Wednesday 23 December 2009

Only in Whangamata, New Zealand... Kiwi cyclists risk head & groin injuries in the name of freedom.

Kiwi cyclists risk head & groin injuries in the name of freedom.


Two men, wearing nothing but their birthday suits have been issued with a warning for riding without protective head gear on a jaunt around a sleepy New Zealand seaside town. One of the men, a recent migrant from Australia, said he expected the police officer to have first asked 'if it was cold out?' before issuing the citation to acquire headgear.

Ok so I added the last sentence of that paragraph to suggest a mate of mine who recently moved to NZ for work was involved (then plunked that on his FB page) but the story is a gift of comedic goodness that keeps on giving.

And at Christmas time - this is a great present.

There is so much spun gold to work with in this article, which I first saw on smh.com.au.

For a start...

Senior Constable Cathy Duder was patrolling Whangamata...

Do I need to write that again? Her name is DUDER - which is kind of funny... but the place she was patrolling!

Already I'm on the floor.

Then we get the conversation verbatim...

"They were more shocked than I was, trying to cover up their bits and pieces with their hands," Duder told AAP.

When asked for an explanation, the pair replied that "they wanted to experience total freedom".

"And I said to them `the way you're heading, you're going to experience total confinement'," the officer said, laughing.

ZING!

She's just booked her place on the next series of Police Ten 7 with material like that.

Then the writer of the article, Tamara McLean has a bit of fun...

Duder issued them with a stern warning for not wearing helmets and then sent them directly home.

Are we still talking about what we were at the start of the article?

This is EXACTLY the kind of news item that the Get This boys would've dined out on... Tony Martin would've read the article perfectly and the follow up stories from Ed Kavalee & Richard Marsland were sure to be spun gold.

Now THIS is journalism, kudos to you Tamara McLean.