|
Dear
homesick Kiwi,
Skiiers
are looking forward to a good season, with Mt Hutt opening
first under perfect conditions over the Queen's Birthday
long weekend. Here in Wellington it was clear, still
and freezing cold.
|
|
|
|
| NEWS |
|
| The
Queen's Birthday honours list was announced
with the normal amount of analysis from the media and
blank stares from the public. Lucy Lawless, Anne Geddes
and Witi Ihimaera were among the better known recipients. |
|
|
Kiwis
were among the medals on the other side of the world
too, with a Kiwi former fighter pilot one of the fourteen
representatives from the fourteen D-Day nations
to receive
the French Victoria Cross from French President
Jacques Chirac at the 60th anniversary of the landings
in Normandy...
|
|
| ...and
that wasn't the end of Jacques Chirac's generosity to
New Zealanders. A veteran tail-gunner from Matamata
who ended up at the wrong airfield for his flight back
to Paris was whisked back to Paris in one of the presidential
jets which was using that airfield, on
Chirac's orders. |
|
| The
biggest spending Budget in decades has failed
to translate to a surge in the polls for Labour,
which still lags National by around 10 points. |
|
| The
first Maori head of the Anglican church in New Zealand
created
controversy almost immediately after his appointment
with his publicly stated dream of a world without homosexuals. |
|
| And
The Listener reports on Paradise
in Peril. "The property boom and population
pressures threaten the unique nature of some of New Zealand's
coastal communities. What are we losing and what can we
do about it?" |
|
| SPORT |
|
| After
a frustrating loss in the first test, the Black Caps
collapsed
completely in the second test in Leeds. A lack
of bowling penetration - partly due to Oram and Vettori
injuries - and a pitiful second innings with the bat saw
England coast to victory, needing little more than 40
runs in its second innings. |
|
| The
Black Caps must now scrape together enough fit players
for the final test, starting tomorrow. Critics of the
decision to take only 14 players on tour feel vindicated,
with the team forced to pull an Auckland batsman from
the crowd to the bench as injuries threatened to short-staff
the team during the last test. |
|
| The
All Blacks are racing
against time with a new squad under a new coach,
Graham Henry, to prepare for the first test against England
this Saturday at Carisbrook. Halfback Justin Marshall
has raised the pressure with his public
statement: "They're a very enjoyable team
to beat." Still, time wasn't so short that they couldn't
practise
the haka. |
|
| The
All Whites were knocked out of World Cup contention
with a humiliating
loss, 4-2 to Vanuatu. |
|
| And
for the fifth consecutive year the New Zealand Rugby
Sevens team has won
the world championship. |
|
| ONLY
IN NEW ZEALAND |
|
| TV
celeb Jeremy "Newsboy" Wells has sparked a
flood of complaints after his show Eating
Media Lunch broadcast 'secretly filmed' footage of
Shrek the sheep being slaughtered by its owner, just weeks
after the media frenzy surrounding the shearing of the
extraordinarily woolly animal. (It was a mischievous hoax.) |
|
|
And
an Auckland vigilante turned drove to the Takapuna police
station and handed
himself in after having an attack of conscience
whilst driving drunk. He is now thought regret not simply
pulling over and having a sleep.
|
|
