News from Greymouth

Gareth is holding down the homestead while I'm away in Greymouth, on the west coast. It's about a 3 hour drive from Christchurch. I'll be doing hearings here for work tomorrow.

Greymouth is the largest town in the West Coast district, a very scarcely populated area of New Zealand's south island. District population: less than 14,000. This might have something to do with all the rain they get here. No one likes to live in the rain. Lucky for me, it's been sunny today.

I like to check out the local papers when visiting small towns, and so I picked up the Greymouth Star (est. 1866) to read while I ate dinner tonight. Thought I'd share some of the local flavour through the news...

Front page: a West Coast girls' dance troupe has qualified for a world dance championship in America after placing in an Australian competition. There's a colour photo of the proud girls. "The competition was the toughest we have ever competed against. The Australians were technically brilliant and the Americans were amazing. ... The Coast Girls did not look out of place and performed with professionalism." Note the West Coast pride in that last remark. Translation: we're just as good as those big city Aussies and Americans. Way to reprezent, West Coast dancers!

The volunteer fire brigade was called out to Blake Street last night to deal with a burning petrol spill. The fire was quickly put out with a shovel of sand and was considered a 'nuisance call.' According to the reporter: "It was annoying that volunteers had to be called away from their homes unnecessarily." Yes, that would be annoying.

A set of mag wheels was stolen from the Greenfield Motors car yard last night, the "second lot of mags to go missing in Greymouth recently." I hope my rental car is safe. I'm not sure what mag wheels are or if my Toyota has them...

Tomorrow's forecast: 21C, "sunny and settled".

A fulltime law advisory officer for the West Coast is sought. This was a little disturbing to me. Apparently, the current law advisory officer only works part-time, "and although she is not a lawyer she has access to a lawyer..." So, up til now to qualify as a law advisory officer for the West Coast, you just had to know a lawyer?? I cannot imagine giving out legal advice on that basis. "Trust me, I know a guy, he's a lawyer, this is totally what he would do..." ???

There's one page of World news. Stories deemed worthy include the end of a heatwave in New South Wales, Australia; Bin Laden claiming responsibility for the last bomb scare; a report from Haiti; and "Pope to priests: Go forth and blog." So hip, that Pope.

There's a Rural section with the farming news. For reasons I can't explain, I really like the farming news. In Greymouth, this includes export price trends for lamb, mutton, beef, and venison. A 13kg lamb, including its pelt, will fetch you $33.30 this week (down from the year's high of $50.60). Wet conditions have increased the risk of facial eczema in cows. This is evidently a fatal condition: "Farmers need to act now, those who are not already getting zinc into their animals are playing Russian Roulette with their animals' lives." If we had cows, I'd be finding them some zinc, stat.

In Sport, "Pakistan pulverised." This has something to do with cricket, a sport that is impossible to understand unless you grew up with it. But there's a really cool photo of a cricket bowler throwing the ball - his body is suspended in the air, Matrix-style.

More in Sport: in addition to reports on cricket, football (soccer), and golf, there's one for wood chopping. It's a story about a West Coast man who has been given lifetime membership in a chopping circuit. There's a photo of him holding an ax. Cutting wood with an ax is a sport in the South Island. Love it.

On tv tonight: a bunch of crap. This is the same everywhere, Greymouth included. (TV is national here, there aren't local channels).

And that's what's going on in Greymouth this 25th of January...