Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Steve Braunias Secret Diary of...Australian surveillance team

By Steve Braunias
Whanganui Chronicle·
26 Aug, 2016 09:29 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Steve Braunias Photo/file

Steve Braunias Photo/file

MONDAY

We held a briefing to discuss last week's botched attempt to covertly tape the All Blacks in their team room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay.

Present: the director of black ops, our top surveillance man, a psychic, a martial arts expert who knows how to kill a man in 375 different ways in unarmed combat, and the motivational psychologist.

Our top surveillance man took exception to being called out by the psychologist as an "amateur".

He said, "Mate I'm a professional and if you want to point the finger at anyone then I suggest you point it at the players."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The psychologist lunged forward. The martial arts expert had to intervene. He stood with his foot on the pyschologist's neck while the director of black ops asked our top surveillance man why it was that a security sweep was able to detect his listening device.

He maintained that his concealing of the device in the foam of a chair was "almost undetectable".

He said, "Mate I carefully cut the foam of the chair to make way for the device and then glued it back together."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He was asked whether he swept away the bits of foam under the chair or whether he just left them there.

He said, "Mate no one's perfect."

The martial arts expert, acting on instructions from the director of black ops, used one of his 375 methods.

TUESDAY

We held a hastily arranged interview session to recruit a top surveillance man before the next Wallabies vs All Blacks Bledisloe Cup match in Wellington on Saturday.

One applicant stood out.

The director of black ops asked, "Have you any prior experience in gaining access to secret information?"

He told a long story about hacking into files kept by an individual named Whaleoil, and passing them on to an author who wrote a book called Dirty Politics. One of the purposes of the book was to overthrow the New Zealand government.

The director of black ops asked whether the book succeeded in overthrowing the government.

The applicant said it seemed strange that he had to ask, and the director explained that it wasn't strange in the least, because no one in Australia took the slightest interest in New Zealand politics.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We're the same," said the applicant.

The director asked, "You mean Kiwis don't take any interest in Australian politics?"

"No, of New Zealand politics."

WEDNESDAY

The director of black ops posed as a maid at the All Blacks' hotel in Wellington, and planted a listening device created by our top surveillance man.

The martial arts expert asked if there was any trouble. The director said he was groped by a couple of players from the Waikato Chiefs.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

THURSDAY

We listened in to an All Blacks team meeting.

There was a lot of animated conversation about a television show called The Real Housewives of Auckland. Many of the players said they liked a character called Gilda.

The conversation then turned to Auckland real estate.

After an hour, it switched to rugby.

Someone said, "Who are we playing on Saturday? I forget."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A voice replied, "The Aussies."

The laughter from the room was so loud that it crashed the listening device.

FRIDAY

We held a meeting to discuss this week's botched attempt to covertly tape the All Blacks.

The director wore his maid's costume. He was asked whether he was going to return to the All Blacks' hotel and plant another listening device.

"No," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The motivational psychologist was asked how to get a result on Saturday. "Bring in Quade Cooper," he said.

"Mate," said the psychic, "we're stuffed."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui speed skater eyes big second half of the year

22 Jun 05:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

'Our sacred state of reset': Puanga rises over Ruapehu to herald Māori new year

22 Jun 05:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

New partnership to continue dementia therapy programme

22 Jun 05:00 PM

Help for those helping hardest-hit

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui speed skater eyes big second half of the year

Whanganui speed skater eyes big second half of the year

22 Jun 05:00 PM

'I would love to go to the Olympics one day.'

'Our sacred state of reset': Puanga rises over Ruapehu to herald Māori new year

'Our sacred state of reset': Puanga rises over Ruapehu to herald Māori new year

22 Jun 05:00 PM
New partnership to continue dementia therapy programme

New partnership to continue dementia therapy programme

22 Jun 05:00 PM
Survivor of triple-fatal crash on learning to walk with a prosthetic leg

Survivor of triple-fatal crash on learning to walk with a prosthetic leg

21 Jun 10:00 PM
How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop
sponsored

How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP