Welcome to the home of the All Whites Football team!

Sport

The All Whites journey came to an end this week, but they did amazingly well. If there was one story of the week it would be how NZ 'won' a shock 1-1 draw with Italy. Shane Smeltz put us into the lead (from a slightly off side position) and Italy caught up with a penalty after a blatant dive in our box. And then we held on for the rest of the game. What a game.

The All Whites left the tournament unbeaten (three draws against top teams) and finished third in their group - ahead of the current world cup holders Italy! We are immensely proud of what our team has accomplished & it was well worth a couple of 2AM starts this week to watch the games.

As an indication of how far New Zealand came, after early reports of how NZ didn't even deserve to be at the World Cup, many people from the coach Ricky Herbert & captain Ryan Nelsen to a huge number of people in NZ, were all disappointed at not progressing through to the next round - that in itself speaks volumes.

Last week Ryan Nelsen was name World Player of the Week by the Goal.com website. My player of the tournament was goal keep Mark Paston who played so well.

The All Blacks continued their good start to the international season (pre-season?) with a 29-10 win over Wales here in Hamilton last night. Wales never really threatened & got a consolation try near the end of the game. The match was the fortieth win for Richie McCaw as captain, surpassing Sean Fitzpatrick as NZ's most successful captain.

It has been confirmed the Sonny Bill Williams will play for the Canterbury in the national champs and for the Crusaders in the Super 15.
Hosea Gear got himself a hat-trick for the NZ Maori as they beat England 35-28 & continued their centenary rugby celebrations. It was only a second string English team but that is the second win for the Maori's in the last three meetings against the English.

And finally for rugby, NZ won the third junior world rugby title in a row after thrashing Australia 62-17 in the final. Julian Savea was the fourth kiwi in a row to be named the IRB junior player of the year.

Swimmer Nick Ferrif won the 100m breaststroke convincingly in the Oceania Champs in Samoa on the second day. On the first day NZ won nine medals including four golds for Andrew McMillan getting two in 200m freestyle & 200m butterfly, Samantha Lee won the 50m butterfly sprint, and Dylan Dunlop-Barrett won the men's 1500m freestyle.

In the trans tasman netball league, the Waikato/BOP Magic secured their spot in the top four, and the Southern Steel also joined them after the Firebirds were beaten by the Perth Fever. So with the regular season ended the table was: NSW Swifts 26, Adelaide Thunderbirds/Waikato-BOP Magic 18, Southern Steel 16, Queensland Firebirds/Northern Mystics 14, Melbourne Vixens 12, West Coast Fever 8, Central Pulse/Canterbury Tactix 2.

The New Zealand Warriors beat the Roosters 20-18 after Kevin Locke scored in the dying seconds but then he left the field in agony. The Warriors were down 8-18 with six minutes to go before Manu Vatuvei started a come back.

Brent Tate is leaving the Warriors & heading to North Queensland. He has said that he is only leaving to be closer to family.

Juliette Haigh & Rebecca Scown won the coxless pair gold medal at an international meet in Munich.

NZ News

One of NZ's major wine brands has been renamed. Montana Wines has become Brancott Estate with the name change being rolled out globally in Sept/October. The change is due to the brand's 'American' name where Montana would have been associated with the state, and the NZ region of Marlborough would have been associated with the cigarettes.

This week had the shortest day of the year - so summer is on it's way, right?

The
Numbers Game

0.6: % GDP - the economy has been growing - if slowly - for the last year
30.5: % support for Labour, a big drop after their credit card scandals - John Key has 49.6% support as Prime Minister, followed by Phil Goff on 5.1% (& Helen Clark on 4.9%!)

1,480: bureaucrat jobs were cut last year as the government tries to reign in spending - 500 more to go over the next year, that's only 5%. Labour tripled the number of bureaucrats during their three terms
10,000: kms of NZ roads were filmed & assigned ratings, there were no 1 star or 5 star roads, 39% were 2 star, 56% were 3 star & 5% were 4 star

240,000: $/year will be the salary of the new Auckland Supercity mayor

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4745 (-0.0022)
EUR 0.5778 (+0.0072)
USD 0.7144 (+0.0086)
AUD 0.8178 (+0.0070)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Sir Harold Gillies
AESTHETIC RECONSTRUCTOR
The introduction of more ferocious weapons and trench warfare in the First World War resulted in devastating injuries. A new type of surgery was needed. Rhinoplasty, skin grafts, and facial reconstructions have been practised for centuries. However, it was New Zealander Sir Harold Delf Gillies who standardised these techniques and established the discipline of 'plastic surgery'.

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/gillies.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Computer Repair 
An office technician got a call from a computer user. The user told the tech that her computer was not working. She described the problem and the tech concluded that her computer needed to be brought in and serviced. 

