Not for these blokes. Where on earth would be the fun in doing that?

High rider trims his hedge

Two Cambridge mates say they may turn their unusual method of trimming hedges into a business, after they suspended a ride-on mower from a crane to do the job.

And:

They wanted to film the stunt, put it on the internet and see how many hits it got, but in the end had no video camera.

Friggin’ muppets :-)

This is one of the things I love about New Zealand: an at times complete aversion to doing things by conventional means.

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Advice to live by if you ask me.

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Hawks cast recruiting net across Tasman

EXCLUSIVE: HAWTHORN has muscled in on New Zealand, running a nationwide school competition with a view to tapping into a fresh source of international recruits.

The cashed-up 2008 premier has been quietly monitoring Kiwi talent for several months, overseeing a “Hawks Cup” for Year 9 and 10 students.

Rivals looking at frontiers beyond Ireland have been left behind, with the Hawks striking up a partnership with AFL New Zealand.

Still, the article is a bit more optimistic than I think what the actual reality is here in NZ. On the other hand, there have been a few more examples of rugby (league and union) players making the transition in recent times, such as Mike Pyke with the Swans.

The Karmichael Hunt experiment is going to be interesting. It seems slightly incongruous to me that he’s been signed up on such a massive salary. I’m not a follower of the NRL, but I believe he’s a very good player. But you can’t tell me the new Gold Coast franchise hasn’t got at least one eye on his marketing potential in getting him to sign. I’m be happily surprised if he’s more than an average player in the AFL, but it’s not just the issue of transferring skills from rugby to AFL, it’s the whole area of tactics as well. You don’t want to run at the opposition and get tackled, right?

Where AFL clubs might be successful is if they find promising 17-18 year olds, get them over to Aus, put them on their rookie list, and give them a year or two to develop. Then I think we might see some Kiwi players go across and do well. At least they’d be used to the oval ball, unlike Gaelic football players.

And so the Aussie Rules quest for global domination continues…

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Survey: Kiwi top English accent not in UK

The kiwi accent has been rated the most attractive and prestigious form of English outside the UK in a BBC survey.

…

The kiwi “fush and chups” came seven places ahead of Australia’s “sex and Seedney” – and nine ahead of the American accent in terms of attractiveness.

Well you can’t argue with an online survey, now can you?

I’d better keep practicing.

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Basically, Sky televise the game live on Sky Sports 3, so you can catch it there. Failing that, there are live radio streams outlined in my previous post (this is surprisingly fun, easily the best time you can have drinking a coldie while yelling at your laptop).

But apart from that, it’s pretty slim pickings, and so my previous advice pretty much still stands (trawl the comment for some suggestions on live Internet streaming options. You mileage may vary.).

Also, the AFL site has a page set up with international venues that are hosting events for the game. However so far it only includes The Paddington in Auckland. The NZAFL also have a few more venues.

Anyway, good luck to any other Aussie expats watching the game on the weekend. May the Cats lose in the most humiliating way possible, hopefully by completely choking and blowing a comfortable lead in the last quarter, and making Gary Ablett Jnr cry (again). The Hawkers aren’t there this year, so the Saints will have to step up to the plate on this one.

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NZ zoos apply to import Tas devils

Two New Zealand zoos want to import up to 20 tumour-free Tasmanian devils.

Wellington Zoo’s Simon Eyre says New Zealand wants to assist in protecting the vulnerable marsupial in any way it can.

He says the Wellington and Auckland zoos are likely to take animals born in the population free of the facial tumour disease.

As you may (not) have heard, the Tasmanian Devil species as a whole has been suffering from a deadly facial tumor disease, which has made quite a few of them even uglier than there were originally.

Given that they are kind of a Tasmanian icon, having starred in such critically acclaimed shows as Disney’s ‘Looney Toons’, this is obviously a very bad thing.

So it’s a nice gesture that some New Zealand zoos are offering to import some of the non-infected specimens, in order to preserve them in the good old shaky isles.

Sounds like a good plan. However, just as a warning: if one of these little bad boys manages to escape, I seriously fear for the future of the rest of New Zealand’s wildlife.

Honestly, they’re not called devils for no good reason. They’re aggressive, heartless, cold-blooded killers. They have very few redeeming characteristics, other than that they are unique to a certain geographic location. And of course the Looney Tunes thing.

