Welcome 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.

Well this is the last Weekender for a few weeks. I'm getting married next Sunday & will then have three weeks honeymoon, we will see you again after that!

Sport

Well the NRL has started a new season and the Warriors had a final quarter meltdown to snatch a 24-18 loss against the Gold Coast Titans. In other first round games the Newcastle Knights beat the Bulldogs 16-20, the Brisbane Broncos snatched a 30-24 win over the North Queensland Cowboys and the Dragons beat the Eels 18-12.

The Super14 continued - but not in a good way for most NZ teams. The Hurricanes were thrashed by the Stormers 37-13, the Waratahs thrashed the Lions 73-12, and the Bulls beat the Highlanders 50-35 (no defence there!). The only winning NZ team was the Crusaders who wore down the Chiefs 19-26. The Brumbies beat the Sharks 24-22, and the Reds thrashed the Force 50-10.

Well the One day cricket has continued and Australia has retained the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy with dominant results in the third & fourth ODIs (admittedly mostly due to inadequate batting from the Black Caps - maybe they are taking lessons from Chris Martin - go on, YouTube "Learn to bat like Chris Martin"). But the fifth ODI regained some pride - I'm still not quite sure how it happened but you can be sure that if NZ ever win, it's a result of the bowlers. I gave up when NZ was at 6/155 or 7/186, but the tail enders (i.e. bowlers) batted well and we reached a still inadequate 9/241. Shane Bond and Tim Southee then saved the day by taking four wickets each to bowl Australia out for 190 - and a 51 run win is very good.

The Wellington Phoenix have had their season ended losing 4-2 to Sydney. Obviously having the ref miss a goal scored by hand, didn't impact the final result, but it was a crucial point in the game as the Phoenix were level up to that point. Regardless of the result, NZers got very excited about football over the past few weeks - let's hope it continues for the World Cup!

Team New Zealand has continued it's run of wins in the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland this weekend. They had their fourth straight win after beating the Franco-German All4One entry by 26 seconds.

The Black Sticks played a good 20min of hockey but were beaten 5-2 by defending champs Germany in the World Cup. They played South Africa for 9th-10th placing (but what was the result?).

Hayden Roulston has pulled out of the Paris-Nice cycling race after suffering from a head cold, however Greg Henderson is in sixth place. Greg actually won the opening stage.

NZ News

Well he has done it! Shaun Quincey has rowed from Australian to New Zealand. The first single rower to have ever rowed in that direction and the second person to have ever done - the first being his father, Colin, in 1977. It took him 53 days - nine days quicker than his father, he rowed around 3,900km (although in a straight line it's 2,200km) and he lost 17kg on the trip.

Here's a reason why I like NZ so much. Maybe it's just the paper trying to stir up trouble, but the large headline read "Police in abuse of power row". The abuse in question is a former highly ranked cop, calling a friend and current highly ranked cop, when he was stopped on the way to a sports match. Apparently he was late & didn't want to wait even for the brief police check. Ok I agree he should be checked like anyone else, but if this is the worst they can come up with for a Police abuse of power story, then that is great.

The opposition had something to say when transport minister Stephen Joyce announced a review of the SuperGold Card transport concessions this week. Everyone was up in arms claiming that all the benefits would be cut - until near the end of the news story they talked to John Key and Stephen Joyce, who said they were committed to the SuperGold Card and were just reviewing some of the high cost options like the Waiheke Island ferry. Mr Joyce said "It possibly wasn't clear enough but I think also there was definitely some political desire to create some concern and fear" - which of course for everyone except reporters seems obvious (they're the opposition - it's their job! You don't need to report it). If you don't know the SuperGold Card gives free off peak travel on public transport to Senior Citizens.

The SundayStar Times got into trouble this week by stupidly deciding to "test" NZ's anti-terrorist response at rugby games for the Rugby World Cup. They sent people into Waikato Stadium and Christchurch's AMI Stadium with fake explosives, then they got into "public" places without the police knowing (duh). Police Minister Judith Collins said "If they were trying to make some point that Kiwis go to rugby games and they don't get treated like they're all potential terrorists - well, so what?".