He told her, "Unplug the power cord and bring it up here and I'll fix it for you." 
About ten minutes later she showed up at his door... with the electrical cord in her right hand. 

Weekender
Photos

Check
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Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website:
www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
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these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll
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Welcome to a cosy winter's day all you All White supporters!

Sport

Well no one expected it but the All Whites got New Zealand's first point in the Football World Cup. The kiwis played well at the start of the game but looked to be a little outclassed by Slovakia in their first World Cup game. Slovakia went ahead early in the first half and as the game got closer & closer to the end it looked like there was no hope. But after three minutes of injury time, Shane Smeltz managed to chip a kick towards the Slovakian goal and towards the head of Winston Reid for the 1-1 draw. The draw that felt like a win all over New Zealand, all week! Suddenly everyone is excited and there are reports about Italy (!) being a little scared. The game against World Champions Italy is early tomorrow morning & I'll be watching, just like the almost 750,000 (!) were last game - that's almost as many at 11:30pm as watched the All Blacks at 7:30pm!

The All Blacks continue their international season and farewelled Dunedin's Carisbrook stadium when they beat Wales 42-9. It was quite a close first half but the All Blacks ran away in the second half with Dan Carter getting 2 penalties, a try & a conversion to kick off the half.

As for other internationals... as the tri nations gets closer everyone is practising. Australia lost their second test against England 20-21 and the Springboks won a scrappy 29-13 game against Italy.
This weekend saw the NZ Maori take on Ireland - and win 31-28. That helped their centenary celebrations over in Rotorua!

The Waikato/BOP Magic were in danger of missing out on the playoffs for this years ANZ netball Champs after losing three of the last four games, but they've found some form again, last night beating the second placed Thunderbirds 53-44 to make the playoffs in the final game.

The State of Origin has been the rugby league of the week! NSW "former" assistant coach, legend Andrew Johns got a little carried away in his team talk and made some comments that were considered racial slurs by NSW player Timana Tahu - so he walked out of the NSW team. The talk also fired up Queensland & the target of the comments, Greg Inglis who took only three minutes to score and help the Maroons to a 34-6 game win, taking out the series for a record five straight times.

NZ decathlete Brent Newdick has got passed the 8000 point mark for the first time after he placed sixth in an international meet in the Czech Republic.

NZ News

Manukau Mayor Len Brown has been in the news lots this week. While it's getting a bit boring this has all been about politician spending. A while ago he was found to have some personal spending on his credit card. He cut up his card on TV weeks ago but the story continues. A few weeks ago Mr Brown had 48% support for the new Auckland Super City mayors job, followed by John Banks with 37%. In an unscientific survey the Herald thinks around 13.6% of Brown's supporters have switched to someone else, with Brown & Banks now quite close.

In Labour credit card misuse's, Labour leader Phil Goff returned from China and Shane Jones, Mita Ririnui and Chris Carter have been demoted. However Chris Carter retains his ethnic affairs portfolio but he did require an extra meeting with Phil to apologise to the country.

The navy announced this week their first woman commanding a ship. Lieutenant Alexandra Hansen has taken control of the HMNZS Pukaki, a new inshore patrol vessel. Women are 22% of the regular navy force.

Alastair McWhannell was found guilty of manslaughter this week. Back in March he was operating a bridge swing when he was distracted by a woman he had met over the internet, and didn't tie the rope correctly for first year vet student Catherine Peters.

New Zealand Post has won an award for the people management category at the World Mail Awards.

National and the Maori Party have repealed the Foreshore and Seabed Act. The act which made Labour very unpopular when they put it in, was disliked by almost everyone but for different reasons. The new legislation will mean foreshore and seabed will be removed from Crown ownership and will become a public place with public access guaranteed.

There are new kiwi fruit around, and they are red. I haven't seen any yet but they apparently have an exotic flavour and a creamy texture.

The
Numbers Game

7: months home detention, 100 hours of community service and indefinite loss of licence for a Mount Maunganui woman caught drunk driving for the seventh time - she got off lightly because her adult daughter is mentally ill

186: "please explain"'s send to former Labour ministers Mita Ririnui & Parekura Horomia regarding their credit card spending
391: person increase in unemployment benefit numbers since January - a lower than expected increase after seasonal work ended

3,500: people may miss out on getting in to University next year as Uni's limit numbers to those funded - rather than taking more people like they've done over the recession
35,000: $ fine for Michael Laws who gave an on air tirade about the parents of a boy killed in a trail bike accident

107,000: $ fine for a Canterbury timer company after an employee was killed in a forklift accident
3.6m: $ owed by author Alan Duff, still. After failing to pay any of his creditors, two years after pleading with them to give him until now to pay

757m: $ owed in fines dropping from $800m in the past year

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4767 (+0.0020)
EUR 0.5706 (+0.0003)
USD 0.7058 (+0.0153)
AUD 0.8108 (-0.0016)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Sydney Smith
THE SCIENTIFIC DETECTIVE 
In a media age populated with forensic crime thrillers such as CSI, Roxburgh's Sir Sydney Smith (1883-1969) was the original. A forensics pioneer, he achieved world renown through the application of science to justice. From the edge of an Otago goldfield to the telling edge of a murder weapon, Smith learnt to read the stories of dead men - and in doing so changed the way crime was investigated and solved.

