Hi guys

Well it looks like it's time for me to renew my hastily cut ties with certain rugby-savvy relies in New Zealand, 'cause the AirNZ Virtual NPC competition is back. The website is the same, www.virtualnpc.co.nz , and you can signup now and make your picks for the first games from August 14th. The biggest change this year is that the score isn't converted to Airpoints at the end of the season (boo), although each week the week's 5 highest scoring Airpoints members get 15,000 Airpoints each, and the 3 overall highest scoring at the end get 250,000, 150,000 and 50,000 respectively. There are also some sort of phone prizes and whatnot. Not quite as good as before, but still worth playing and of course vying for the venerated title of FlyerTalk AirNZ Forum Virtual NPC Champion , which will however be defended tooth and nail by the current holder, yours truely .

Cheers, Zac

P.S. anyone got any good excuses for not replying to relatives' emails for almost a year?