A kiwi is indeed a hero over in Afghanistan when the British Army soldier picked up a grenade that had been thrown at him and his colleagues and threw it away just seconds before it went off. He and the colleagues received up minor injuries but they have credited James McKie with saving their lives.

The
Numbers Game

4: people rescued from a burning car by hero Real Estate agent Rob Kuypers
5.0: richter scale earthquake hit Fiordland this morning
5.5: m waves caused house evacuations in the Hawkes Bay this week

7: months in a row of dropping produce prices
10: top Irish-themed pubs ranking for Auckland's The Muddy Farmer, just in time for St Patrick's Day
16: Vodafone cell sites had degraded performance for 6 hours last Saturday

50: WWII Maori Battalion men met for what might be their last big reunion, they are aged between 84 and 101
60: fire fighters put out a major fire at a boat building plant in Te Rapa, Hamilton this afternoon
95: % of NZ Defence Force troop injuries, happen in NZ compared to those overseas "in action"

182.9: c/L for 91-octane petrol, the highest price for 18 months
140,000: $ fine for a company whose employee was killed by a vehicle while collecting rubbish last year
5.5m: $ in aid pledged for the Cook Islands after the devastating Cyclone Pat

7.5b: $ net worth for Graeme Hart - NZer & Australasia's richest man, however he dropped 43 places to 144th - equal with Giorgio Armani

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4620 (+0.0012)
EUR 0.5102 (-0.0018)
USD 0.7022 (+0.0048)
AUD 0.7676 (-0.0011)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Robert Dickie
CHAMPION OF AUTOMATION
RJ Dickie invented and patented the world’s first stamp vending machine. His machines were in use for 50 years, 18,000 were used in Britain, with countless others around the world. The machine that won highest honours at the 1909 Seattle Expo came from a New Zealander with a single idea. 

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

Joke
of the Weekender

Salt and Mensa 
Mensa is an organization whose members have an IQ of 140 or higher. 
A few years ago, there was a Mensa convention in San Francisco, and several members lunched at a local cafe. While dining, they discovered that their saltshaker contained pepper and their pepper shaker was full of salt. How could they swap the contents of the bottles without spilling, and using only the implements at hand? 

Clearly this was a job for Mensa! The group debated and presented ideas, and finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer. They called the waitress over to dazzle her with their solution. 

"Ma'am," they said, "we couldn't help but notice that the pepper shaker contains salt and the salt shaker..." 
"Oh," the waitress interrupted. "Sorry about that." She unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them.

Weekender
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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 back, things are still hot around this place despite a predicted early winter! I just hope it will be nice weather on Sunday 21st!

Sport

Well football has been the sport of the week (and maybe cricket and rugby). The All Whites had a big game when they took on Mexico in a World Cup warm up match. The game was in L.A. (so essentially a home game for the Mexicans) and Mexico is ranked much much higher than NZ, so holding them to 2-0 loss was a fantastic result for NZ.

Then some of the key players were back on a plane & straight into training for today's A-League semi-final against the Newcastle Jets. The Phoenix won the game 3-1 in extra time in front of 33,000 ever vocal fans at Westpac Stadium - Wellington is becoming a football town! The Phoenix are one game away from a place in the final.

In trans-tasman cricket, NZ had the momentum from the Twenty20 for the first One Dayer and they used it! With Dan Vettori withdrawing due to a neck strain, the formerly overlooked Scott Styris was in the game and there at the end as NZ chased down 276 to win - in fact Styris won by hitting a six with four balls to go (and two wickets).

During the game Aussie Mitchell Johnson felt the need to have a face-off with Scott Styris & even went so far as to gently head-butt him (isn't it rather dumb to head-butt someone who has a helmet on?). The funny part is that there were two follow up stories on it, the first with the headline "Game better off without fiery spats, says Hussey" (so then maybe Australia should pull out of cricket?), and the second saying "Ponting - We need to be ruthless or pay price". Talk about mixed messages.