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/smith.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Found Cell Phone 
When a customer left his cell phone in my store, I scrolled through his saved numbers, stopped at "Mom" and pushed send. His mother answered, and I told her what happened. 

"Don't worry," she said, "I'll take care of it." 
A few minutes later, the cell phone rang. It was "Mom." 
"Martin," she said, "you left your cell phone at the convenience store." 

Weekender
Photos

Check
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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}

How are you all going this fine week.

Sport

The game of last week was undoubtedly football. The Football World Cup in South Africa attracted all the news last week with the All Blacks first test almost passing unnoticed. The All Whites kick off their campaign on Tuesday. Vice captain Tim Brown has made a remarkable recovery from his broken shoulder and after surgery and a quick recovery he has flown to South Africa to rejoin the team. Tim's shoulder was broken during the game against Australia on May 24th.

I know it can happen anywhere but TVNZ staff were burgled with more than $100,000 worth of equipment taken while they were having dinner.

The All Blacks kicked off their international season on Saturday with a test against the Irish. The Irish weren't helped getting one of their stars sent off, but the All Blacks looked really good in the first half and at the start of the second half, clocking up a point a minute through to the 52nd minute, before the coaches made lots of substitutions to give a few new players a taste of test matches. They seemed to lose momentum and the Irish picked up some momentum but despite the Irish getting three late tries, the result was a comfortable 66-28 win.

In other rugby news, Sonny Bill Williams (former NRL star and Kiwis player) has announced he is leaving behind a $6m contract in France to play rugby in New Zealand. He is likely to play for the Crusaders next year and will be aiming for a spot in the All Blacks for the Rugby World Cup.

The NZ Maori beat the NZ Barbarians 37-31 in Whangarei on Saturday. Both teams were fully of players who didn't quite make the All Blacks & were trying to show they should have.
The Junior All Blacks beat Samoa 77-7 at the junior world champs in Argentina to remain at the top of pool A.

In netball the Waikato/BOP Magic beat the Central Pulse 58-52 but considering the quality of the opposition the win won't impress any one.

A kiwi motorcyclists died on the infamous Isle of Man TT circuit this week. Paul Dobbs was the second kiwi to die at the track with has claimed 229 lives since 1907.

Valerie Vili turned around a couple of recent results when she beat Belarussian Natalya Khoroneko-Mikhnevich (did I spell that right?). She won by 13cm & now leads the Diamond Race in the women's shot put (as if I even know what that is).

North Shore swimmer Melissa Ingram won silver in the final meet of the Mare Nostrum series in France today. She finished second to Britain's Elizabeth Simmonds in the 200m backstroke.

The Warriors always do better when Manu Vatuvei is on the field and this afternoon he was. And they beat the Newcastle Knights 32-24.

NZ News

Cop killer John Skinner was found guilty of murdering a police officer this week. Sergeant Don Wilkinson was killed with a high powered airgun during a covert police operation in September 2008. He was also found guilty of attempting to murder another officer and his co-accused was found guilty of manslaughter. In addition the police have frozen about $1m worth of property & cash as they prepare charges of manufacturing P.

MP's spending has been under the spot light again this week with Labour MP's Shane Jones and Chris Carter feeling most of the heat. The two MP's were having to answer lots of questions from their spending habits back when Labour was in power and they were ministers. Shane Jones was found to have bought a number of dodgy movies at various motels. Both MP's will be facing the music when Labour leader Phil Goff returns from China.

Auckland city is having reliability problems with its hybrid-power buses which were the much trumpeted future of inner-city public transport. Two of the three buses, which cost twice as much as new diesel alternatives, have had turbine faults and are awaiting parts from the USA.

The government is about to repeal the foreshore and seabed law that Labour put into place, however Prime Minister John Key has noted that the Maori Party will have the power to veto the proposal.

A story hit the headlines this week about how Rocky Horror Picture Show creator Richard O'Brien had tried to get residency to New Zealand, but his application had been declined. Upon "actual" investigation by reporters (as opposed to the earlier made up article), it was found that he hadn't actually applied. John Key said that his chances of being granted citizenship would be greatly improved if he actually for it. Incidentally there is a statue in Hamilton of Richard's character from the 'Show' - "Statue bro?" "Yeah it is!" (if you don't get this, go watch "Boy").

