Taking a look at recent, positive, uplifting, news stories and yarns, from New Zealand and all around the world, to bring a smile and a bit of cheer.
Four MPs in a car-alition
The fighting, name calling, and turmoil that often dominates our parliament is very often tedious and creates nothing but headlines and further division. So, when I read this week about four MPs from three different political parties forced to take a car ride together I was intrigued to see how it went. When their flight from Tauranga to Wellington was forced back due to the weather in Wellington, National’s Tom Rutherford and Sam Uffindell, ACT’s Cameron Luxton, and Labour’s Jan Tinetti decided to hire a car and make the journey to Wellington together.
“Before long, the occupants of the compact SUV had, in the words of Luxton, ‘established a temporary cross-party committee called the ASX caucus. Over seven hours, the ASX caucus considered where Tauranga’s been, the situation it’s in, and where it’s going,” he explains.
“’We debated what roads should be tolled between Tauranga and Wellington. We tried to listen to Question Time but stopped for the sake of the cohesion of our emergency coalition. We reached consensus on one transport policy: get to Wellington by dinner,’ Luxton says. Rutherford described the ASX caucus as “a very harmonious car-alition” and probably playing a role in that harmoniousness was his decision to pull the Mitzi into Reporoa’s Bakehouse Cafe.
“Rutherford says the banter and conversations was his highlight, especially being able to do so without the usual time pressures of Parliament. ‘We literally talked and laughed the entire way and still liked each other when we arrived,’ he explains. ‘People seem to appreciate that MPs from different parties can work together and get along.'” (Source: “Four MPs, three pies, one seafood salad, a hire car and a 523km roadie,” by Lloyd Burr, October 22. www.stuff.co.nz).
5 stars – it would be a great thing if our representatives worked together and listened and talked like this all of the time. It would get a lot more done and stop the pointless adversarial nature of parliament.
Ex-All Black breaking records
There’s no doubt that Ma’a Nonu is a New Zealand rugby legend. He won two World Cups, played over 100 games for both the All Blacks and the Hurricanes and now he has notched up over a century of appearances at his French club, Toulon. The most remarkable thing is that Nonu is still performing at the highest level at the age of 43 and just signed a contract at Toulon for another year. He is also the oldest player to have competed in the French top tier and the oldest to have scored a try.
Since he played his first professional game in 2002, Nonu has played over 500 times and shows few signs of slowing down. Let’s not forget this is a player renowned for the physicality of his game, as well.
“In a statement after his extension, the club said: ‘A legend of the club and international rugby, the All Black centre will continue his extraordinary career for another season in the colours of Toulon. A true source of inspiration for the rest of the Rouge & Noir squad, his return to the top level has been unanimously welcomed.'” (Source: “All Blacks centurion Ma’a Nonu appears in 100th match for French Top 14 side Toulon,” October 22, www.nzherald.co.nz).
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