The second ODI was just as close, Australia again chose to bat first and again were restricted to a score that wasn't quite good enough, but this time we lost too many wickets along the way. We were still in with a chance but with Dan Vettori batting near the end, he needed 12 off 11 when he got out - it was doable but another close game. 1-1 in the best of five.

In national cricket, Northern Districts beat Wellington by nine wickets and surged into the lead with three rounds remaining for the Plunket Shield.

In the Super 14 there were a couple of upsets to the detriment of NZ teams this week. The Cheetahs had a surprise 28-12 win over the Hurricanes, and the Chiefs had a surprise loss to the Reds 18-23.

In other games the Waratahs required an extra two men to beat the Sharks 25-21 after the ref handed out plenty of yellow cards, the Highlanders were thrashed 33-0 by the Stormers, the Crusaders beat the Blues 33-20 in a close game, the Brumbies beat the Lions 24-13

Chiefs player Sione Lauaki was in the news this week after a complaint was made to the police, but it sounds like it might have been someone looking for trouble after the bar staff said it all happened within about five seconds and the staff would have noticed a punch and when approached both parties said everything was ok.

The New Zealand Ironman was on again this weekend and Jo Lawn won the womans title for the seventh time, and Cameron Brown fought back from being nearly eight minutes behind to win his ninth Ironman New Zealand title.

On Friday Dean Barker was in danger of dropping out of the Auckland match-racing regatta but on Saturday he picked the right winds and beat young Kiwi Adam Minoprio (who has been doing very well) and Britain Ben Ainslie in the final.

New Zealand beat Korea 2-0 in the Hockey World Cup after earlier losing 3-1 to the Netherlands.

NZ News

New Zealand news seems to be getting less & less thorough in their investigations. This week a leading news story was about a sighting of missing British girl Madeleine McCann. The sighting was last August with a lady 80% confident that they saw her, and upset that police had ignored her report - so I guess she took it to the media. A lengthy in-depth story followed, but later in the news there was a brief update (without any sort of apology for errors) saying that the family of the Madeleine lookalike have requested privacy. The police had positively identified as not Madeleine.

The court case behind the murder of a liquor store owner finished up this week with the gunman found guilty and the other five men found not guilty of murder or manslaughter but guilty of aggravated robbery. The widow is still angry with police because they followed protocol despite being assured the robbers had fled, which resulted in a 26 minute delay getting the man medical attention.

A kiwi was jailed in Brisbane after asking for help from a policeman & then after getting none he called them "useless". He said "In New Zealand we are taught to trust and respect police and seek them out for help when we are in trouble".

The government is looking make some changes drivers with the minimum driving age being raised by one year to 16, and implementing a zero-alcohol policy for drivers younger than 20.

The
Numbers Game

5: c/L rise in petrol this week
15: weeks in prison for a German resident of Uganda who tried to smuggle 16 protected geckos out of NZ
20: NZers still unaccounted for in Chile after the earthquake

147: tonnes of poison-laced cereal bait dropped on Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands have resulted in large numbers of native birds heading back to their new sanctuary
358: litres of paint & 500 pairs of hands have given decile 1 school Glenbrae Primary a makeover, thanks to the Life Centre Trust and sponsors & volunteers

2,500: $ fine for rubberneckers during the Jan Molenaar siege in Napier last year
500,000: $ in aid for Chile from the NZ government
1.2m: $ collected by the IRD from tax dodging online traders
3m: $ for the Rugby World Cup free-to-air broadcasting rights

10m: $ investment by TVNZ hasn't helped sell Tivo boxes with only an estimated 2000 units sold

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4608 (+0.0021)
EUR 0.5120 (-0.0008)
USD 0.6974 (-0.0012)
AUD 0.7687 (-0.0120)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Ernest Godward
INVENTOR, OVER-ACHIEVER, INVERCARGILLITE
An innovator of many talents. During the 1930s he was the world's leading expert on the internal combustion engine. He built power tools, eggbeaters, burglar proof windows and hairpins. He was a champion sportsman, a fine musician, a talented painter, an expert on international weapons. In short Ernest Godward was a brilliant over-achiever. 

