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Dear
homesick Kiwi,
So
much for February being the best month of summer! It's
only cold and cloudy today in Wellington, but the rain
and gales are forecast to return tomorrow after horrible
storms over the weekend.
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| NEWS |
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Up
to $100m of damage has been caused by storms
over the last week, with the lower North Island the
worst hit. Bridges have been washed away, motorways
closed and farmland flooded. Wellington was half-empty
on Monday with roads to the Hutt, Kapiti Coast and Eastbourne
closed until late in the day.
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| As
in parts of the North Island, a state
of emergency has been declared in Picton and
800 residents were evacuated, as doubts remain over the
strength of the Barnes Dam after the storms, with more
rain expected. |
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| Before
the storms the big news was National's surge in the
polls. Following Brash's speech on Maori policy the
Nats
are ahead of Labour for the first time since
1998. |
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| Just
when she doesn't need it, PM Helen Clark, is trying
to cool a crisis after one of her MPs accused
an ACT MP of saying 'dopey niggers.' What he actually
said was, 'don't be negative.' |
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| The
dollar
is at new heights, breaking the US 70c mark
last week and squeezing exporters. |
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| Lord
of the Rings triumphed at the BAFTAs, winning
five awards in the lead-up to the Oscars next
week. |
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| And
New Zealand-born Daniel Bedingfield won
a Brit award for best solo male artist. He
couldn't accept the award in person as he's still recuperating
in NZ after a New Year's car crash. |
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| SPORT |
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| After
a narrow loss in the first one-dayer, Stephen Fleming
led the Black Caps to a comfortable
victory over South Africa in the second one-dayer,
in Christchurch. |
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| The
NZ Sevens team, with an injured Eric Rush as waterboy,
coasted
to victory at the Wellington Sevens,
beating Fiji 33-15 in the final. |
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| And
for the third time, NZ has won the world softball champs.
Officials have rejected accusations
of cheating by the Canadian losing finalists. |
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| ONLY
IN NEW ZEALAND |
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| A
farmer in the Manawatu was rescued
from dangerous flood waters by a cow which
towed her to safety. |
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And
an environmental lobby group successfully registered
a cat as a MAF inspector to highlight the
alleged inadequacies in NZ's bio-security.
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