Government's Stance on Referendum Arrogant

Press Release: Family First, Saturday, 23 August 2008
Family First Slams Govt’s Desperate Delay Tactics on Referendum

Family First NZ says the government is guilty of being arrogant, hypocritical and patronising by suggesting that the Referendum on the anti-smacking law cannot be organised until mid-2009.
“The government is yet to announce the date of the general election involving the two-vote system under MMP and due to take place within 3 months, yet it says it cannot organise a one-vote Referendum within 10 months,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
“The attempt to delay democracy by this government is breath-taking. This is a cynical attempt to muzzle the voice of NZ’ers who are opposed to the hugely unpopular and highly flawed anti-smacking law.”
“More than 10% of voters have met the high threshold of asking for a Referendum and recent polls suggest that between 80-90% oppose the legislation. It makes complete sense both economically and in terms of timing to do it at the same time as the general election.”
According to the Cabinet papers, the lame excuses for not holding the Referendum during the election include

• it would take issuing officers longer to issue the two or three voting papers to each voter
• voters would take longer to mark their papers
• voters would be confused by the additional voting papers

The Cabinet papers also acknowledge a simple lack of organisation caused problems at the last Referendum. It says “At the 1999 general election, voters were instructed to place the two CIR voting papers, together with the Parliamentary voting paper, into a single ballot box for each electorate. This, together with the fact that the CIR voting papers were not distinctly coloured, contributed to significant delays to the sort and count of voting papers.”
“In other words, the problems experienced by the last Referendum held on an election day simply came down to poor organisation.”
“The government simply refuses to acknowledge the opinion of NZ’ers,” says Mr McCoskrie, “and is doing everything it can to bury this issue. It shows a complete lack of respect for the due democratic process in NZ.”

The Press on the Referendum

I'll just quickly run over this article and make a few comments in bold.
Petition earns referendum on `child-smacking' law - The Press

New Zealanders will be asked to vote on the so-called anti-smacking law next year.
So-called? Well, that was what the Green Party called it initially.

Parliament's Clerk of the House said yesterday that a petition organised by Christian political activists had enough valid signatures to force a referendum.
Hah, just couldn't help yourselves could you? Yes, the petition question was written by Sheryl Savill who works for Focus on the Family. But look at the huge support nationwide, from a huge variety of people and groups.

Justice Minister Annette King said planning had begun to hold a postal vote on section 59 of the Crimes Amendment Act.

"The advice to me has been that it should be a postal referendum, and my latest advice is that it will take until about mid-next year to organise such a referendum properly," she said.

An audit of the petition found that 310,000 of the 390,000 signatures were valid.

That represented 25,000 more signatures than the 10 per cent of the national electorate required for a non-binding referendum.

Parliament's Speaker, Margaret Wilson, is expected to present the petition to the House on Tuesday, after which the Government will have one month to announce a date.

The referendum question will be: "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"

Petition organiser Larry Baldock, who founded the Christian-based Kiwi Party, said the vote should be held with this year's general election.

The Government has ruled this out, saying the petition had come too late and it would best be held as a postal ballot next year.

"It has been a long battle to assert the right of all New Zealanders to be heard on this controversial issue," Baldock said.

"Quite frankly, in a democracy it should not require so much effort. The referendum should be held at this year's election.

"None of the reasons being given by the Prime Minister for delaying it make any sense at all, and are simply a tactic for her to try to avoid this being an election issue."

Family First director Bob McCroskrie said the petition showed the strength of the opposition to the law.

Green Party MP Sue Bradford, whose child-discipline bill last year removed the defence of reasonable force from the Crimes Act, said she welcomed the ongoing debate.
Hah, did she? That's easy to believe.

"They put an enormous amount of effort, time and money into it, so it is not a surprise," Bradford said.

"We will continue to engage in the debate. It is all part of the process of changing the culture of violence in this country.

"The fact that these people are so determined to change the law back again just gives us more of an opportunity to educate people as to why we shouldn't be able to legally hit our children."

Bradford said the referendum question was misleading. "There is no such offence in New Zealand law as smacking. There never was and there isn't now. There is an offence of assault on a child."
Then why was your original bill drawn up as an "Anti-Smacking bill"?

She said that while the referendum was not binding, she would not trust a future National government not to change the law, despite the party's current support for the legislation after a last-minute deal with Labour.

