The Weekender 30/05/2010
Well we have some on the weekender list who are picking up some house guests. We just got back from dropping my brother, his wife & son, off at the airport as they move to America. Who would want to leave after a beautiful sunny day like today!
Sport
Well the news of the week & possibly the year is undoubtedly the All Whites latest game. In build up to the football world cup the All Whites had a friendly game against 15th ranked Serbia - and won. The 1-0 win for the All Whites was an amazing result and while it probably doesn't mean too much as far as the world cup goes (honestly we'll be lucky to get a goal), it's just a fantastic result against a team which has players from the likes of Manchester United.
Last week the All Whites had a (not very) "friendly" against Australia in which a couple of Australian tackles were so brutal even their coach (& the Aussie media!) slammed his own players that were involved. NZ got an early goal against Australia & then they eventually levelled, but Australia scored in injury time to win however it was mostly a psychological victory for the All Whites knowing that if the game hadn't been a "friendly", two Australia players would have been sent off and the result could have been much different.
I realised something the other day. The Super 14 season was almost over (it's now over & - yawn - the Bulls beat the Stormers 25-17) and I hadn't watched a single game, not live nor on T.V. I think that's a first for me.
The All Blacks are preparing for another international season, but they'll have to do it without a few injured players. Chiefs players Richard Kahui and Mils Muliaina are the latest to pull out injured. Ma'a Nonu and Isaia Toeava are also injured to heap pressure on the mid field selection.
New players announced for the All Blacks this season are Aaron Cruden, Israel Dagg, Benson Stanley and Victor Vito.
The NZ Warriors made up for their win last week with a 50-6 thrashing by the Tigers.
In Origin league, Queensland continued their recent dominance with a 28-24 win after half-back Johnathan Thurston produced his greatest Origin performance.
Kiwi track specialist Marc Ryan came sixth in a stage of the Ras cycling tour in Ireland this week. Julian Dean and Greg Henderson both continue to do well in the Giro d'Italia. On Friday Julian came second and Greg fourth!
In school girls netball the NZ Secondary Schools team beat the School Sport Australia team 29-23 in the final of the International Schoolgirls Netball Challenge.
In netball, NZ has three teams with chances of making the trans-tasman league play-offs after the Southern Steel had an upset 52-47 win over the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic. Then this weekend the Southern Steel thrashed the defending champs Melbourne Vixens 52-39.
The Black Caps were beaten by seven wickets in the second of their Twenty20 matches against Sri Lanka in Florida.
NZ News
The killer of Wanganui woman Marice McGregor handed himself in to police this week. He had been on the police radar as a person of interest.
There have been huge floods down Otago way with the Met Service estimating up to 30mm of rain falling every hour, slips all over the place & buildings being washed around. For most of a day, Dunedin was almost an island with the main highway both in and out (north & south?) closed.
There have been lots of complaints as a Mt Eden Prison development takes place. The eight-story jail block will tower over the Southern Motorway. The Auckland mayors have said their pleas to Labour leader Phil Goff (when he was the corrections minister in 2007) were ignored.
Anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune has pleaded guilty to four charges after his attacks on a Japanese whaling vessel. He could face up to 15 years in prison.
The government has passed a controversial three-strikes law this week after a vote of 63-58.
4: th ranked city in the world to live in is Auckland - Wellington was 12th
140: mm downpour north of Auckland was a relief for farmers who have claimed this was their driest summer in 20 years
6,000: $ fine for a company falsely claiming NZ made on their products
56,000: $ payout for a man sacked after working at a manufacturing company for 29 years
300,000: $ in income wasn't declared by a man who claimed he didn't know what the "$" sign meant - he pled guilty to filing false tax returns
375m: $ NASA satellite project to collect data on greenhouse gases are working with Niwa & using a location in Lauder, Otago
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4704 (+0.0012)
EUR 0.5539 (+0.0135)
USD 0.6795 (+0.0003)
AUD 0.8022 (-0.0140)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Morrie Stanley
Morrie got an award from the Australian's this week. Forty four years ago in Vietnam, he & two other kiwis were with an Australian company of 104 people when they were attacked by 2500 to 3000 Viet Cong soldiers. The three kiwis were on the front line, directing artillery fire which eventually drove back the attacking Vietnamese troops. Read all about his Australian Unit Citation here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10648292&ref=rss
Civil War Re-enactment
Thinking his son would enjoy seeing the re-enactment of a Civil War battle, my niece's husband took the boy, Will, to the event but the poor child was terrified by the booming cannons. During a lull, Will's dad finally got him calmed down.
That's when the Confederate general hollered, "Fire at will!"
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
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