Latest news in NZ

We have been spending any free time working on putting down wood flooring in the house. We have 2 rooms done and will start on the 3rd this weekend (we are doing 5 rooms in total). It is starting to turn spring like- the daffodils are up, the rose bush leaves are starting to bud, it isn’t raining so much and we haven’t been keeping the fire stoked up at night. There was a mention on the radio of ‘early spring’ the other day as well.

For fun news, we attended Starlight Express the other night in downtown Auckland. Starlight Express has historically been a permanent show (in London and New York only I believe). Someone from NZ figured out how to make it a touring show for arena venues. The whole show is done on roller skates and is about a competition between trains. John is planning on sailing this weekend with the guy he races with. I am planning to attend the Food Show.

In local news, there are a couple big issues being talked about. A couple years back a law was passed that made it a criminal offense to smack your kids (on the hand or anything). There is a citizens referendum (vote) being held this weekend to determine if the citizens want to keep this law or revoke it. Based on the citizen response, Parliament will make a decision on what to do. This is getting a lot of publicity on both sides of the issue. The other issue is changing the drinking laws. There is talk of raising the drinking age from 18 to 20 and making the bars close at 2:00 am (currently they can be open all night). They are also talking about dropping the blood alcohol level (which is the same as in Iowa right now). NZ at one time thought they would create a European sophisticated drinking culture by allowing drinking at 18. Instead, they have just created more people that get pissed every night. The other hot topic is the parliaments travel spending. Get this---- if you are a member of parliament from about 20 years ago, you have a grandfathered clause that lets you travel anywhere in the world with your spouse for a 90% discount on the tax payers dime! You don’t even have to be in office anymore. Obviously this is getting a few people talking.