7.4 on the Scale!!!!!
Story by Jarod Broker (NZ herald). Story courtesy of msn
A car, destroyed by falling rubble, on Madras Street in central Christchurch. Photo / NZPAMany Christchurch residents are counting themselves lucky to be alive after this morning's massive 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the city.
Marsha Witehira, 30, was sleeping when the wall next to her bed collapsed in and falling bricks narrowly missed landing on her head.
Her friend, Tama Wharepapa, was sleeping in the lounge when items started falling on him from a wall unit. He rushed into Ms Witehira's bedroom and pulled her by the feet out of the way of the collapsing wall.
"It just missed my head," Ms Witehira said.
"He literally pulled me by my feet in my sleep, just at the time that the bricks fell on my bed and it just missed me. It was pretty intense," she said.
"I'm very lucky to be alive. If Tama wasn't here to wake me from my sleep and pull me out, I really wouldn't like to think what the result would be."
Other walls in the home Ms Witehira rents had also collapsed and most of her property had been destroyed. It was just a massive noise
Knee Doherty said she was asleep in her central Christchurch home when the building next door collapsed.
"We didn't even notice the movement as much as the noise," she said.
"The back of the house is pretty much gone. All the house next door is gone. It was just a massive noise."
'Extremely violent shaking'
New Zealand Herald reporter Jarrod Booker, who lives in the central Christchurch suburb of Linwood, said he was woken by "extremely violent shaking."
"Items were falling and crashing around the house. It was extremely violent shaking."
He said the chimney from his next door neighbour's house had fallen and smashed through a car's windscreen.
"There have been a number of aftershocks of a much lesser degree since then."
Mr Booker's partner, Kineta Knight, said it was a scary sight to see.
"The entire chimney landed on my car. It completely smashed the windscreen. I heard something falling and I thought it was a pole. The whole thing was in really slow motion."
The Naked Truth...
Story courtesy of msn add ons courtesy of DHMNZ
Just because Spring and Summer are almost upon us, Its surely not that warm where we can just run round naked is it? Not in this case certainly! Police are combing central Auckland streets looking for a man who allegedly flashed his genitals at a woman on Tuesday.
The woman phoned police this morning saying she recognised the man in Remuera, PMFSL I wonder what distinguishing part gave him away.
A police northern communications centre spokeswoman said she followed the man while on her cellphone. It is not clear if she was in a car or on foot or if she had clothes on.
Police were combing the Remuera and Parnell areas looking for the man, the spokeswoman said.
Witnesses said there was a heavy police presence on Ayr St, Parnell. All for one randy bugger! Thats the Naked Truth!!
Story courtsey of yahooxtra
At the heart of New Zealand's outstanding 59-40 win over Australia in the second netball test in Wellington yesterday was coach Ruth Aitken's fiendishly simple plan.
After losing the first test in Adelaide last Sunday by five, Aitken and her coaching staff latched onto the perfect way to lift the players' intensity.
"We basically unleashed the defence on the attacks," she said, in a manner which sounded unnervingly similar to an order to "release the hounds".
The tactic proved hugely effective -- players left nothing in reserve on the training court, and played at a similar pitch in last night's runaway win.
"It's really hard because often there's a preservation mode that happens in trainings," Aitken said. "But we agreed we had to put pressure on more in the training environment, and the players bought into it."
After surviving the onslaught of Casey Williams, Leana de Bruin, Anna Scarlett and Katrina Grant in training, the Silver Ferns' shooters possibly found the Australian defensive line-up last night a breeze in comparison.
New Zealand won every quarter, stretching a 16-11 lead after 15 minutes to 31-19 at halftime. The third quarter proved Australia's best -- they lost it by only three -- as the Silver Ferns led 45-30 at the three-quarter mark before closing out the win with an emphatic final 15 minutes.
Their performance forced Australian coach Norma Plummer into an early replacement, as she turned to 1.96m defender Susan Fuhrmann at the end of the first quarter.
In Adelaide, Fuhrmann's final quarter appearance rattled New Zealand shooter Irene van Dyk, and the Diamonds turned a one-goal deficit at the last break into a five-goal win.
Last night, van Dyk remained calm, goal attack Maria Tutaia upped her work-rate and the New Zealand lead expanded.
Such was the New Zealand dominance, Plummer also pulled abrasive goal defence Mo'onia Gerrard at halftime, a tactic which Aitken found quietly satisfying.
"Maria did a fantastic job against her -- the volume of shots she was putting up made her such a threat. I think that's about the only time I've seen Mo'onia subbed."
Captain Williams was equally satisfied with her team's effort.
"We made things happen ourselves, and when we had the lead, we put out foot down and made it harder for them," she said.
"We prepared more, our trainings were much more intense. We knew we had it in us, we just had to prove ourselves and believe in ourselves."
The Silver Ferns were primed for the match, celebrating with high fives, fist bumps and big smiles when things went their way.
"We wanted to acknowledge when we do good stuff, because it lifts the team," Williams said.
"We were believing in ourselves, that we were better than them, and we put the foot down. There was a need for that, and it was hard not to smile."
Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the win would have to be the fact that 11 of Aitken's 12-strong bench took the court, with Grant the unlucky one to miss game time.
The win was, however, a real team effort -- defence, midcourt and shooters melding together a seamless 60-minute game to totally shut out the confident Australians.
Aitken isn't about to get too carried away, however, with the series decider still to come in Auckland on Sunday.
"We have to keep evolving. This was wonderful, but it was one night, and we're all back to square one again come Sunday."
"We need to re-establish ourselves. There's no doubt it's a huge confidence boost, but we do need to look at the consistency from here on in."
Aitken was cagey about whether a series win or next month's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi was the more important.
"We want to win both -- we're greedy, greedy coaches," she said. "We do want to keep building our options, but the way we have to do that is to try and not compromise our performance."
New Zealand and Australia both wanted to win the series, she added, "but it's definitely the battle and not the war".
"Australia will come back -- they're very proud, very skilled and talented, and we will have to match that intensity and push on further."
Late Breaking News!!!
Story courtesy of yahooxtra
Armed robbers are on the loose after holding up an Armourguard van in West Auckland this evening.
Three offenders, some of whom were carrying firearms confronted security guards inside the entrance to the ASB Bank in Massey.
More to follow...
A quantity of money was taken and the offenders fled the scene in a vehicle. No shots were fired and no one was injured.
The getaway car was found burnt out not far from the scene
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| REPUBLIC OF NEW ZEALAND |
Story courtesy of DHMNZ
The short answer in my opinion is No! Well... well the old girl is into her 84th year and 60th as the reigning Monarch, with no apparent signs of calling it a day. In 60 years she has met every great name known from JFK, Ghandi, Michael Jackson, Nelson Mandela, GW Bush (both) just to name a few.
Giving up or not. The words muttered under many New Zealanders breaths is should we stay as a Commonwealth country or become a republic? John Key has already indicated that under his government he will not be seeking to turn the country into a republic. Than again he said he was going to mine.
Becoming a republic could very well upset many things especially with the British. partial loss of International trade, military assistance and many other benefits could be jepardised as a result of forming a republic.
What are your thoughts?
2 Day search reveals no answers.
Story coutesy of yahooxtra
Police are still trying to piece together the movements of missing Wellington man Robert Logan after a huge search over the weekend failed to find any trace of him.
Mr Logan, 51, was last seen a week ago and his car was found near the rugged Owhiro Bay coastline on the outskirts of Wellington on Friday afternoon.
A huge search team including the police dive squad, maritime units, a rescue helicopter and about 60 search and rescue volunteers scoured Wellington's south coast over the weekend, while police searched areas he was known to frequent. They failed to find any trace of Mr Logan.
He was last seen at the Woolworths supermarket in the Wellington suburb of Kilbirnie, where he purchased a few items about 9.30pm on Thursday, police said today.
Anyone who may have seen Mr Logan at Woolworths, or had anyone information about his whereabouts, was asked to contact police.
Story courtesy of yahooxtra
Even non-Maori families prefer to use social services provided by Maori organisations as they provide a whole-of-family approach, a report released today shows. The report, Social Services in Masterton, was conducted by the Families Commission on request from Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.
Intended to be a snapshot of Masterton social services providers, it also provided a guide for the national situation. The report found Masterton service were generally adequate with few overlaps, but some gaps.
Most providers indicated there was unmet demand and they could expand their services with more funding and staff. Among the gaps were mental health services for those with moderate needs, help for sexual offenders, parenting older children programmes, affordable housing, programmes for young fathers and for teenagers who had left school but still lived at home.
Most families interviewed tried first to deal with problems themselves or through their extended family before looking for outside help. Many non-Maori families indicated they preferred dealing with kaupapa Maori agencies because they catered to a wide range of family needs.
Families also did not like working with agencies that were imposed on them, where they had to repeat their story, where there was a lack of flexibility and professionalism or where they suspected they would be reported to Child Youth and Family, the report said. Maori families also preferred services with Maori staff who were fluent in te reo.
Chief Families Commissioner Carl Davidson said the report showed most people did not approach social services from a point of dysfunction, but rather use them as a tool to maintain strength and wellbeing.
"This was especially noticeable with kaupapa Maori services, which were actively sought after by Maori and non-Maori families alike because of their whole-family approach."
The report showed local service providers often knew exactly what was needed and how to deliver it, but bureaucracy sometimes got in the way, Mr Davidson said. Funding social services through high trust contracts would facilitate inter-agency cooperation and deliver better results for families, he said.
"The evidence from Masterton tells us that families there want social services that are culturally appropriate, family focused, community led, and where they can get to know and trust a small number of staff with their story."
Ms Bennett said the report would inform policy development including whanau ora and the community response model.
"When I took office I was astounded to find that no one could tell me what services existed in each area and who used them," she said.
The report gave insight into a typical New Zealand town and reflected views of 400 families and 33 providers.
"While we often have anecdotal knowledge nothing beats real research evidence. This research can help us in our quest to respond to real community needs better."