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

Joke
of the Weekender

Ladder Borrow
My next-door neighbor and I frequently borrow things from each other. Not long ago, when I requested his ladder, he told me he had lent it to his son. 
Recalling a saying my grandmother used to repeat, I recited, "You should never lend anything to your kids, because you will never get it back." 

With that, he responded, "Tell you the truth, it's not even my ladder. It's my dad's." 

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 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!

The
Numbers Game

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

Joke
of the Weekender

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." 

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}

Birthday February continues - today is Craig's birthday!

Sport

Sir John Walker held a 1500m record since 1979 (3min 37.40sec) and this week Nick Willis broke it with 3min 35.8sec.

Cara Baker has won the Australian open water swimming race, beating the Aussies in the 5km race finishing in one hour and 20 seconds. But the title went to the first Australian home.

The Wellington Phoenix beat the Perth Glory in their A-League elimination semifinal 4-2 after a penalty shoot-out when they were tied 1-1 at full time.

Northern Districts have won the domestic one-day title after beating Auckland by 21-runs. Young all-rounder Kane Williamson is one to watch after he scored 69 off 71 balls to help Northern to 304, and then he took five wickets for 51 runs.

On to Super 14. The Stormers won their second game in a row, beating the NSW Waratahs 27-6, the Hurricanes beat the Western Force 47-22 in Wellington, and the Brumbies were beaten by the Bulls 50-32 in South Africa. The talk of the weekend was the Chiefs vs Lions game where both team had a great attacking game - and no defence. The final score was a record for Super 14, 72-65 - 137 points scored! The Cheetahs beat the Sharks 25-20 to ruin John Smit's achievement as the first South African to have played 100 Super rugby games for the same team. The Reds beat the Crusaders 41-20 in a surprise result, and the Blues beat the Highlanders 19-15 in Dunedin.

Table: Bulls 10; Hurricanes/Chiefs 9; Stormers 8; Reds 6; Crusaders 5; Brumbies/Blues/Cheetahs/Waratahs 4; Sharks/Lions 2; Highlanders 1; Force 0.
Last weekend Samoa beat NZ in the finals of the Las Vegas Sevens.

Mahe Drysdale easily won his sixth national sculling title, down the road at Lake Karapiro this weekend. It was a Kiwi one-two with Nathan Cohen finishing second. Emma Twigg lead the women's single sculls from start to finish. Mahe didn't have everything his own way though, after he and Peter Taylor came second in the men's double sculls to world class scullers Matthew Trott & Nathan Cohen. In third place were the world champion Germans Eric Knittel and Stephen Kruger.

New Zealand qualified for the Badminton world finals after beating Fiji and Tahiti 5-0 in Invercargill this week.

NZ probably won't be mentioned much in the Winter Olympics, but Kendall Brown claimed a respectable 15th in the women's half-pipe after pushing through the pain of a dislocated shoulder.

Bangladesh were in Hamilton this week as they took on the Black Caps in the only test match. NZ were sent in to bat & declared at 553 for 7 after Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum both got out (189 & 185 respectively). Bangladesh batted well & we took a long time to finally get them out at 408. NZ declared at 258 for 5, leaving Bangladesh 404 to win and they were all out for 282. NZ won by 121 runs - still close enough to have me slightly worried, and not good enough for anyone to be complacent with Australia arriving shortly.

The America's Cup has returned to America after Oracle beat Alinghi 2-0 in the best of three challenge. Oracle was headed by Sir Russell Coutts who was kicked out of Alinghi before the last series. Russell has now won the cup four times for three different nations, although he wasn't actually on the boat this time.

NZ News

A kiwi was among the 64 people rescued off the coast of Brazil when a Canadian sailing ship sunk.