"I've heard National MPs out and about basically dog-whistling to the Christian Right," she said.

National leader John Key has ruled out overturning the law if he becomes prime minister unless there was evidence of good parents being prosecuted.

Figures released by police have so far shown that has not happened.

Key did not return a call for comment yesterday.

Clark told Parliament in June that she had received "strong advice" from the Ministry of Justice that it was too late for a referendum to be held with this year's election.

She said the Government had accepted the ministry's advice that it would cause too much confusion, and a postal ballot next year was preferable.

The ministry said a postal referendum could cost taxpayers between $4.8 million and $6.4m.

A previous petition to force a referendum was ruled invalid when it was found it had failed to collect enough signatures.
No, it was not ruled invalid, and it was not a previous petition. It was the same petition for which we were granted another 2 months - as is usual practice, to make up the short-falling.

Clerk Confirms: Referendum to go Ahead

Kiwi Party Press Release
2pm, 22 August 2008

Kiwi Party Leader and CIR Petition organiser Larry Baldock welcomed the news today that the petition has been certified by the Clerk of the House of Representatives to have achieved sufficient signatures to force a referendum on the question, “should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

“This is great news and a huge victory,” said Mr Baldock.
“It has been a long battle to assert the right of all New Zealanders to be heard on this controversial issue. Quite frankly in a democracy it should not require so much effort. I want to pay tribute to Sheryl Savill who was prepared to put her name to the petition, and the thousands of volunteers that have helped us collect over 390,000 signatures,” Mr Baldock said.

The clerk of the house has declared that 310,000 signatures were certified as valid.
This means there were over 25 000 more signatures than the 285 027 required by the CIR Act 1993 to force a referendum.

“The referendum should be held at this year’s election. None of the reasons being given by the Prime Minister for delaying it make any sense at all, and are simply a tactic for her to try and avoid this being an election issue. She will not drown out the voice of the people and should realise there is no point further angering everyone by delaying the inevitable.

“Justice delayed is justice denied, Prime Minister. 110 MPs should never have ignored 80% of the population in the first place, and the right thing to do now is to let every Kiwi have their say as quickly as possible.

“The Kiwi Party have made it our number one priority to ensure that voice of the people in this referendum is respected. There is ample evidence that good mums and dads are now being prosecuted by this new law, while there is no evidence that it has led to any reduction in the real child abuse we are all concerned about,” said Mr Baldock.

www.thekiwiparty.org.nz

Sheryl Savill on the Petition

Sheryl Savill has written a column at the New Zealand Centre for Political Research on her involvement with the Anti-Smacking Law petition. Below is an excerpt from that article,

"I am not normally one to get involved in politics or public demonstrations. But when I realised how the anti-smacking bill would directly affect the way I was raising my children, I just knew that I had to do something. And I discovered very early on that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way - many of the parents I talked to thought the bill was ludicrous. So ludicrous, they felt that there wasn’t even a need for a petition… surely our politicians weren’t that blind. The ironic thing about it was that many children also thought it was illogical!

The government was intruding yet again into the lives of parents, and as a mum, I was really concerned about the impact that this type of bill would have on my family.

Through my role at Focus on the Family, I deal with parent education and run the How To Drug Proof Your Kids programme. I know how incredibly important the values instilled by parents are in a child’s life. To remove and undermine a parent’s authority in their own home is a treacherous area for the State to wade into.

I’m not speaking blindly here as the Founder of Focus on the Family, Dr James Dobson, has dedicated his life to helping parents nurture and protect their children. Work that started while he was working in pediatrics over 30 years ago. He found that children were falling through the cracks because parents weren’t given the tools to be able to raise their children. So he began to provide practical ideas and techniques to mums and dads, helping them to be the best parents that they can be..."

She finishes off her article,

"...It’s important to acknowledge that even though my name is on this petition not to criminalise good parents for smacking, the work of collecting the 380,000 signatures is not the work of one individual. A team of people and organisations who were just as passionate as me, made this happen.

On the 29th of February 2008, I was fortunate enough to stand on the steps of parliament with Larry Baldock and a group of people to hand in the boxes of signed petitions. I cannot put into words how proud I was to be a kiwi that day. We represented a nation of mums, dads, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, grandfathers and grandmothers, who have stood on the streets in our local towns, outside schools, field days, at sports games and at work to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures. New Zealanders, standing up for what we believe!..."

