Word: zealand
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...Aussie Rules now boasts more than 1,000 regular players, from 9-year-olds to seniors in their 20s. In 2002, the South African national team, the Buffaloes, traveled to Melbourne to compete in the inaugural International Cup, which brings together such Aussie Rules outposts as Canada, New Zealand and Samoa. Though they finished last, South Africa are tipped to do better at the second tournament in August, if they can find a sponsor to pay their fares. "I think we're going to win our first international game," says Steven Harrison, head coach for AFL South Africa...
...there are few things the country needs more urgently. New Zealand's Maui gas field, discovered in the 1970s, provides one-third of the country's power and tops up hydro shortfalls when rivers are low. But within three to five years the gas will be gone. Meanwhile, a growing economy is gobbling up power - 2.5% more of it each year - and making the national grid feel its age. Power lines into Auckland, where almost one-third of New Zealanders now live, can barely handle peak loads. At a national electricity summit two weeks ago, industry leaders warned that...
...that Kiwis don't grasp the problem. A recent survey by power company Contact Energy found that "overwhelmingly people value security of supply ahead of price or environmental concerns," says chief executive Stephen Barrett. New Zealand has plenty of options for ensuring that security: rushing rivers for hydroelectricity, rich coal reserves that, thanks to the gas windfall, have hardly been touched. But for almost every option there are opponents, sometimes very angry ones. And the delay-plagued process for vetting resource developments makes it easy for the noisy to get their way. "Small numbers of people, who may not even...
...power schemes generate 60% of the country's electricity. Why not build more? Meridian Energy knows. Last year it abandoned a $NZ1.2 billion, 500-megawatt project on the South Island's Waitaki river, saying it was not sure it would get the necessary environmental consents or water rights. New Zealand needs a new power project of that size every three years, says Leyland. But even small hydro schemes like the one on the Gowan river, or another on the nearby Wairau, raise hackles. "A lot of rivers will potentially be ruined," says Lawson Davey, of the Save the Wairau Committee...
...coal last year, there were noisy protests. Once the old station at Marsden Point is modernized, it will be the cleanest coal-fired plant in Australasia, says its owner, Mighty River Power. But that doesn't impress critics, who say getting electricity from coal is a betrayal of New Zealand's Kyoto Protocol obligations. "It's a backward step for us to start using coal," says Fitzsimons...