Welcome along. Last weekend we welcomed Emma Elizabeth into the family!
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*Sport*
The Wellington Phoenix have had a good couple of weeks, two weeks ago they
beat the Newcastle Jets 4-1 and yesterday they beat the Western Sydney
Wanderers - who were last weekend crowned the Asian kings in Saudi Arabia.
The NZ Breakers have had a few wins, just hanging on 77-79 against the
Wollongong Hawks two weeks ago, then beating the Townsville Crocs 84-70 and
last night beating the league leaders Cairns Taipans 71-79.
The Silver Ferns haven't had a happy time and now have had a 38-42 loss to
England - which doesn't happen very often, in fact it was only England's
fourth win in 83 games. The Ferns did come back in the second game to avoid
their first series loss in 51 years, winning the game 52-38 & series.
The Fast Five has started and the hosts & defending champions NZ beat
Malawi 49-26, and then to finish the day also beat Australia 30-21.
The Football Ferns booked a spot in next year's Women's World Cup in Canada
with a 10-0 win over the Cook Islands.
In the Four Nations rugby league competition, last weekend the Kiwis had a
narrow 14-12 escape against Samoa with a late try to keep their hopes of a
final alive. In the other game England narrowly missed knocking Australia
out on the competition, eventually losing 16-12.
Last night in Dunedin Kiwi winger Jason Nightingale scored twice to give
the Kiwis a 16-14 win and a spot in the final. The Kiwis were the only team
to remain unbeaten in pool play.
International rugby is happening and last weekend the Maori All Blacks beat
Japan 61-21, while the All Blacks took on USA in a unique promotional game
in America. The ABs won 6-74, but had a couple of casualties with Cory Jane
and new cap Nathan Harris both heading straight home.
This weekend the Maori All Blacks didn't have the same easy game, needing a
last second try to beat Japan 18-20. Australia just managed to beat Wales
33-28, Italy beat Samoa 24-13, and France beat Fiji 40-15 but the upset of
the weekend was Ireland beating South Africa 29-15.
The All Blacks started with probably their toughest game of the home
nations taking on England at Twickenham and eventually won 24-21. The All
Blacks started slow and at half time were 14-11 down, but dominated the
second half even with some odd refereeing by the Welsh ref. The ABs had a
try disallowed and a yellow (against the TMO's recommendation), while the
English were given a penalty try, and avoided a yellow card, but in the end
the 14 All Blacks beat the 16 British, with a closer scoreline than was
deserved.
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*NZ News*
There have been a few whale strandings this week, with 21 surviving whales
refloated in Whakatane.
In Auckland, Len Brown has broken his election rates promise by voting for
a proposal to increase rates by 3.5% each year for the next 10 years. He
had promised to hold rates at 2.5%.
After four years and $5.2m the Pike River Mine re-entry plan has finally
been abandoned by Solid Energy, saying it is just too dangerous to go back
in. Solid Energy are handing over their licence to mine there and the mine
will become a permanent memorial to the 29 victims.
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*The Numbers Game*
1: # place to raise a family is NZ according to an HSBC Expat Explorer
Survey
1: # brand in NZ is Whittakers chocolate, followed by Tip Top and Pineapple
Lumps in second and the All Blacks back in fifth
3: rd most prosperous country for NZ according to the 2014 Legatum
Prosperity Index, following Norway and Switzerland
3: Labour weekend road toll
3-5: cm of snow was expected on the Desert Rd this week as an icy blast hit
the country, we had some quite serious hail
5.3: richter scale earthquake on the East Coast
14: $ cheaper to shop at Pak'n Save in the annual Consumer survey
60: call outs for the Fire Service on this years Guy Fawkes night
15,000: kiwis coming home from Australia and many planning to jump the
ditch are putting their plans on hold, the net loss is the lowest in the
last 20 years
900,000: $ for three portraits by NZ artist Charles Frederick Goldie
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*Finance NZ Dollar*
GBP 0.4864 (-0.0022)
EUR 0.6213 (+0.0018)
USD 0.7703 (-0.0139)
AUD 0.8970 (+0.0034)
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*The Weekender NZer of the week*
Ivan Mauger
Design of speedway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Mauger
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*Joke of the Weekender*
The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.
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*Weekender Photos*
Here are the first photos of Emma
https://plus.google.com/photos/101971266036535460804/albums/607941857141...
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}