Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We talk about
our life in Nelson, New Zealand.
June 2010 | Blog home | August 2010
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Nuclear free country still ships uranium - for last 20 years |
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New Zealand has been a nuclear free country since June 1987, after the Rainbow Warrior incident (google it) and the subsequent election of the Labour Party in 1984, when, according to nzhistory.net.nz,
The United States decided to test the new government's resolve when it requested a visit by the guided missile destroyer USS Buchanan. The Buchanan was an older ship, and the Americans hoped that public suspicions that it was not nuclear armed would be enough for it to slip under the political radar. 'Near-uncertainty was not now enough for us,' David Lange [new PM] recalled. 'Whatever the truth of its armaments, its arrival in New Zealand would be seen as a surrender by the government.' He hoped that the Americans might offer to send something less ambiguous, but it was the Buchanan or nothing.
On 4 February 1985 the government said no. Within a matter of days Washington severed visible intelligence and military ties with New Zealand and downgraded political and diplomatic exchanges. [US Sec of State] George Schultz confirmed that the United States was no longer willing to maintain its security guarantee to New Zealand, although the ANZUS treaty structure remained in place.
Since I've lived here, I have noticed how proud the country is of its choice. There have been lasting repurcussions between the US and NZ on this issue ever since. For most of the Bush administration, there was little contact with New Zealand because of it's nuclear (should I use nucular?) stance.
So you can imagine how surprised everyone was to learn on the news recently ...
Uranium exports regularly routed through NZ ports
Yes, indeed! Yellowcake uranium ore that is used in the production of nuclear materiel has been regularly shipped through ports in New Zealand en route to the United States and France.
And Nelson is one of the ports!
It's hard to believe that our politicians were unaware of this until last month. Oddly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that only one ship a year has been stopping during the past 20 years, but for some undisclosed reason, the visits have increased this year to almost weekly.
How can the Ministry, which presumably approves shipping applications, get away with this in a declared nuclear free country??? Apparently the NZ route is preferred for security reasons - whose security??
The uranium is coming from Australian mines, chipped in quantities of hundreds of tonnes.
No big concern, right, says Nelson's very own MP Nick Smith, also Minister for the Environment; he said the material was "not much more than Australian dirt" and there was no risk to health.
Angela typically walks home from work 1-2 times per week. It's 6.5kms from work to home and she typically uses the time to catch up on podcasts. As a side note, I find it a bit odd that she enjoys doing this but doesn't like to go on a "hike" with me. Still unclear of the difference but I digress.
Sometimes in winter I drive home and then walk down the hill to meet her because it gets dark quickly. On this odd occassion, I decided to stay home and get the Tour de France queued up. I get a text from Angela: "jave rrescies stray dog fr sure death." Huh? That doesn't make sense. Ok, I assumed she did something to help out a dog. I ask for clarification. She texts: "may have a friend w me."
About 20 minutes later she says to get the house ready - close the doors and pick up our fancy rug in the foyer. I'm not really sure what to expect. Turns out she got this little pup following her. She ended up coaxing him away from walking onto a very busy road during rush hour. He grew to trust her after a few pets and they walked home together. Angela figured that if he lived somewhere along the way he'd recognise it and just stop. He never did.
She got him in the garage/ laundry area and we gave him some water and cat food - it was a long journey from where she collected him. We called the Council to have someone come up and collect him but it was going to be 20-30 minutes before they would be able to get him.
As you can see by the pictures, he's a small fox terrier (mix maybe?). Very nice and well behaved. His big, long face just doesn't look proportional to his body but no matter.
He'd just follow us around the garage and sit and wait for us when we went out to cook dinner. Not one bark, growl, or anything. Someone came to take him to the pound after about 40 minutes.
I don't think Livvy would have liked having him around permantly - she took one sniff of Angela's hand after some good bye pets and her eyes widened and she hid under the bed.
Well, I for one will miss him, he was such a good dog.