The
Numbers Game

0.7: % fall in food prices last month - for the first time in six years
1: # most peaceful country in the world is NZ according to the 2010 Global Peace index
1: # New Zealand newspaper is The Herald on Sunday, taking out both the best weekly newspaper & the best news paper - according to the Qantas Media Awards

1: death on the roads over Queens Birthday Weekend, the lowest in 54 years. It was ruined with two road deaths on Tuesday

4: years jail for a Wellington woman for a $2m fraud - she paid back just under half, but $250,000/yr isn't bad
5.3: richter scale earthquake was felt across the lower North Island yesterday morning
3.2m: $ bill to clean up after floods in Whakatane

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4747 (+0.0101)
EUR 0.5703 (+0.0091)
USD 0.6905 (+0.0193)
AUD 0.8124 (-0.0033)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Archibald Hector McIndoe
NO ORDINARY SURGEON
Motivated by a desire to be more than just an ordinary doctor, Archibald Hector McIndoe pursued greatness and became much more than an ordinary surgeon. Appointed plastic surgeon to the Royal Air Force in the midst of World War II, McIndoe brought plastic surgery to the forefront of burns treatment and became a pioneer of what is more commonly known today as 'therapeutic community'.

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/mcindoe.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Happy Songs 
A retired man who volunteers to entertain patients in nursing homes and hospitals went to Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn and took his portable keyboard along. He told some jokes and sang some funny songs at patients' bedsides. 

When he finished he said, in farewell, "I hope you get better." 
One elderly gentleman replied, "I hope you get better, too." 

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/
{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}

Hi everyone. This weekend was Queens Birthday weekend, so since I was away on holiday the weekender is late! The Forgotten World Highway is a great trip if you get the chance but this weekend has been very wet just about everywhere I think!

Sport

New Zealand lost out to Australia 24-19 in the final rugby seven's tournament, which gave the title to Samoa for their first world series win.

Team New Zealand continue their dominance after a come from behind win over Synergy from Russia in the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta in Italy this weekend.

The Warriors hung in with the NRL leaders St George Illawarra for most of the game but eventually couldn't overcome losing Brent Tate with a broken jaw. But the final score was 22-20 and the Warriors are going to have a uphill battle over the second half of the season.

Table Dragons 20*, Panthers 18, Sea Eagles/Wests Tigers/Titans 16, Rabbitohs*/Broncos/Roosters*/Raiders* 14, Eels/Warriors 12, Knights*/Sharks 10, Bulldogs/Cowboys* 8, Storm 0 (* All 12 games except for 13 for Dragons & 11 for all others)

In other league news, league sensation Israel Folau has signed a four year deal to switch to Australian rules, for an estimated $AUD 1m per year - about double what he could have earned under the salary cap rules at the Broncos.

The All Whites lost their final World Cup warm up game 3-1 against Slovania.

The BOP/Waikato Magic have a lost a couple of games now, the most recent 55-54 to the Firebirds and are now under pressure if they are to make the payoffs.

Table: NSW Swifts* 20, Adelaide Thunderbirds 16, Waikato/BOP Magic* 14, Queensland Firebirds/Southern Steel*/Northern Mystics 12, Melbourne Vixens 10, West Coast Fever 6, Central Pulse/Canterbury Tactix 2 (* 10 games, all other teams 11)

NZ News

If you haven't seen it already, the movie "Boy" is an absolute classic example of 1980's New Zealand small town life. In great news, it has just become the biggest local movie of all time after overtaking the World's Fastest Indian. On a sad note, one of the co-producers of the movie died after collapsing outside an Auckland TV station today. Merata Mita received the New Zealand Order of Merit during the 2010 New Year's honours list.

John Key has announced that Kiwibank won't be sold while he is Prime Minister. There had been quite a bit of speculation of the past few weeks, but the announcement should clear things up.

Apparently there were hundreds of protesters around the country expressing outrage and anger over the clashes last week between Israeli armed forces and the Gaza-bound ships. It also seems like a safe bet to say the "Global Peace" and "Justice Auckland" groups who organised  the demonstrations are strangely quiet when Israel is continually attacked by weapons smuggled in by ship.

There have been a few knighthoods handed out this weekend. Sir Richard Taylor for his special effects at Weta Workshop, and Sir Peter Leitch - Giddy, it's your old knight, the Mad Butcher!

The top kiwi speller made it to the National Spelling Bee semifinals in the US but was knocked out with Phytoplankter when he used an "o" instead of an "e" at the end. Tom Winter was a 13 year old from Burnside High.