Thanks Sheryl, and also a massive thankyou to the people and organisations that put in so much time and effort to protect Kiwi families.

Unity for Liberty: Petition Count Report

Below is an excerpt from an email received from Unity for Liberty, regarding the status of the Anti-Smacking-Law petition signature count...

All is looking good for the referendum. The scrutiny is now complete and is just waiting for the statistician to come up with his magic answer. The good news is that the results are almost identical with the first scrutiny, which means the result should be beyond the power of any magic wand that our statistician may wish to wield.

Here are some official numbers concerning the sample of signatures taken for the signatory check,

The sample taken represented a 1 in 13 ratio, a total of 29,710 signatures were scrutinized.

From this total 25,787 signatures were valid, 3,886 did not qualify.

160 duplicates were found, there were no triplicates found.

So 25,787 x 13 = 335,231,  which means that the statistician will have to lose a further 50,000 signatures (approx) to fail the attempt. Apparently, by applying the same formula as the first time we should have a 25,000(approx) surplus.

---

The question is not now "if", the question is "when".  Will Helen Clark push ahead with her selfish plan of running the referendum after the election (costing NZ over $10,000,000), or will she allow the referendum to go ahead as would be normal practice, at the upcoming General Election (15 Nov or earlier).

Why do Anti-smackers get violent?

During the final days of collecting to get a democratic referendum on the "anti-smacking" law a disturbing story comes through from North Auckland.

This from Stuff.co.nz

Anti-smakers lose their cool

By GEMMA REDDELL - Rodney Times | Thursday, 12 June 2008

Anti-smacking supporters got violent at a gathering of signatures for the Citizens Initiated Referendum campaign last Saturday.

Whangaparaoa resident Arna Mountain was gathering signatures for the petition when two women, on separate occasions, started abusing her.

She says many people were eager to sign the two petitions, which ask ‘should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?’ and ‘should the government give urgent priority to understanding and addressing the wider causes of family breakdown, family violence and child abuse?’

She says she was shocked by what she sees as violent, anti-democratic behaviour.

"These petitions are asking for the democratic right to vote on what has been a contentious issue, but these two women seemed determined to intimidate the public and those collecting the signatures."

She says the first woman took offence to the gathering of the signatures and started yelling.

How dare we smack our children, she shouted. Mrs Mountain says she then started telling bystanders to "roll up and sign the petition that allows you to abuse your children and then kill them, yes murder them, come on sign up."

Later she was approached by another woman who asked if this was the petition to sign, then grabbed it, tore off the signed part and ripped it into pieces.

The destroyed petitions

"The woman then took the clipboard which had other completed forms underneath and took off.

I called her to give back the clipboard and the legal document she had torn. She threw it across the entrance-way and yelled about how smacking children was wrong," she says.

Mrs Mountain says that while she is shocked at the intensity of the behaviour, there are obviously a few people who are mistaken about what the petition is about.

"There are a few people who are completely unaware of the statistics that show that abuse and parental correction are completely different issues. No one in their right mind wants to abuse children. She says the vast majority of people are still against this law."

They received 144 signatures in a two-and-a-half hour period in Whangaparaoa.

Petition forms can be downloaded from thekiwiparty.org.nz under ‘referendum’ or from Orewa and Whangaparaoa libraries. The last date for signing is June 15.

Final push going well

The final push to get enough signatures on the petition calling for a referendum on the "anti-smacking" law is well under way with 1000's being collected over the past week.

Here are a few results,

Warriors game on Friday the 6th of June 1100
WWE Smack down last Wednesday delivered 600
Mystery creek field days brought in 2700 on Thursday and 1800 yesterday. Results for today will come out later tonight.

Also the All Blacks game will be targeted tonight.

Also on another note, this is the 400th post on the Section 59 Blog. Thank you to all who have read the blog and to those who have commented.

A special thank you to Andy for running this site and keeping people informed about this terrible law.

Update :

3700 collected at Mystery creek field days on Saturday and 1200 at the All Blacks test match in Auckland.

