A New Zealand man went bungee jumping yesterday – without the rope, police said. The 30-year-old man, whose name was not released, leapt off a platform into the Waikato River on New Zealand’s central North Island after staff at the bungee had refused to let him jump, said Constable Tracey Haggart of Taupo police.
He then barged past the staff and dived 47 metres into the river. The impact knocked him unconscious and he was rescued by the bungee jump staff before being flown to nearby Taupo hospital, Haggart said in a statement. His condition was not immediately available. Taupo is a tourist town 375 kilometres north of Wellington. Haggart said police had no plans to charge the man, who had consumed “a small amount of alcohol.”
New Zealand, news, odd, sports, stupid
Mosgiel, New Zealand – Organisers of a Christmas fete banned children from sitting on Santa’s knee because they feared being held responsible if anything “untoward” happened.
Instead, the children had to sit next to him, on specially decorated “elf chairs”, as they discussed their Christmas wish list. Graham Glass, who dressed up as Santa for the event, was clearly insulted. “It’s bloody ridiculous – I can’t believe we have become so politically correct,” he said.
2DRUNK 2DRIVE
A man whose car has a “2DRUNK” number plate has admitted in a New Zealand court to drink driving.
Philip William Bain, 33, has faced Dunedin District Court charged with driving while over the limit on Saturday. Judge Stephen O’Driscoll said Bain’s number plate meant he was “just asking” to be stopped by police.
He was convicted and fined $NZ600 ($A525), disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay court costs. It was his second drink-driving conviction
Leprechaun Curling
A New Zealander who stands just 1.37 metres tall and lets people hurl him along a slippery slide as bar entertainment, has defended himself against charges the act is demeaning to little people.
“I love putting smiles on people’s faces, making people happy,” Andrew Roigard, who calls himself the leprechaun of the Mount Mellick bar at Mount Maunganui, a North Island port and coastal resort, told the Bay of Plenty Times.
Roigard dons boxer shorts and a crash helmet and covers himself in vegetable oil as bar patrons hurl him head first and full length along a six-metre long polythene sheet, vying to land his navel inside a red square at the end. The bar advertises the event as “leprechaun curling” after the Irish winter sport of curling, in which large flat stones are thrown across an ice-covered lake towards a mark.
Roigard, told the paper he loved every minute of the action and saw himself as an entertainer. He responded to criticism by telling the newspaper: “Everybody who knows me knows I’m happy about it. It was my idea.”
Inconvenient confinement
A quick trip to the loo turned into an embarrassing experience for a man in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, at the weekend. Police said that, when the man answered nature’s call at 8pm on Saturday, the men’s toilet near Petone Library was locked, so he used the women’s loo instead. But while he was inside, a caretaker padlocked the door and left, unaware the man was inside.
Senior Sergeant Warren Harris said the man was trapped all night and well into yesterday until his cries for help were heard by passersby, who alerted police. Armed with bolt cutters, officers released the man at about 2pm, after his inconvenient 18-hour stay in the convenience. “He was quite relieved to get out,” said Mr Harris, adding that the man, a local, was not keen to talk about his experience.
Did he say what the graffiti in a women’s loo looks like?
New Zealand’s parliament has voted to legalise prostitution by a margin of just one vote. As well as decriminalising prostitution, the new law will establish a legal framework for the sex industry, with licensed brothels operating under strict health, safety and employment guidelines. Transgender Labour MP Georgina Beyer, a former prostitute, said: “If I’d had a law like this to protect me when I was 16 or 17, then I may have been spared the five or so years I spent in the industry.” “This is about accepting what occurs, about accepting that the people who work in this industry deserve some human rights,” the New Zealand Herald newspaper quoted her as saying.
So, why dont we have a Transgender Congressman yet?