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Two killed and six Kiwi soldiers wounded in Taleban ambush. They were from the Provincial Reconstruction team, not the SAS who have returned home to New Zealand

Prime Minister John Key says the deaths of two NZ soldiers in Afghanistan will not change plans to withdraw the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) late next year.
The pair died after a battle in Bamiyan province, in which six other Kiwis soldiers were wounded.
Two Afghan members of the special police were also killed, and 11 injured in the firefight in the north-east of the region.
Speaking to media at the Defence Force base at Whenuapai, Key said the deaths of the two soldiers was a great tragedy for the country.
"It's a day of great tragedy where we lose two of our soldiers and obviously they join the other five before them," he said.
"For New Zealand, a small country, losing seven of our men is an enormous price to pay."
Key confirmed that the loss of life and injury toll was the worst for New Zealand since it went into Afghanistan - but said that was only in terms of physical numbers.
"Each and every one of the fatalities that we've suffered brings with it its own story, its own family and a huge sense of grief."
The tragedy would not affect the withdrawal date from Afghanistan, he said.
The Government announced in May that the PRT would leave the area late next year, one year earlier than the planned September 2014 return.
Key said: "I don't think the terrible loss we've suffered overnight means we should leave earlier. We should continue on track," he said.

Read more:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7418191/Two-New-Zealand-soldiers-killed-in-Afghanistan

Found some comments in the news interesting tonight. They could smuggle some of our tough SAS troops into our regular force Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan. The SAS troopers have been pretty effective in training Afghani police and security force.

NEW ZEALAND ROWING GOLD MEDALLISTS HAMISH BOND, MAHE DRYSDALE AND ERIC MURRAY. PHOTO / BRETT PHIBBS

Double gold, double delight … New Zealand’s rowers last night turned the Olympic course at Eton Dorney into their personal playground.
Coxless pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond smashed through their final frontier, winning the only prize to have eluded them in the past four years.
Forty minutes later, single sculler Mahe Drysdale captured the gold that illness so cruelly denied him at Beijing four years ago.
Drysdale’s gold is New Zealand’s 20th Olympic rowing medal – including nine golds – and the third at this regatta, after Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan’s victory in the double scull 24 hours earlier.
While Murray and Bond streeted the field, maintaining their 100 per cent winning record over the four-year Olympic cycle, Drysdale had to work desperately hard to hold off his fiercest rival, Czech Republic sculler Ondrej Synek.
Across the finish line, he raised his arm, slapped the water and clutched his head.
Emotion washed over the 33-year-old and he collapsed on the pontoon. It was four minutes before he was able to get to his feet.
Read more:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10824514

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/rowing/7411177/Bond-and-Murray-Drysdale-win-gold Video

In Rome in 1960 New Zealand’s first golden hour occurred. Peter Snell, arguably one of New Zealand’s greatest Olympians, won his first 800m gold (the second four years later with the 1500m gold as well) and followed by Murray Halberg’s 5,000m gold lesss then an hour later. Last night it was Eric Murray and Hamish Bond in the Men’s Pair, and less than an hour later Mahe Drysdale scored his gold in the Men’s Single Scull - Kiwis remember the terrible sight four years ago in Beijing as an extremely ill Mahi struggled to win bronze. Great karma for a great sculler who has also won five World Championships in his career, and now Olympic Champion. A cycling bronze finished the evening off for the NZ Olympic team.
For just a while NZ will be ahead of both the Aussies and Brits, who have larger teams than New Zealand. We anticipate more medals during the next week. Nick Willis, the successor to the legendary 1500m Olympic Champions and gold medal winners, Jack Lovelock, 1936; Peter Snell, 1964; and John Walker, 1974; won his heat yesterday, and was silver medalist in Beijing, 2008.
Superstar Valerie Vili, defending Women’s Shotput champion from Beijing, is the favourite for London 2012. There are always unexpected successes that can increase New Zealand’s medal total. We all wait in anticipation!

Petes Place
http://pjpetterson.blog.co.nz

Christchurch turns 156 today. Happy Birthday to my poor old home town.

CHRISTCHURCH BECAME NZ'S FIRST CITY IN 1856

Press Archives
NEW CITY: This shows Christchurch in the mid-1860s. The view is from the Provincial Council Buildings, looking across the Avon River to the corner of Gloucester St and Oxford Tce. Drays are parked in the foreground. The trees beyond the

YOUR CHRISTCHURCH It's Christchurch's 156th anniversary today:

On this day 156 years ago, Christchurch became a city by royal charter from Queen Victoria, making it the first official city of New Zealand.
The royal charter was given by the Queen so Christchurch could be the seat for a bishop. At Christmas 1856, Henry John Chitty Harper was enthroned as the first bishop of Christchurch.
Other key Christchurch dates:
- On February 16, 1770, Captain James Cook in his ship the Endeavour first sighted the Canterbury peninsula. He thought it was an island and named it Banks Island after the ship's botanist, Joseph Banks.
- Christchurch was founded in 1850 with the arrival of about 800 settlers from Britain.
- Local government began when the first Christchurch Municipal Council meeting was held on March 3, 1862.
- The city's first library opened on August 4, 1859. It was a single room at the Mechanics Institute.
- The Press was founded as a weekly paper by James FitzGerald and a syndicate of investors in 1861. It became a daily in 1863.
- Bees were introduced to the region from Nelson in January 1852.
- The first bridge over the Avon River was built in March 1852.
- The first cricket match, married men versus single men, was held in April 1852 at Hagley Park.
- A typhoid epidemic in 1875, which lasted until the following year, caused 152 deaths in the city.
- The first airport opened in Christchurch in 1917.
- 1947 Ballantynes fire; 41 people die.
- Christchurch hosts the 1974 Commonwealth Games.
- September 4, 2010: Christchurch battered by a magnitude-7.1 earthquake. No fatalities.
- February 22, 2011: Christchurch devastated by a magnitude-6.3 quake, killing 185, injuring 6000 and destroying most of the central city's buildings.
Source: Christchurch City Libraries

Acknowledgements: © Fairfax NZ News

Kiwi Olympic medalists will receive food parcels containing the "scarce" Marmite...

‘Marmageddon’ grips New Zealand

New Zealand competitors who win medals at the London Olympics have been offered an unusual reward - food parcels containing jars of Marmite.

The spread has been in short supply since March, after the manufacturer was forced to close its only factory because of earthquake damage.

The shortage of Marmite has been dubbed "Marmageddon" by the media.
Members of the eventing team, who won the country's first medal, were the first to collect their Marmite.

The manufacturer, Sanitarium, says production of the spread will not resume until later this year. The product is a variation of the yeast spread widely available in the UK.

Since the shortage began, New Zealand media has been filled with stories of newly discovered Marmite stashes in corners of supermarket storerooms.

There has also, apparently, been a roaring trade on auction websites.

Rather than selling its remaining supplies, executives at the Pak'nSave supermarket chain decided to give their stash to customers they felt were deserving of a treat.

"Who could be more deserving than our Olympic medallists," said Steve Anderson of the supermarket's parent company Foodstuffs New Zealand.

"To come to London and prove to the world that they are the best in their discipline is no mean feat. And we thought that a few home comforts after all their hard work wouldn't go astray."

The eventing team, who won a bronze medal on Tuesday, went to Kiwi House the following day to pick up their jars of Marmite.

The spread was first brought to New Zealand in the early 1900s, but the country later came up with its own recipe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19082740

http://peter-petterson.blogspot.com

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/video.cfm?c_id=4&gal_objectid=10824241&gallery_id=127169 Video