LET'S BRING THIS PUPPY HOME

2 WEEKS TO GO - TO MAKE THEM LISTEN

The GOOD NEWS is that in 2 weeks we won't be sending you any more emails about collecting signatures for the petition on the anti-smacking legislation. Yay!!!!

The NOT SO GOOD NEWS is that the deadline to collect the remaining number of signatures to absolutely ensure that the Referendum happens is in 2 weeks .

Our target is 370,000 signatures to ensure that there are more than enough signatures to survive however tough the 'audit process' is. ( just over 12,000 to collect )

And remember - 390,000 would match the number in the film Amazing Grace where William Wilberforce rolled out the petition in the House of Commons and shouted, “No matter how loud you shout you will not drown out the voice of the people!”

Could I encourage you to simply
1. print out the petition form CLICK HERE
2. carry with you over the weekend and next week
3. and simply check with people you socialise with whether they would like to sign the petition. You'll be surprised how many people have wanted to but simply didn't have the opportunity!

Thanks for your efforts - and have a great 'long weekend'!

Family First Team

"If you don't sign you can't complain"

If You don't sign the petition calling for a referendum on the "anti-smacking' law then you can't complain about the law at present.

With just over 1 month till we have to submit the petition back to the Clerk of the House to check for validity, NOW is the time to sign in order to have some democracy over the "anti-smacking" law.

Please go NOW to www.unityforliberty.net.nz and print it sign it and post them into P.O. Box 9228 Greerton, Tauranga.

Also you could email your friends and family and ask them to sign it, or alternatively take it into work. You will be amazed by the positive response. Or do both

A Note from Larry

Today is of course the 1st year anniversary of the passing of the anti-smacking law.

We have collected over 350,000 signatures on Sheryl Savills petition and have handed in approx. 296,000 signatures on my petition to understand and address the wider causes of family breakdown, family violence and child abuse.

I suggest we all have a drink of whatever we enjoy, or eat some chocolate, or do something to celebrate that we have come this far in our battle against this legislation and our fight for those being abused.

I am confident that our full celebration is not far away.

You can watch the youtube video clip of the press conference by clicking here.

You can read the text of the press conference here also. (click here)

There are some plans being formulated to collect the remaining signatures we need.

Can we all do our best to finish this as soon as possible?

'Many hands make light work' as they say. If you have an activity you are planning to collect signatures at and need volunteers please let me know and I will put out a schedule of the opportunities for the next few weeks.

Not long to go now and we can all enjoy a little break perhaps.

Warm regards, Larry

Clerk Reports on Petition: 20,000 signatures to go

"Smacking law petition fails to gather enough valid signatures" screams the headline on the TV3 news site.

NewstalkZB picks up the story, picking up on comments from Sue Bradford, the Green MP who introduced the Anti-Smacking bill. "The opponents of the "anti-smacking" law are being told to move on, as their petition calling for the repeal of the legislation change does not have enough valid signatures to force a referendum."

Stuff.co.nz presents a confused story, claiming that the petition organisers have been dealt a "major blow".

David Farrar at Kiwiblog tells it like it is.

"They needed 285,027 signatures valid signatures. They got 324,216 but a sample found around 11% were not able to be found on the electoral roll plus 1% illegible and 0.5% duplicates. This is about normal off mory.

So their valid signatures were calculated as 269,500 so they need 16,000 more valid signatures which is probably 20,000 more total signatures to be safe.

I suspect the Government is nervous about having every voter reminded of the law they are primarily identified with, at the very point at which they are voting."

Meanwhile, Bob McCoskrie doesn't have any time for the media hype, and gets to the main point, which is:

"the success of the petition demanding a public referendum on the highly unpopular and extremist anti-smacking law shows that politicians should respond now, not after the election, to the wishes of NZ parents."

The Clerk of the House has disqualified 16,294 signatures - this comes as no surprise, despite the wild exaggerations from the mainstream media. In fact, this is a relatively low number of signatures to be crossed out, as we see in an excerpt from this article (23 Feb 08) from the Section 59 blog:

"In the last petition demanding a referendum (Norm Wither's 1999 law and order referendum), almost 60,000 signatures were disallowed by the Clerks who check the validity of the signatures."

"We have already collected an additional 20,000 signatures" says Larry Baldock in his Press Release, 29 April 2008, “We were always concerned about the hurdles to be crossed in the audit process, said Mr Baldock, and for that reason we continued collecting signatures after we handed in the 324,511 signatures on Feb 29th."