[Angela here: it took a only 20 minutes before Don was completely besotted with this pooch! I tried to tell him I was sure he had an owner who missed him terribly, but Don didn't care too much.Thankfully, Council was prompt in picking him up or otherwise he would've been sitting alongside Don on the couch watching the Tour, bellies facing forward and drinking beers together in no time!]
Aaaww, too cute! I can't believe you gave him up!
~ Kate Coote
I don't really mix a lot of my work life into my private life on this blog, but I have to make an exception this time because something really cool is going on in Nelson.
You might already know (but somehow I doubt it) that a really large international sporting event is happening in New Zealand next year. Nelson is pretty involved, being a host to a couple of games and to three of the participants (including the USA - as an aside, did you know the home of USA Rugby is in Boulder??? Bizarre, I never did even living right in its back yard! Yet now I do. Offices on Arapahoe Rd).
Anyhoo, to celebrate that this major event is having a one year out milestone in September, Nelson has decided that it wants to attract the world's attention to our region at a time when many are making plans for their visit. You'll have to make sure to come to Nelson, where we are trying to break the record for the world's largest haka, currently set at 3,264. Some folks here think this can be more than doubled, but we'll have to see on the day!
As an immigrant, probably one of the coolest things I've seen that initially inspired me about kiwi culture is the haka. When I hear from people all over the world, they say the same. When kiwis travel all over the world, they are asked about the haka and asked to perform the haka. People everywhere love it. It's going to be a massive shout out from one of the best places to visit in New Zealand to the rest of the world. Fingers crossed now!!
Both men and women can take part, and it will be done on Tahunanui Beach at low tide. The haka is most often performed by men, and if you've seen the haka it's probably been men doing it. But there is a woman's version (which is fitting since there is a woman central to the story of the haka we are performing!) and women can be trained to do it in addition to the men so that voices from all the people in the top of the South Island can be heard.
If you want to follow on what Nelson is doing about this major sporting event next year AND if you want to keep track of our haka progress, go to the Facebook page I manage (and poorly!! being a non social media type gal) at www.facebook.com/rwc2011nelson. PLEASE don't forget to like us and follow along.
In case you want to read more, have a peak at this article in the local paper, taken mostly from a media release I wrote and sent out on Friday. Game on ... it's begun! Now we have to make it happen.
What have we been up to for the last 3 weeks you ask? It's July, what else? I've started writing this while sitting here watching stage 18 of the Tour - about 58kms to go and it's looking like it will be a sprint finish through the streets of Bordeaux. Just saw Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in the VIP cars today.
What can I say about the Tour this year - it's been fantastic. I blogged a bit last year about why I love watching this race so much and this year has had a bit of everything. Currently Andy Schleck (the household favourite) is down by 8 seconds to Alberto Contador (we're not fans) and with the individual time trial tomorrow (Alberto's specialty), it's not looking good for Andy. I'm also a huge fan of the Garmin-Transitions team (based in Boulder, CO) so really pleased with how Ryder Hesjedal is going. Not to mention the only Kiwi in the race, Julian Dean (a couple 2nd places as of now.)
As is typical for us every year, we spend 3 - 4 hours/ night watching a recording of the daily live coverage (this year for the first week we had the added challenge of catching the FIFA World Cup matches as well). We had to do some scrambling with managing a full video recorder from our other weekly shows.
They just passed a cool chateau, here's a link to some info: Chateau de la Brede.
For detailed info on every stage check out CyclingNews TdF coverage but I'll give a few highlights here.
Rotterdam hosted the grand depart and the prologue (short time trial). I was amazed by the huge crowds for the prologue and the first few stages. There was an estimate of one million people along the road for the first stage.
Stage 3 and the cobblestones - great day of racing (except Lance had a mechanical and lost time). There is a bit of debate about whether the cobbles belong in the Tour (rather than just in the Spring Classics) - I'm all for them, maybe not every year but adds another challenge. Total carnage as Andy Schleck lost his brother and faithful mountain lieutenant to a crash (and broken collarbone). Check out this photo of Lance chasing - nothing but hard core bike racing.