So, goodbye to any remaining Kiwi birds.

And, goodbye to ….

(Well I’m stumped actually, NZ doesn’t have much tough wildlife, does it?)

Anyway, if you don’t believe me, then watch the following clip.

Posted in General ]]> http://fushnchups.co.nz/2009/09/03/what-could-possibly-go-wrong/feed/ 13 fushnchupsblog A cranky Tasmanian Devil http://fushnchups.co.nz/2009/08/25/mr-pink-or-mr-blonde/ http://fushnchups.co.nz/2009/08/25/mr-pink-or-mr-blonde/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:42:30 +0000 fushnchupsblog http://fushnchups.co.nz/?p=802 ]]>

Kevin Rudd, resplendent in his All Blacks tie, looking a bit like he’s come straight from the set of a Tarantino movie.

John Key’s enjoyed his trip to Aus hasn’t he? It’s been very productive by the sounds of it.

I tell you what John: you can get rid of the border controls, have a single currency, a single market, and we’ll even buy your friggin’ apples.

But in return, we get your rugby team. Maybe one or two of the Wallabies might get a guernsey for the AUS/NZ team (the All Golds?), but we’ll just merge the squads and pick from the best, okay?

And we also get Dan Vettori and Jesse Ryder. We’d also take Jacob Oram but we already have one injury-prone over-rated all-rounder.

Done deal.

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All the best bits of Aussie baiting from the first season of Flight of the Conchords:

Best bits from the second season are here (these probably aren’t as good though).

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Forget the rugby, this is the biggest sporting event in New Zealand this weekend (via the sporting nuts over at Sportsfreak):

Ice Hockey: Ice Blacks vs Australia

The life of being an advocate for a minority sport in New Zealand isn’t always an easy one. The most common response to “Oh, I can’t, I’ve got ice hockey tonight” seems to be “oh, you can play that here in New Zealand?”

…

That’s why this weekend’s double-header test match between Australia and New Zealand is big. Super big. It’s not just the fact that Australia is the traditional rival for New Zealand in so many sports (in ice hockey Australia was one of the first teams New Zealand played in international competition, a complete whitewash that finished up 58-0 to Australia in 1987, a score of astounding proportions in the sport where scores of more than 10 are very unusual. The two teams were much closer when they played in the Division II World Champs in Australia in 2008 when the score was 4-2 to Australia).

Did anyone know that Australia or New Zealand even had an ice hockey team?

Ever met an ice hockey player?

Nup, me either.

And what the heck happened in 1987? Did the Might Ducks Ice Blacks forget to come back on after the first period?

Still, I dunno about anyone else, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on the results. Nothing better than adding another entry into the list of sporting event Australia can claim ascendancy over Kiwis at, right?

And I would just like to note, for the record, that New Zealand has SIGNIFICANTLY more snow and ice than Australia.

Just saying.

Is there an equivalent of bowling underarm in ice hockey?

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This has made my day.

Finally, sense might prevail with New Zealand’s insane right-hand-turn rule.

Right-hand rule not the right rule

The notorious right hand rule should be consigned to the dustbin as a bad idea and if Australia can do it, so can we, says the Automobile Association.

New Zealand is the only country in the world with the right hand rule – if cars are turning they give way to all traffic not turning, and in all other situations, give way to traffic crossing or approaching from the right.

And just as I’ve said before:

Mr Noon said the rule was confusing for the more than 1 million tourists that visited New Zealand each year and New Zealanders travelling all over the planet.

The rule was responsible for a lot of side impact accidents, where the driver was not well protected.

One newspaper survey showed 20 percent of drivers did not observe it, he said.

“In most cases he who is bravest goes first and gets across.”, said Stephen Joyce

Absolutely true. I’ve found this to be even more the case since purchasing a vehicle with a bull-bar. Now I always have right of way.

Transport Minister Stephen Joyce, what a man. A man of reason, insight, common sense, and logic.

The status-quo is utter, complete chaos, and must be ended.

If anyone still need convincing, see my scientific explanation from a while back.

Well done to the AA (equivalent to RACV etc, not the alcoholics’ group) and Stephen Joyce.

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