Click here to download the petition form. If you haven't already, sign it, get your friends and family to sign it, and then send it to the address on the bottom of the form.

Clearing up Confusion over Referendum Process

As per my last post, there is obviously a level of confusion over the future of the petition calling for a referendum on the Anti-Smacking Law. Below I have a copy of the Referendum Process from the Parliament website (you can download a PDF version by clicking here). I have added some comments to the chart. I'm just focussing on the top petition question,

"Should a smack as a part of good parental correction be a criminal offense in New Zealand?"

Some people have been unsure of what the question for the Referendum means. It is saying, "should a smack be illegal?" And my answer, and the answer of the aproximately 70% plus New Zealanders opposed to this draconian home-invasion law will be a most definite NO.

Click here for a Press Release from Larry Baldock (Petition Organiser), where he comments on the issue.

Presentation of Petition for Referendum

Anti-smacking petition closes in on signature target

This from Stuff.co.nz

Organisers of a petition to force an election-day referendum on anti-smacking laws say they are just 5000 signatures short of their target.

They have until the end of this month to reach 300,000 and are confident they can do it.

Parliament passed the bill that outlaws smacking in May last year, and within weeks opponents were organising the petition against it.

Former United Future MP, and now leader of the new Kiwi Party, Larry Baldock said last night that the total was 295,000. "Technically, we only need 286,000 but we always aimed for 300,000 to make sure we have a bit of a buffer," he said. "We could lose 10 per cent or 20 per cent of them, so we'll continue to collect. But we're certainly going to have enough to meet the requirements on the 29th."

The buffer is needed because the signatures on citizen-initiated referenda are put through a rigorous checking process by electoral authorities.

Some previous petitions have been handed in with enough signatures but so many were lost during checking that they failed to meet the requirements.

The result of a referendum on the laws will not be binding on the Government.

The legislation bans the smacking of children as a punishment, although "reasonable force" can still be used to stop them harming themselves or others. -- NZPA

_____________________________________

It's great to see that we are almost there, and it is also great news to hear that we only actually need 286,000 not 303,000.

Print it, sign it, send it.

One month to go

93% of the signatures required already collected

Only 20,000 to go

It's that close!

Please help us 'cross the line' in style!

The organisers of the two petitions demanding a Referendum on both the anti-smacking law and the need to target the real causes of child abuse need to deliver 300,000 signatures on BOTH petitions to Parliament by Feb 29 (last day of Feb).

Family First wants to help them achieve that target, and to make this issue not only the political issue of 2007 but also of 2008!

Would you consider :

1. Printing off the petition form containing the 2 petitions http://www.unityforliberty.net.nz/documents/CirPetition.pdf

2. Getting as many signatures as you can on both petitions

3. Sending them in to the address at the bottom of the petition form as soon as possible - but at the latest by Feb 22. (Even forms only half filled should still be sent in as soon as)

We believe the politicians need to listen to the voice of the NZ public on this issue.

Here is the latest count on the petition calling for a referendum on the anti smacking law

only 23000 away from target!!
This count does not include the signatures collected over the past weekend.
just click it, print it, sign it, send it !!

Anti-smacking law likely to come under more heavy fire this year

This from the Gisborne Herald

Politicians look like being confronted, challenged and possibly embarrassed by the prospect of a referendum on the anti-smacking law later this year, almost certainly held in tandem with the next election.

Opponents of the controversial legislation initiated by Green MP Sue Bradford are now close to the 300,000 signatures necessary to force a citizen's initiated referenda.

Almost 5000 signatures were obtained last weekend, including 1000 at the World Cup of Motorsport event at Taupo, 720 at a "blues, brews and barbecues" event in Hastings and other tallies from A&P Shows.

The current total of almost 268,000 represents a gain of 43,000 in the past two months, suggesting no diminution of public feeling on the issue.

Principal organiser Larry Baldock told The Gisborne Herald: "We've got to keep it moving, but we're pretty confident we'll be able to see this through to a referendum."

Two petitions are being canvassed with a deadline of February 28 to obtain the signatures of at least 10 percent of registered electors and present them to the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

The first -- "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand? -- is in the name of Aucklander Sheryl Savill, a mother-of-two who works with Focus on the Family and whose husband is a policeman.