The
Numbers Game

1: recorded road death for Queens Birthday Weekend - with 12 hours to go - the lowest toll for more than 50 years
4: km/h over the speed limit will result in prosecution as the police drop their leniency over the long weekend

5: c/L drop in petrol over May
10: % support is what the Greens are aiming for in the next election - in other news McGillicuddy Serious are aiming for 95%
27: % increase in cyclists in Auckland over the past year

56: % reduction in burglaries in Hamilton following a drive by the police & 200 arrests
100: drivers have been caught under the new drugged driving law
138: mm of rain in 24 hours this weekend for Whitianga - they had 29.4mm in just one hour 

200: % wetter May for Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Eastern Otago, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes' Bay and coastal Wairarapa
700: trips made on the automatic Northern Gateway motorway without paying by the worst offender - he faces $26,500 in fines if he doesn't pay up

40,000: $ fine for TV3 consumer affairs programme Target after they wrongly accused an Auckland cafe of selling dodgy food
600,000: tickets for the Rugby World Cup have been applied for - the organisers are 'very happy'

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4646 (-0.0058)
EUR 0.5612 (+0.0073)
USD 0.6712 (-0.0083)
AUD 0.8157 (+0.0135)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Peter Hall
Flight Lieutenant Peter Francis Locker Hall died last week in England aged 88. He was credited as shooting down eight German aircraft while based in Britain with the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Read more about him here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10647252&ref=rss

Joke
of the Weekender

Wedding Blessing 
At a wedding ceremony that I was performing, I raised my hand to give the final blessing. 
The bride misunderstood my gesture and surprised me with a high-five. 

Not wanting to exclude the groom, I offered him a high-five, too. 
I was finally able to get my blessing in, amid the laughter of the guests. 

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/
{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}

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.

The
Numbers Game

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

Joke
of the Weekender

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!" 

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/
{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}

Welcome along, the week has been a bit wet, but Saturday was nice enough for another ride!

The Numbers Game

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4692 (-0.0178)
EUR 0.5404 (-0.0324)
USD 0.6792 (-0.0284)
AUD 0.8162 (+0.0170)

The Weekender NZer of the week

William Hudson
SNOWY MOUNTAIN ENGINEER
New Zealand Engineer Sir William Hudson was the man and motivator behind the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. It is acclaimed as one of the great engineering achievements of the 20th Century, that not only irrigated the Australian interior and generated hydro-electricity, but changed the nature of Australian culture.

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/hudson.html

Joke of the Weekender

Weekender Photos

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}

Welcome along for the ride, let's see what happened around the country this week.

Sport

Rugby's Super 14 regular season has finished and while the semi finals will both be in South Africa, the South African's also gave us the Lion's team who became the first team to lose every game in a season, after being thrashed 59-10 by the Cheetahs. The Blues finished their season with a win - and the Chiefs with a loss, after the Blues beat the Chiefs 30-20 in Auckland. The Highlanders had a close game against the Reds - well not to start with. They were down 24-3 at half time, had a stunning comeback to lead 36-31, before the Reds managed another try right at the end to give them a 38-36 win. The Stormers beat the Bulls 38-10 to secure a home semi (how convenient?). So it was simple for the Crusaders and the Hurricanes, to reach the semis they had to win. The Hurricanes continued their typical plan of doing well up to the end an rolling over, they lost 32-16 to the Waratahs, the Crusaders will be playing again after thrashing the Brumbies 40-22, it is the ninth straight year the Crusaders have been in the semi-finals.

So the final table for the season is: Bulls 47, Stormers 44, Waratahs 43, Crusaders 41, Brumbies/Hurricanes 37, Blues 36, Reds 34, Sharks 33, Chiefs 26, Cheetahs 21, Force 19, Highlanders 17, Lions 4.
In other rugby news Justin Marshall has announced his retirement from all rugby. The most-capped All Black half-back is playing in the semi finals for Saracens in the English Premiership this weekend, and will return to NZ after his season ends. Troubled Chiefs player & former All Black Sione Lauaki has signed for French club Clermont Auvergne. Sione was in court twice this week for an assault charge and a driving charge.

In yachting, Team New Zealand are at it again in the MedCup in Portugal this time. They have extended their lead today winning the 60km coastal race. Dean Barker & his men dominated the race to give themselves a 14-point lead going into tomorrow's last two races.

The New Zealand Warriors beat North Queensland 24-12 to snap a 3 game losing streak. The game saw the return - and departure of Manu Vatuvei who returned after a month off with a hamstring injury. The key warrior limped off during the match. Brett Seymour was also back after injury.

In Netball the Waikato/BOP Magic continued their winning ways with a 72-52 win over the Canterbury Tactix.

In the women's Twenty20 cricket world champs, the White Ferns beat the West Indies by 56 runs to reach the final.

In the men's Twenty20 champs as expected it was always going to be difficult for the Black Caps against a red hot English team. NZ reached 149 for six but saying that England cruised to a three-wicket win was a little misleading. It got quite tight at the end and still could have gone either way but England did deserve their 5 ball victory.

