Exciting weekend events

Posted by on 27 October 2011 | 0 Comments

What an exciting weekend - lots on around Southland, a rather important rugby match and then some wild weather to cap it off!

Sunday's Rugby World Cup final was amazing and I think I may have surprised a few people who didn't realise how loud I could scream or how many unladylike words I knew. I was beside myself, but the All Blacks did it - thank God! I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to hold the Cup and feel part of the whole event, which I believe has been a success, not only on the field but off it as well. Well done New Zealand.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet the new Fonterra chief executive, Theo Spierings, who promised to work closely with us in Southland. He listened when Environment Southland chair Ali Timms and I talked about the issues with dairying in Southland and in particular those of water and roading.

I also really enjoyed the Trendy Shoes day, a Rural Women's event, at Winton last week - it was a wonderful event and such fun. There were lots of innovative ideas but my favourite was the woman who covered her $1 Salvation Army shop shoes with the same material as a skirt she had and was told they were beautiful and Italian leather.

Our Southland communities were buzzing this weekend with all of the events taking place and I rushed around trying to attend as many in Te Anau as I possibly could. It's great to meet up with people at these events - I popped in for five minutes and ended up leaving hours later. I really enjoyed both the art exhibitions in Manapouri and Te Anau - the talent we have in this country is just fantastic.

The Steptoe Auction was another popular event and one which could be described as art in itself. For the first time in a long time, I actually sold rather than bought but I think someone upstairs was not particularly happy with that. I decided to clear out some things from Murray's workshop and I think he was not impressed as one of the deer horns fell on my head and I ended up with a stitch - divine intervention, do you think?