet Queensland, the Brumbies silenced Newlands beating the Stormers 19-17 with a late intercept try, the Chiefs made it three from three, beating the Western Force 37-19 for an incredibly unusual winning start to the season and on an away tour as well! The Highlanders had their first win beating the Cheetahs 31-24 and the Bulls beat the Waratahs 48-38. The Crusaders recovered from last week, beating the Sharks 35-6 in Christchurch. So it was a great weekend for the NZ teams with all of them winning and only the Highlanders not getting a bonus point!
Table: Bulls 15, Hurricanes/Chiefs 14, Crusaders 10, Stormers/Blues 9, Brumbies 8, Reds 6, Highlanders/Cheetahs 5, Waratahs 4, Sharks/Lions 2, Force 0 - typical bottom half of the table with 3 Australian teams, 3 South African teams - and the Highlanders.
The NZ women's soccer team - the Football Ferns - stunned Italy with a 1-0 upset win for a great start to the Cyprus Cup in Nicosia.
NZ News
Politicians have been under the microscope this week with ministerial credit cards the latest focus. They've been paying back money left, right & centre, and Cabinet member Phil Heatley resigned his portfolios after being a bit sloppy with his use of the ministerial credit card and "not living up to his own high expectations" (ignorant not deceptive). He's still an MP and provided an Auditor-General investigation comes back clean he may get back into Cabinet.
Dunedin airport had to cancel a number of incoming flights when it's sole-charge air traffic controller called in sick.
Last weekend an off duty cop in Tuakau came across a bunch of kids who were about to have a fight. Some had gang ties, and during the confrontation the group turned on the cop & beat him fairly badly. Except for a couple of the kids, one 16 year old girl in particular who help the cop get away. She and two other residents are likely to be nominated for bravery awards. Eight youths have been charged with assault.
Telecom has had another bad week with more XT issues and also an problem with the 111 system in the Greater Auckland area for the early hours of one morning. One senior exec who stepped down was actually due to leave in a couple of months anyway.
Sean Quincey had a rough night this week in his quest to row the tasman. He rolled a couple of times and hadn't quite battened down the hatches so water got in. He's also had problem with his water maker packing up, and he lost a few things in the roll. He looks close on the map (!) but without water & with the loses it will be a battle if he can make it! Watch his progress here http://www.tasmantrespasser.com/
A man in Invercargill sparked an armed offenders squad called out the other day after he allegedly confronted someone with a gun, but he skilfully avoided the road blocks to drive himself to the police station to hand himself in! His car & house were searched for guns but nothing was found.
Northland is so dry at the moment they've asked people to dob-in-a-neighbour if anyone sees garden sprinklers being used.
Fiji continues to be fairly isolated (politically), however there are signs that rugby diplomacy is working with Foreign Minister Murry McCully and Commodore Frank Bainimarama having agreed in principle to meet next month. The talks will be in Hong Kong during the rugby sevens tournament.
Air NZ boss Rob Fyfe has accused the police of trying to undermine confidence in the airline after releasing information on Air NZ staff-related drink-driving cases, and for Superintendent John Kelly saying "As an aside, this may be the tip of the iceberg ...". Mr Fyfe noted that there were 32,000 drink drive convictions nationally, and relatively that would mean 120 should be Air NZ staff - however the numbers were much lower. Rather than attacking Air NZ, perhaps they should be finding out how they keep drink-driving numbers down!
1.5: metre tsunami hit the Chathams but a tsunami warning was generally ignored in NZ and then downscaled
5.5: richter scale earthquake around Fiordland, Southland & Otago
13: year old Navy frigate HMNZS Te Kaha is back in action after a major refit
90: minutes for a jury to acquit a man of shooting at a boy racer who had tormented him & his family for 18 months
1,250: $ to be asked to be paid back from former Chief nurse Mark Jones, when he used tax payer money to charter a yacht
50m: $ in annual subsidies for Telecom may be up for review after the latest failing of the 111 system in the great Auckland region this week
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4587 (+0.0061)
EUR 0.5128 (-0.0017)
USD 0.6986 (-0.0014)
AUD 0.7807 (+0.0017)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Colin Murdoch
DREAMER FOR MILLIONS
Colin Murdoch designed and invented the disposable syringe, a device that has saved millions of human lives. He also conceived and developed the tranquilliser dart gun, which has saved the lives of millions of animals. He is an understated New Zealander who can claim to have revolutionised medical and veterinary science.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/murdoch.html
Employment History
To pass the time while our plane was being de-iced, the flight attendants played a trivia game with the passengers. They asked us to guess the total number of years the three of them had worked for the airlines.
After an attendant collected our estimates, we heard the announcement: "The correct answer is 26 years. For the two people who came closest with 28 years, we have prizes. And for the passenger in seat 12F who guessed 85 years, would you please step off the plane once we are airborne."
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}