Shane Bond announced he has retired from all forms cricket when he returned back to NZ this week.

In Tennis the NZ women's No 1 Sacha Jones was named Tennis Auckland player of the year, she reached a career high ranking of 157. Marina Erakovic was knocked out in the first round of the ITF tournament in Kurume, Japan.

NZ News

Police are investigating a case where a motorcyclist died after crashing in thick fog in the early hours of Thursday morning near Oamaru. The man was found half an hour later and a car was found burned out (with plates removed) 15km from the motorcyclist crash scene. The family of the dead man had buried his grandmother only hours before the accident.

A four year old boy from Whakatane was "roughed up" last week for wearing a red shirt - the colours of a local gang. This week the police have arrested a "wannabe" gang member for the assault. They thanked members of the public for tracking the man down.

Back in June 2008 a woman chased the man who snatched her handbag, but was then run over and killed as he made his escape. This week the jury decided they didn't believe his story that he hadn't seen her and he was found guilty of murder. Five others who were also in the stolen vehicle were found guilty of being accessories to murder and helping the 'snatcher' avoid arrest.

South Africa's sport & recreation minister, the South African Rugby Union, and the NZRU this week publicly apologised to former Maori All Blacks who were excluded from All Black teams in the 40's & 60's due to apartheid.

Police have spent the week searching for Marice McGregor of Wanganui. They have found a body down a ravine in dense bush but haven't yet confirmed the identity.

John Key has had an interesting week. He announced early this week that Urewera National Park was not going to be signed over the Tuhoe as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement. Apparently Tuhoe have always documented that they want Te Urewera and after 18 months of negotiations they believed they had the support to get private ownership of the New Zealand National Park. So he has been hassled a lot about that. Then a few days later he made a joke about enjoying a dinner at marae on the East Coast. He said "the good news is that I was having dinner with Ngati Porou as opposed to their neighbouring iwi which is Tuhoe, in which case I would have been dinner...". Now given that in context, I would have assumed he was meaning they would have "had a go" at him and hassled him some more. But some how the reporters managed to run it with the headline "PM slammed for cannibalism comment", which then was soundly condemned around the country & even picked up in various newspapers around the world.

Sir Edmund Hillary's house was this week moved to the South Auckland school Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate. The valuable Remuera property it was on, was bought by Auckland businessman Terry Jarvis who donated the house to the school.

The Ngati Kahungunu Iwi have banned tobacco for all events that they control. The third-most-populous iwi stretches from Wairoa to Wairarapa and their CEO Ngawhiwi Tomoana said "It's the greatest contribution we can make, greater than any Treaty claim".

The
Numbers Game

2: nd lowest tax burden for NZers in the OECD when superannuation and other compulsory taxes are counted
48.4: % support for Manukau Mayor Len Brown in a poll for the Auckland Super City mayoral race, Auckland City mayor John Banks is on 37%

104,000: $ awarded to Sir Robert Jones in a defamation case
4.36m: is the current population of NZ after the highest population growth since March 2004
30m: $ more for tourism announced in the budget
225m: $ boost to funding for science (pre)announced for this week's budget

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4870 (+0.0036)
EUR 0.5728 (+0.0122)
USD 0.7076 (-0.0073)
AUD 0.7992 (-0.0064)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Robert Burchfield
DICTIONARY DON
Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "the greatest living lexicographer", Dr Robert Burchfield is regarded as the pre-eminent lexicographer and linguistic scholar of our age. As editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and responsible for its revision, Burchfield has played a crucial role in the study of the sources and development of the English language. 

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/burchfield.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Van Problem 
The fist knocking on the door belonged to a cop. Bracing for the worst, the yard foreman opened the door. "Is that yours?" asked the officer, pointing to a company van that was jutting out into the narrow street. 

"Uhh, yes it is," said the foreman. "That is, it's our company's." 
"Would you mind moving it?" asked the officer. "We've set up a speed trap, and the van's causing everyone to slow down." 

Weekender
Photos

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Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website:
www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
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these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll
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How are you all going this fine week.

Sport

The Rally of New Zealand has been running this weekend and Finn Jari-Matti Latvala won the title after an interesting final day. Sebastien Loeb finished third and Mikko Hirvonen was fourth.

Both the men's & women's Twenty20 cricket world champs are running at the moment. The White Ferns beat Sri Lanka by 47 runs for their second win after beating India by 10 runs on Friday.

The Black Caps made it through to the Super Eights and then promptly lost to South Africa by 13 runs, but made a come back and beat Pakistan by one run with Ian Butler the pick of the bowlers taking three for 19 off his four overs. The need to beat England (who have been doing well) next to continue.