Telecom has had more problems this week. Firstly when their network couldn't cope with traffic this week and lots of people couldn't use their phones, secondly when it came to light that come employees (from their Manila call centre) sent text messages swearing at customers, and finally when the lads from Top Gear were in town - minus Richard Hammond who promoted the new network last time he was in NZ. They said Hammond was too embarrassed to return to NZ and said they would switch to a live feed to talk to him, but when the monitor was only blank they joked it was because the XT network had crashed.

Philanthropist couple Neal & Annette Plowman have gifted Rotoroa Island to Auckland. The 82ha island is east of Waiheke Island.

Auckland's mayors have said they will not pay for the redevelopment of Auckland's Queens Wharf. It was John Key's hope that it would be "party central" for the Rugby World Cup, but the mayors don't want to pay $100m to fix it up.

There is a plague of mice in parts of Southland, mostly around Fiordland, Te Anau, Stoney Creek & Five Rivers.

Here's an example of how the Maori party and National are working together (just in case you were wondering). Recently the Maori party developed a Maori-based health plan. John Key said (insisted) that it should be available to everyone and should be based not on race but on need. Maori party co-leader Tariana Turia believed that although the plan had been designed with Maori whanau in mind, there was no reason it could not also be used for others - a win win result!

Former New Zealander (anyone else want him?) Peter Bethune illegally boarded a Japanese whaling ship this week in order to make a citizen's arrest of its captain after alleging he rammed and sank Peter's ship and attempted to murder the crew. He was also going to present them with a $3m bill for replacing the decrepit vessel. I think he may have been at sea too long! Apparently he is now being detained and refusing to be transferred. I wonder if Mr Bethune should be arrested for endangering his crew by causing a collision at sea in the name of a publicity stunt.

The
Numbers Game

18: months of use of Taser stun guns (by Police) and there have been no complaints about their use
29: people have died in five years while taking part in adventure tourism in NZ
100: hours community service for a former Napier florist who changed her competitors details on Google maps to direct clients to her business

5,600: $ reward for information on a spate of deliberately lit fires near a West Coast kiwi sanctuary
3-5m: $ is all that a former ASB investment banker will have to repay after stealing nearly $18m

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4526 (+0.0079)
EUR 0.5145 (+0.0023)
USD 0.7000 (+0.0020)
AUD 0.7790 (-0.0077)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Thomas Brydone and William Davidson
CHILLY BIN BILLIONAIRES
New Zealand has long been heralded as a country that 'rode to fortune on the sheep's back'. The next time you carve into a fillet of tender Kiwi lamb sirloin, now exported to more than 190 countries around the world, you might like to pause to chew on the fascinating story of how the frozen meat export industry began: a story of technology, determination, vision and pioneering colonialism.

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

Joke
of the Weekender

What's Wrong Now?
My friend, an ex-Marine Aviator wanted to show off his new twin-engine plane. I was riding along as he put it through its paces. Suddenly, we were caught in a violent thunderstorm, with lightning crashing all around us. 

Weekender
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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 to another overly hot day! It seems like we've been having high twenties days for a while now. Yes yes I know there are those of you who think that's a cold winters day but I need to find a pool!

Welcome to yet another long hot week of summer, and next month I'll be married!

Sport

Sport Numbers:
8: teams will battle it out in America's Cup class yachts in Auckland next month
13min 13sec: time it took Kiwi Melissa Moon to run to the top of New York's Empire State Building, winning this years women's race to the top
78: runs total that Bangladesh got against NZ in their Twenty20 match, NZ reached the target without losing a wicket
146: run win for NZ against Bangladesh in their first one dayer

The Wellington Phoenix have secured a spot in the A-League playoffs after Adelaide United beat the Brisbane Roar 2-0 last night. The top six go through and the Phoenix are still aiming for a top four finish which would give them a home playoff match.

The Wellington Seven's tournament continues to elude our team as Samoa beat NZ 14-24 in the semifinal. Fiji went on to beat Samoa 19-14 in the final.