All along the way down towards the Alps we were treated to the fantastic scenery and chateaus of France.
Stage 8 saw Andy Schleck get the stage win on the first mountain stage, Cadel Evans (reigning World Champ) take yellow, and Lance almost 12 minutes down in 61st after crashing shortly before the start of the climb.
Stage 9 ended with Andy Schleck in yellow after Cadel cracks and loses over 8 minutes (granted he fractured his elbow the day before in a crash). In any case, I just don't see Cadel ever winning this race.
Stage 11 - The head butt. Mark Cavendish gets his 3rd win but his last lead out man (pilot fish as Paul Sherwen calls them this year) Mark Renshaw got sent home for head butting Julian Dean in the final sprint. The final 500 metres of a sprint can be a bit hectic and pushing and shoving is common but the head butt was a bit much. In my view the worse transgression was Renshaw cutting off Tyler Farrar (Garmin's main sprinter) right after that. Granted, no one will catch Cav (The Manx Missile as he's also called because he's from the Isle of Man) as he's by far the fastest in the world right now. Here's a clip on YouTube. You decide. In my opinion the judges made the correct decision in disqualifying the Aussie and sending him home.
The Tour is celebrating 100 years in this mountain range that separates France from Spain so it spent 4 days here.
Stage 15 - Chaingate. In sum, Andy, in the yellow jersey, was attacking on the final climb of the day and had a gap on Conty. His move was covered by Alexander Vinokourov but he definitely caught Alberto off guard. Andy had about a 20 metre gap and was really moving when his chain came off and got stuck. He had to dismount and fix it. While this was happening Alberto took the opportunity to take off and attack. It took Andy at least 15 seconds to fix his chain and by that time Alberto was flying up the mountain with two other contenders. Andy did all he could to catch up and almost got the 3 by the top of the climb but, unfortunately, the finish was about 20kms down the other side. Alberto and the others had an advantage working together and took 39 seconds from Andy. Alberto "won" the yellow jersey on the day but was booed by the French fans at the podium ceremony. From what I've read and heard on my podcasts the opinions are 50/50 on whether Alberto should have taken advantage of the yellow jersey's mechanical. Tradition says it just isn't done (i.e. group waiting for Lance when the musette bag dumped him) and it does show Alberto is a bit more nervous this year (he hasn't been dominating like he usually does). Granted mechanicals are part of bike racing and he didn't break any written rules on the day. I'm of the opinion that the others didn't need to wait for Andy but they probably shouldn't have attacked as they were being dropped before this happened. Andy was taking the race to these other guys, not classy to take advantage of this but if Alberto can live with himself, that's all that matters.
Stage 16 saw Lance get in a break and go for the win. Too bad he was with a couple younger guys that are breakaway specialists and have a bit more of a sprint (he finished 6th out of the 8). What can you do, he just doesn't have the power he used to.
Rest day highlight - Dave Zabriskie tweeted: "Just had 2 Chipotle burritos...a good rest day indeed." Ryder also tweeted: "Big thanks to POM and Chipotle for setting us up! Great food and drink.. perfect rest day...." Now why can't I get them to show up at my house?
Stage 17 - The battle on the Tourmalet. This is where Andy was going to attack and try to regain the 
yellow jersey from Conty. Andy won the stage but didn't take any time as the yellow jersey followed all his accelerations. Good day of racing but went pretty much as expected. Second to the battle on the mountains was the mountain goat crossing half way up the penultimate climb.
Well, I just finished watching stage 18 - another win for Cav and 2nd for Julian Dean - good on him.
On to the time trial tomorrow.
Photo credit right: The pack dodges mountain goats crossing the road as they climb Soulor pass during the 17th stage of the Tour de France cycling race in the Pyrenees region of France. Photo / AP