The Super14 has more bad news for most of the NZ teams. But first with bad news for a South African team, the Stormers semi hopes were dealt a blow when they were upset 20-14 by the Sharks. The Blues thrashed the Lions 56-14, the Waratahs thrashed the Chiefs 19-46 and the Chiefs end the season not having won a home game - ouch. The Hurricanes reignited their semi hopes with a 44-21 thrashing of the formerly hot Reds, and the Crusaders lost 40-35 to the Bulls, but not without a try to Bull Francois Hougaard after the final hooter after what seemed to be a forward pass. The Brumbies beat the Highlanders 31-3 and the Cheetahs beat the Force 29-14.

So there is still (some) hope that NZ teams will be in the semis, although it's not assured like in previous seasons. Both the Crusaders and Hurricanes are capable of making the semis - if they win next week, in the last round. The Crusaders have a possibility of a home semi if they win well and if other results go their way.

Table (all after 12 games): Bulls 47, Stormers 39, Waratahs 38, Brumbies 37, Hurricanes 37, Crusaders 36, Reds 34, Blues 32, Sharks 29, Chiefs 26, Cheetahs 21, Force 18, Highlanders 17, Lions 5
In other rugby news, Jock Hobbs has stood down as chairman of both the NZRU and Rugby New Zealand 2011 for health reasons.

Hamilton Boys High School have won the world secondary schools rugby tournament in Japan when they beat England's Truro College 40-8 in the final.

The ANZ Netball champs also continue and the Waikato/BOP Magic continue to do well beating Central Pulse 56-44, and beating the Northern Mystics 49-46 earlier in the week. They are second on the table.

Having a rugby league test match during the NRL is always going to make it difficult for the Kiwis to catch the Kangaroos off guard - which is what you need to do when your players combined worth is less than half that of your opposition. But the final score on this years ANZAC test match was a creditable 12-8, so the Kiwis will be looking forward to the Four Nations which start in October. And we can't forget that the Kiwis are reigning World Champions!

NZ News

Economists were stunned this week when the March quarter jobs data was released, showing the steepest quarterly drop in unemployment for the last 24 years. The number of unemployed dropped 25,000 to 140,000, and the unemployment rate dropped from 7.1% to 6%.

John Key has been travelling a bit this week. He coped some flak from one of his trade delegation members this week. After the air force crash on ANZAC day, John Key who was in Gallipoli (on his way to the Middle East for trade talks) changed his plans & headed back to NZ for the funeral of the three airmen - men that he personally knew after having flown with them a number of times. But Dr John Langley said that his decision to miss the delegation for the funerals was short-sighted and lost a critical chance to build links. Dr Langley's views were not those of the board he was representing - in fact not many people agreed with him, but it did get lots of news coverage. John Key then headed to Afghanistan to meet with the NZ troops that are over there.

The
Numbers Game

4: degrees above average winter is expected for the North Island, and plenty of sunshine
5.1: richter scale earthquake in the central North Island
6: th best place to be a mother in the world is New Zealand

46: % of emergency calls (to 111) are not real emergencies (people bumping their phones, children playing or prank calls)
55: % of surveyees (in the "Better Banking survey) were happy with ASB, BNZ got 46%, National 43%, Westpac & ANZ 40%

111: Corrections Department staff were sacked or suspended in 2008 & 2009 for illegal or inappropriate behaviour - 
134.3m: $ funding for families-based social services initiative Whanau Ora over the next four years - not including current contracts

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4834 (+0.0071)
EUR 0.5606 (+0.0131)
USD 0.7149 (-0.0125)
AUD 0.8056 (+0.0183)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Harold Williams
VOICE OF THE WORLD
Harold Williams is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's greatest linguist, said to have spoken over 58 languages fluently.  He was foreign editor of The Times,  "the most brilliant foreign correspondent" his generation had known. Friend of statesmen and companion of writers HG Wells and Hugh Walpole. 

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/williams.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Cinderella Question 
The tax accountant had just read the story of Cinderella to his four-year-old daughter for the first time. The little girl was fascinated by the story, especially the part where the pumpkin turns into a golden coach. 

Suddenly she piped up, "Daddy, when the pumpkin turned into a golden coach, would that be classed as income or a long-term capital gain?"

Weekender
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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}

Welcome along for the ride. I hope you've all had a great week. Let's see what happened around the country this week.

