Reporter’s diary

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Jeremy A Christchurch city centre worker recently acquired a strange and wonderful raincoat that is splashed with colour and reminiscent of an Amazonian rain forest in full bloom. She is often asked where she got the coat, from passers-by in the street and from moving vehicles (the answer is Auckland), but she never expected to acquire a rider fascinated with the garment. Yesterday, the day after New Zealand clinched its historic cricket test series victory in Perth, a very young preying mantis hopped a ride during lunch and returned with her to the office building, where it was discovered. The mantis immediately acquired the nickname of Jerefny. It seemed only fair and appropriate, since Jeremy Coney is often called the Mantis. The insect one immediate settled on to a pot plant and started scouting round for flies. Sea legs

THE OLD ship Mararoa, which once served as a passenger ship on the run from Lyttelton to Wellington in the early 1920 s and featured in “The Press” on Wednesday, was remembered somewhat fondly yesterday by Vai Beaumont, a North Brighton man

who is in his 80s. Mr Beaumont said the ship was a rough ride in choppy seas. It seemed to tip right to its deck when it was rolling. In 1922, the Woolston Football Club used the Mararoa to get to Petone for a match. The ship left Lyttelton at 7 p.m. and did not arrive in Wellington until 1 p.m. the next day. The game was due to start at 2.30 p.m., which was far too early for 15 of -——r

the 17 players who had been sick on the journey. The stewards had ended up bringing biscuit tins to help them through their troubles. On the playing paddock, noone had yet found his land legs. They felt as if they were still rolling on the ship. Sudden hills would come up in front of them as they tried to run. Still, they came right in the second half and managed to come within a few points of Petone. Mr Beaumont was able to intercept the ball and score a try in the second half. One of the team members had been in the Navy. He told the others they could avoid more seasickness by never lying on their sides when the ship was rolling. They should lie on their backs and get only half a roll. The crane

FOR THOSE of you who never trust Friday the thirteenth, even when it falls on a Thursday, here is something to ponder. Repairs are expected to be completed on Lyttelton’s Portainer container crane on this coming Friday, the thirteenth.. Fortunately, the crane is not due to work its first ship since February, the ACT 7, until the next day. The container terminal’s handling record was broken recently. It is now 23.03 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalents) an

hour. Maybe there is a good omen in the new record. It was set on the Moreton Bay, the vessel that ploughed into Cashin Quay last February and sent the Portainer crane crashing with a sound that reminded some onlookers of the dying groans of the giant metal walking beasts in “The Empire Strikes Back” when they hit the snow. Big fall

A 98-year-old sequoia tree in a Rotorua street has been felled in four stages. The tree, which was 30 metres high and so big in the girth that it was difficult to get felling equipment round it, had fallen victim to two typical urban hazards, road sealing and building development. It was also ailing because of a Rotorua condition, the movement of hot thermal water round its roots.

Numbers dropping DURING a Vincent County Council meeting recently, several wasps were buzzing round in the Clyde chambers. Councillors were considering a request for a $l5OO grant to the D.S.I.R.’s Entomology Division. The money would be used to help fight wasps. One of the councillors who swatted two wasps said the local wasp numbers seemed to be dropping. The request was

referred to the Central Otago Fruitgrowers’ Association. Now, it was suggested, if someone wanted to suggest $l5OO towards getting rid of the rabbits ... Off the buses CHRISTCHURCH Transport Board bus workers who stood in a picket outside their Carruca House headquarters the day before were yesterday morning holding down the fort in a trailer. The trailer was parked on an unused bus stop. Club leader THE NEW president of a Taupo rugby club is a sweetie who is a more avid football fan than the man she is about to marry. Karen Sweetman has been elected to the top position in the Wairakei-Marist Rugby Football Club, which admitted women only to its Saturday night socials 10 years ago, and then reluctantly. Ms Sweetman is a physiotherapist who got to know members of the club through her job. She spent hours on the sidelines during games, looking after the problems of both teams. At one game, she bound up the broken leg of a player with the touch flags. —Stan Darling