Waitangi Day (last Sunday) was the quietest in years, with little in the way of protesting, mud-throwing or tears at the official celebrations in the Bay of Islands. Shaken by last year's commotion, the PM stayed away from the Nga Puhi meet-and-greet the day before at the lower marae. Don Brash attended though—after assurances mainstream media would be granted access—and was seated between Destiny Church prophet Brian Tamaki and fiery Maori activist Tame Iti. Tame, on bail after firing a shotgun at a Waitangi Tribunal meeting, whispered translations of the Maori speeches into Don's ear.

Waka waiting at Waitangi

New Zealand Post came under fire for using posties to gather intelligence on homes for re-sale to marketers. Posties had been noting down houses in need of a re-paint on behalf of Resenes until public outrage forced them to back down.

The first phases of the 7pm TV battle opened, with Holmes and former accomplice Susan Wood going head-to-head on Prime and Channel One. Susan, with the advantage of a One News lead-in, is well ahead for now while Paul languishes behind both Shortland Street and the Simpsons. Things are about to get even more vicious, with TV3's planned launch of their own 7pm current events show fronted by John Campbell.

Tony's wife, Cherie Blair, made a dismal impression at her speaking tour stop-over in Auckland, getting NZ confused with Australia and boring the 800 guests with a $1000/head book launch speech.

The National Party has closed the gap with Labour to five percentage points, but Helen Clark remains optimistic about re-election later this year, pointing to the 3.6% unemployment rate as the lowest in decades and the lowest in the OECD.

NZ's largest tertiary institution, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, is under criticism again for extravagant use of $239 million funding. In the past it has used funding to fly students to Australia and purchase personal laptops and cell phones for students.

Fists flew at Coyle Park in Auckland after a solitary Christian protester turned up to the Big Gay Out, NZ's largest gay festival. Mayor Dick Hubbard, a campaigner against the Civil Unions Act, also turned up to try and patch relations with the gay community.

NZ music is booming at home, with radio stations devoting nearly a fifth of their airtime to home-grown sounds. Channel Z re-launched on Waitangi Day as 100% native, Kiwi radio.

The NZ Sevens team cruised to a third successive victory in the Wellington Sevens at the two-day sevens party in the capital over a hot Waitangi weekend. With a subsequent win at the LA Sevens last weekend another world title is almost certain.

The in-form Aussie cricket team arrived in NZ yesterday for a much anticipated (and feared) three test, five one-dayer tour. The warm-up match is a 20-overs-each short one-dayer on Thursday, in which each team will wear their skin tight uniforms from twenty years ago. For the Kiwis, that means the beige is back.

The Silver Ferns team for next month's tour to England was named, with just one new face: U21 captain Laura Langman.  

Stonehenge Wairarapa was officially launched with a sing-a-long in Welsh and Maori. The shortened replica of the older, Salisbury Plains version is at once a serious scientific experiment, a potential tourist draw-card and a likely hang-out for whackos.

And an enterprising Auckland mother-to-be successfully sold advertising space on her growing belly for nearly $300 in an online auction. Advertisers chased the space for slogans such as "More buns in the oven" (from a baker). Until the baby arrives she will now wear a tee-shirt saying "The Mailman always delivers" to promote an IT company called Mailman, and is intending to become a broker between ad-buyers and pregnant women.