The second, in Mr Baldock's name, is "Should the Government give urgent priority to understanding and addressing the wider causes of family breakdown, family violence and child abuse in New Zealand?"

As a former United Future MP Mr Baldock has been the public face of the campaign since the petitions began circulating a year ago, with strong support from volunteers, organised groups and churches.

The terms for organising and conducting Citizen's Initiated Referenda (CIR) are defined by legislation enacted by the Bolger administration in 1993, since when only two petitions have reached the point of forcing a plebiscite.

Interesting stuff . . . but even a referendum result is not binding on the Government.

_________________________________________________________________________
If you haven't signed this petition then you need to, go to www.unityforliberty.net.nz/petition.html and print it sign it and send it. oh and get your mates to sign it too !!

250,000 Signatures Collected

"This is a message to Sue Bradford and Helen Clark and all those who thought they could ignore good decent Mum’s and Dad’s in this country who are trying to do their best with the most important job in the world. No Helen, it’s not being Prime Minister, it is raising good kids."

"The referendum is coming which will allow every New Zealander to have their say. If the PM, Sue Bradford and all the MP’s who supported it had any respect for democracy they would have called for the referendum themselves!"

Click here for the Press Release from Larry Baldock

Turning the tables

by Lavinia Ngatoko from The Challenge Weekly

New Zealanders are being urged to get involved in a campaign aimed at getting the required number of signatures needed for referenda on the anti-smacking law and family issues.

Unity for Liberty, a recently formed group of people fighting the legislation, is running The Great New Zealand Table Challenge next month.

The aim is to get people armed with pens, tables and petitions out into their communities to help get the 300,000 signatures required to force a referendum at next year’s elections. These must be collected by March 1 next year.

There are two petitions, one against the anti-smacking law and the other covering the wider issue of family breakdown in the country.

Craig Hill of Unity for Liberty is asking for 2,500 volunteers, each pledging to get 40 signatures, to come out on the first Saturday of November.

This would result in the collection of 100,000 signatures, he said.

He warned that although the group sympathised with those calling for harsher penalties, it was concerned that good parents were not protected under the current law.

“It will require more than hype and hysteria to change this situation and turn our society from total disaster,” he said.

“To effect change requires calm and deliberate steps to be made. The first step for New Zealanders is to petition for a citizens’ initiated referendum so they can have their say at the 2008 election.” Mr Hill is encouraging those who would like to get involved to start preparing now by ringing their local shops or banks to ask for permission to set up tables outside their premises.

Although people are being encouraged to do this every Saturday of November, if they can get involved on more days that would be even better.

Mr Hill said his group had initially tried to find volunteers to hold placards on footpaths to raise awareness, but had found that difficult to achieve.

“People are willing to sign, but churches don’t seem interested in getting involved,” he said. Petition forms can be downloaded from www.unityforliberty.net.nz/petition.html or www.familyfirst.org.nz

Hundreds signing in Howick

Citizens Initiated Referendum Report | Howick, Auckland | 13 October 2007

Today outside The Warehouse in Howick a team of two concerned citizens manned a table. A few kilometers down the road another table was kept busy with Craig Hill of Unity for Liberty raking in the signatures and hearing from citizens who were outraged at the repeal of Section59. Craig reported that 450 signatures had been gathered today by his team in Howick.

From their position outside the warehouse the other team of two hardly had time to take a breath with people coming up to the table in an almost constant stream. Andy Moore reported that at least ten young people (about 14 or 15 years old) had to be turned away as they were not eligible to sign. Several young people who had only just turned eighteen, or would turn eighteen before the September 08 election were also eager to put their name to the petition calling for a Referendum on the anti-smacking debate.

One kind lady after signing headed off and brought back a couple of sausages from the sausage sizzle which was operating down near Pak'n Save. Two bottles of V were knocked back by one of the team members, Andy Moore - who also commented that he felt like he needed a third bottle. While initially starting off in the traditional "stand in front of the table" Auckland style, the Southerner soon suggested a change to the Christchurch method, and this was eventually seen to be a viable alternative.

After the day's efforts (9:30 am start, 5:00pm finish), the team shot across the road for a feed before heading back home.

Good keen man, good keen girl.

Wendy's medium Coke. Took me the best part of an hour to demolish.