NZ at Noon: Beehive Bungles, Miss India, Marines Land, Axemen

NZ Herald

29 Apr, 2012 11:51 PM3 mins to read

American Marines landing at the Port of Napier for Operation Alam Alpha

Stories making headlines in the provinces at midday today include a parliamentary bungle that delights home and business owners, youths who suddenly collapse in Whangarei, a hip-hop band trying to be controversial, US Marines have landed in Hawke's Bay and where does Miss India New Zealand really come from?

Proving that a bungle by Parliament can be a homeowners good fortune, homes or businesses that are built over the water in the Far North are exempt from paying council rates. The council is not so gleeful however, being $120,000 out of pocket because of the Marine and Coastal Area Act, which replaced the Foreshore and Seabed Act. Meanwhile downtown in Whangarei young people have been suddenly collapsing en mass on the footpaths.

Out in the provinces of Auckland, hip hop crew Home Brew are hoping to get a bit of attention from their debut album which documents the band's "live it up" lifestyle of partying, drinking and taking drugs - and the "haunting, inevitable comedown." Lead vocalist Tom Scott asks "Who made musicians the role models? I never asked for anything like that."

A Hamilton woman has been named Miss India New Zealand 2012. Meanwhile a local cop who sprinted like mad on foot managed to catch up to an allegedly fleeing motorist in a car, giving the guy in the car "the shock of his life."

The Aotearoa Is Not For Sale hikoi is on its way to Gisborne.

Over in Hawke's Bay thousands of locals were pounding pavements with determined looks. Meanwhile in the Hawke's Bay hills a whole lot of United States Marines are sneaking around practising a "high-end combat setting."

Travel the world, enjoy the outdoors, break things - this is the Mantra of the Rotorua Axemen Club. "Since I could walk and carry an axe I've loved it," said club representative Kyle Lemon. Meanwhile an apparently road raged motorist swerved on to the wrong side of a busy state highway on Saturday, forcing runners in the Rotorua Marathon into oncoming traffic. Police are looking for him.

A Whanganui woman was saved by a fence when her car hit wet tar and slid over a bank near a rest area on Saturday afternoon. A surge in emergency calls in Wanganui at the weekend meant an elderly woman was left lying on the pavement at a Shopping centre for almost an hour after she fell over, propting formal complaints to St John Ambulance.

An Eketahuna farm worker's first "lair-up" in four years has cost him thousands of dollars after he crossed over double yellow lines on the Rimutaka Hill Road , overtook three vehicles on a blind corner and hit an oncoming car which ended up perilously close to the edge of a cliff face.

There are still not enough beds to meet the growing demand of dementia patients in Mid Canterbury.

Lots of people are probably mumbling around the water coolers in Balclutha this morning trying to figure out who bought the $5.3 million winning Lotto ticket at Balclutha New World. New World duty manager Nicky Pullar said there were otherwise a few "depressed faces" after people checked their tickets.

In Dunedin, about 1000 people showed up at the "Dunk a Cop" promotion at the police station at the weekend with Inspector Alastair Dickie, the relieving Southern district operations manager, "cheerfully taking the plunge into a tub of cold water about 15 times." There were no reports of any arrests.