Willie Mason actually found somewhere to play rugby league in Australia! He will be joining North Queensland for the next season.

Rowing dominated the Halberg Awards this year with Mahe Drysdale taking the sportsman award, Eric Murray & Hamish Bond taking the sports team award and Richard Tonks taking coach of the year. Caroline & Gorgina nee Evers-Swindell (now they are both married) were crowned sports champions of the decade. Valerie Vili won the supreme Halberg Award for the third consecutive year.

The NZ Breakers continued their comeback by beating the Wollongong Hawks who they've lost to for the last five times the teams have met. They didn't just win, they smashed them 88-60.

NZ News

A teenager got off lightly this week when a shark had an "exploratory bite" of her & her wetsuit while she was out in the water at Oreti Beach near Invercargill. The girl whacked the shark with her boogie board and it took off. Shark attacks are rare in NZ with only 13 fatalities on record.

Kiwi students topped the results for 29 subjects in the 2009 Cambridge International Examinations (that's Cambridge England, not Cambridge Waikato!). The Cambridge exams offer an alternative to NCEA and with all the NCEA problems over the past few years, a number of schools throughout NZ have switched.

The Numbers Game

7.3: % unemployment rate - the highest in 10 years, but it seems to be a result of more people wanting work than more people out of work
12: tyres on an Air NZ Boeing 777 burst during a aborted take off in Japan
50: days on the run for escaped prisoner Kevin Polwart came to an end with his arrest on Thursday, he beat his 41 days on the run in 2001
500: people including Prime Minister John Key celebrated Waitangi Day at the dawn service at the Treaty Grounds
47,632: $ drop in average house prices for Auckland from December to January - so we can't really trust those numbers ever then?
54,758: $ power bill for a couple who have been under-charged for years
59,000: kids started school for the first time this week - my fiancée teaches 14 of them! 
150,000: trampolines forecast to be sold globally, have helped a kiwi designed safe trampoline to be voted top children's product of the year in America
630,000: $/graduate world-leading Hamilton youth offender programme to be closed down as too expensive despite a zero re-offending rate
4.25m: $ going to 400 athletes including Valerie Vili from the Prime Minister's Sport Scholarships
5m: $ compensation package to share among the 215,000 Telecom XT users who were without cellphone services last week
1.4b: pages served by NZ's busiest website TradeMe in January

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4407 (+0.0018)
EUR 0.5046 (-0.0016)
USD 0.6899 (-0.0116)
AUD 0.7947 (+0.0004)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Edward Joseph Nathan
GLAXO FOUNDER
Joseph Nathan was a New Zealand entrepreneur with extraordinary foresight. In 1906 he founded Glaxo, producer of the dried milk formula that became a household name for infant health. On a world scale, he was a pioneer of direct marketing and branding. The Glaxo name now fronts one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/nathan.html

Joke of the Weekender

Sleeping Leg
A lady had been exposed to strep and needed to visit the doctor's office just to have her throat swabbed for a culture. She sat in the waiting room for quite a while with her legs crossed, reading a magazine while other patients came and went. Suddenly her turn was called, but when she stood up to go in, she discovered her leg was "asleep". Not wanting to keep the nurse waiting, she limped and staggered toward the inner office door. She noticed one elderly lady nudging another who sat beside her, as the two of them sympathetically watched her painful progress . 
Two minutes later, her procedure completed and her leg back to normal, she walked easily back into the waiting room. As she strode past the two elderly ladies, she overheard one whisper triumphantly to the other, "See, Myrtle, I TOLD you he was a wonderful doctor!"

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}

Sport

Welcome back to January. The weather has been a little crazy this week with rain in lots of places, but it's still been very hot. It might have rained but it wasn't enough to stop our engagement celebration at one of our favourite water holes! Photos below.

Sport

Welcome back! I hope you've had a great Christmas & New Year. I've just got back from an amazing week holidaying at Waihi Beach, swimming in the sea every day, enjoying the blue sky & trying not to get sun burnt! (Photos below).

Sport