Sport

Well I almost wish I could ignore the Super14! The Bulls beat the Sharks 27-19, the Force beat the Lions 33-12 and the Brumbies beat the Reds 32-12. The Reds may have been upset by the news that star flanker Daniel Braid is returning to NZ next year to compete for an All Blacks jersey. The Chiefs continued their disappointing season letting the Hurricanes away with a 33-27 win near the end of the game. The win did give the Hurricanes a chance at a semi-final spot. The Blues had their semi hopes smashed by the Cheetahs when they were beaten 36-32 in Bloemfontein, and the Crusaders were rocked, thrashed 14-42 by the Stormers. In a game no one would have picked the Highlanders beat the Waratahs 26-10 to dent the 5th placed 'Tah's semi hopes. The table is: Bulls 43, Stormers 38, Crusaders/Reds 34, Waratahs 33, Hurricanes 32, Brumbies 31, Blues 27, Chiefs 26, Sharks 25, Force 18, Highlanders 17, Cheetahs 16, Lions 4.

Matt Giteau was fined $6,300 for criticising kiwi ref Steve Walsh. The TAB has ignored the poor kiwi form in the Super14 to put the All Blacks as tournament favourites for the Rugby World Cup.

The Black Caps did well in their first game of the Twenty20 world champs. Yesterday Nathan McCullum (Brendon's older brother) was man of the match against Sri Lanka with a fine bowling performance (1 for 17 off the first three overs), then in the field he took three catches and then chasing 136 and coming in to bat at 117 for seven he hit 16 off six balls to win the game with a six of the penultimate ball.

In the warm up games the Black Caps beat the West Indies by seven runs, and Ireland.
In other cricket, former Black Cap captain Stephen Fleming coached the Chennai Super Kings to the Indian Premier League cricket title last week with a 22-run win over the Mumbai Indians.

The NZ Warriors had their third loss in a row being beaten 23-16 by the Canberra Raiders. The table is: Dragons/Titans* 12, Panthers* 10, Sea Eagles/Rabbitohs/Roosters/Wests Tigers 8, Bulldogs/Eels/Knights*/Warriors*/Raiders* 6, Sharks/Cowboys*/Broncos 4, Storm* 0 (* 8 games compared to 7).

Scott Dixon won his first race of the season in the IndyCar series at the Kansas Speedway today. He led the final 150 of 200 laps and won by more than 3 seconds. With the second win in a row at Kansas, he took over the lead in the championship.

Kiwi golfer Richard Lee set the lowest-ever score recorded in a professional tournament in New Zealand this week. His second round 59 in the Tauranga Open included eight birdies and an eagle.

Kimberly Smith has broken Allison Roe's 29 year old NZ women's marathon record when she finished in the top-10 in the London marathon this week. She finished eighth in two hours 25 minutes and 21 seconds.

NZ News

Legislation has been introduced so that driver licences can be suspended when people don't pay overdue traffic fines. They will be sent a warning giving them 14 days and then their licences suspended. That makes sense to me - only a little surprised they are only just starting doing it now.

There has been some rain around this week - we even had a night of nice gentle rain. Queenstown & Southland in general has had huge amounts with Lake Wakatipu flooding a few streets around Queenstown over the last two days of the week. Some places around Southland had up to 700mm of rain over the three days and flood warnings were everywhere. The driest spots in New Zealand are still Northland with rainfall inconsistent around the district - but fairly consistent in not being enough.

The
Numbers Game

470: public service positions to be cut by the end of next year as National try to cut back the huge number of bureaucrats that Labour installed during their reign
850: calls to Quitline (compared to the normal 2-300) after news broke of a big tax increase for tobacco with cigarettes to be $17 a packet - 

20,000: people turned out in Auckland to protest the government's proposal to mine on conservation land (not the 50,000 they claimed) - funny how the Green party didn't protest when Labour were doing it!
39,292: $ claimed for air travel by ministers for the first three months of this year compared to $134,054 in the September quarter, after it was opened up to public scrutiny

325,000: ticket applications for the Rugby World Cup in the first three days, the sales have been "fantastic" according to RNZ chief executive Martin Snedden
1.35m: $ surplus for New Zealand Football following their on field success in qualifying for the Football World Cup

30m: $ pavilion for NZ at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai - it is already proving to be a hit
400m: $ expected cost to host the Rugby World Cup

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4763 (+0.0097)
EUR 0.5475 (+0.0114)
USD 0.7274 (+0.0100)
AUD 0.7873 (+0.0139)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Dave Moriaty
You won't find this name in the NZ heros list, but Bomber Comander Dave Moriaty won the rare Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for an act of bravery over the Normandy battlefield in 1944. He died this week in Wanganui aged 88. 

I've just read his story and it's amazing, you should take the time to read how he saved his crew after being hit by shrapnel.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10641907&ref=rss

Joke
of the Weekender

Pupil's Question 
A young pupil asked, "Master, what is fate." 
"Ah, my son, it is what has brought great nations together. It has made the world a smaller place in which to live. It has inspired men of worth to work endless hours. It will some day enable men to span the universe and light years of travel will soon become mere seconds in time." 

Weekender
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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}

Welcome 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.

The
Numbers Game

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

Joke
of the Weekender

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." 

Weekender
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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}