Thursday, January 6, 2011

TENNIS, ICECREAM, SURF, CELEBRITIES, SNAKES AND CROCODILES.

Matarangi has it's own International Celebrity in Phil Koeghan, front man for The Amazing Race TV show. Phil owns a holiday home somewhere here and has holidayed at Matarangi with his family for 20 years or more.


There are two other International Celebrities currently making news in New Zealand.


Today David Hasselhoff arrived on the beach at Mt Maunganui in a surf rescue boat to promote icecream. He went to Australia first and now New Zealand. Streets, an Australian company which manufacturers icecream, should be delighted with the publicity. David Hasselhoff was mobbed by a crowd of 4000 delighted fans. I was surprised to see, on the TV news, how young the crowd was. I find it hard to believe Baywatch has fans among today's younger generation.



The icecream being promoted is called a Split and has been around since the 50s. It's a vanilla icecream on a stick with an outer, sorbet like coating. The Berry Delight, which consists of swirls of raspberry sorbet through vanilla icecream covered in a raspberry shell, matched David Hasselhoff's trade mark red shorts. The Blurb describes the Split as follows, 'The combination of creamy vanilla and refreshing fruit ice shell will delight your senses and take you away on a tropical escape'. It is supposed to contain 20% real fruit, and is 97% fat free. I wonder if that makes it diet friendly.


The other Celebrity, tennis star Maria Sharapova, is in Auckland for the ASB, Auckland Savings Bank, Classic Tennis Tournament. Maria Sharapova, who is not only a great tennis player but also a beautiful woman, is a popular player at this tournament and guarantees the 'sold out' sign. It's not the first time she's decided to start her season in New Zealand. Maria Sharapova said in a rare interview that this tournament would be an important part of her preparation for the Australian Open. She has been recovering from surgery to her shoulder. There are a lot of disappointed people tonight as she was beaten in the quarter-finals today by an little known player, Greta Arn from Hungary. It was certainly a surprise as Maria Sharapova is ranked 18 in the world while Greta Arn is 88th.

This is how one news media report of this afternoon's game.

AUCKLAND (AFP) – Top seed Maria Sharapova was bundled out of the Auckland Classic women's tennis tournament in the quarter-finals Thursday when she was beaten in straight sets by unheralded Greta Arn.

We watched the game and were disappointed to see that Maria Sharapova just didn't seem able to spark and her game had many unforced errors.

Our thoughts reach out to flood stricken Australians. I can't imagine what it must be like. I read a report of women shooting dozens of brown snakes before they were evacuated from their homes. Brown snakes are deadly and the flood waters are all the more dangerous as snakes and crocodiles are being carried into urban areas.

John and I were discussing disasters and wondered which would be the most horrible experience, flood or earthquake. We decided flooding on this scale is far worse than the Christchurch Earthquake. Neither one is something we want to experience. Sometimes it feels as though the whole world has gone crazy

1 comment:

Kate said...

the 'hoff' didnt generate as much hysteria here this week, i think there were one or two people with baywatch dvds they wanted him to sign.
the floods are really bad here in aus which is why we had to cut short our queensland holiday. i feel sad for everyone who has lost everything- including family members. a friend of a friend was washed away in her car and they found her and the car two days later, she didnt make it :( xox