Category Archives: New Zealand

‘We saw everyone drop’: bee swarm stops play in New Zealand cricket match

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Players and umpires dropped like flies as bees descended on a Plunket Shield match between Wellington and Canterbury

It’s usually rain that stops play in New Zealand, but on Sunday it was the unfamiliar sight of a swarm of bees that brought a halt to the cricket being played at Wellington’s Basin Reserve.

Players and umpires dropped like flies as they took cover from the descending bees on the relative safety of the oval’s turf on the opening day of the Plunket Shield match between Wellington and Canterbury.

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Australia’s commitment to coal is directly responsible for climate crisis in the Pacific | Anote Tong

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Constant change in the climate policies of Australia and New Zealand has been a huge disappointment to Pacific island nations

When I came into office as president of Kiribati in 2003, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had released its third assessment report and, like my predecessors, I believed the report’s projected rise in sea levels posed a real threat to the survival for those of us on the frontline. Accordingly, in my first address at the UN General Assembly in 2004 I drew attention to the dangers posed by climate change, especially to small island nations like Kiribati and other Pacific island countries.

The fact that no other leader made any reference to it in their statement worried me and I wondered whether I might be making a fool of myself, especially when the focus of international attention at the time was on more real and present threats like terrorism. Thankfully by the next assembly, in 2005, other Pacific island leaders had joined the call for action. This has gathered great momentum in the years since.

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New Zealand hits Covid case record but Ardern says ‘better times coming’

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200 daily cases for the first time as PM says it is on track to have ‘amongst the highest vaccination rates in the world’

New Zealand has passed 200 daily cases of Covid-19 for the first time in the pandemic, placing it on a worrying trajectory for the summer and raising expert concerns that the growing outbreak could overwhelm the health system.

On Saturday there were 206 cases announced – 200 based in Auckland, the city at the centre of the outbreak. There were 73 people in hospital with the virus, seven in intensive care.

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Once a global conservation success story, New Zealand’s black robin in trouble again

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Down to just one breeding pair 40 years ago, the bird bounced back after extraordinary efforts – now its survival is again under threat

Forty years ago, on a remote rocky island in the Pacific, 800km east of New Zealand, a conservationist set out to bring the rarest bird in the world back from the brink of extinction.

Don Merton, wearing a check shirt and shorts, climbed 200 metres up the rockface of Little Mangere Island, part of the Chatham Islands (Rēkohu in the indigenous Moriori language and Wharekauri in Māori), and laid a soft netted trap for the black robin, also known as kakaruia and karure – a tiny endemic bird that lives up to its name, with black plumage, black eyes and a little pointy black beak. Once captured, he gently placed the bird inside a wooden box, strapped it to his back, descended the cliff and jumped on a boat to the neighbouring island – Mangere, a larger, more verdant habitat.

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UK reports 193 deaths – as it happened

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Only those vaccinated or recovered from Covid will be allowed to frequent restaurants and cultural venues in Austria ; UK records 34,029 new infections

Germany recorded its second consecutive daily record for new coronavirus cases on Friday as infections pick up across Europe, and its disease control centre said unvaccinated people face a “very high” risk of infection.

The country reported 37,120 new infections over the past 24 hours, according to the centre, the Robert Koch Institute. That compared with Thursday’s figure of 33,949 – which in turn topped the previous record of 33,777 set on 18 December last year.

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New Zealand couple dig up ‘Doug’, potentially the world’s heaviest potato – video

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A giant 7.9kg potato found in a New Zealand couple’s overgrown garden may set a new world record for the heaviest of its kind ever to be discovered. Colin and Donna Craig-Brown were weeding in their Hamilton garden when Colin hit the large tuber. The couple have grown fond of the potato, nicknaming it Doug and taking it for walks. The current Guinness world records entry for the heaviest potato is a 2011 specimen found in Britain, that weighed in at just under 5kg, with the Craig-Browns saying they are waiting to hear if Doug will be the new record holder

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Vast veggie: huge New Zealand potato weighing 7.9kg could claim world record

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Colin and Donna Craig-Brown have named the 17.4lb tuber Doug and have been taking him for walks

A giant 7.9kg potato found in a New Zealand couple’s overgrown garden may set a new world record for the largest of its kind ever to be discovered.

Colin and Donna Craig-Brown were doing a spot of weeding in their Hamilton back yard, when Colin’s hoe hit something below the ground.

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The 1918 influenza tore through Māori communities. Anti-vaxxers risk this again | Morgan Godfery

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Some of New Zealand’s anti-vaxxers say that the Covid vaccine is a form of 21st-century colonialism – it’s not

One thing that characterises the typical anti-vaxxer, other than being wrong, is their short attention span.

In the space of a single conversation the enemy can range from 5G, the electromagnetic spectrum that can apparently spread biological matter as well as a phone signal, to Bill Gates, the Microsoft (“microchip”) billionaire allegedly at the centre of a nexus to command and control the world populace. In New Zealand, anti-vaxxers take this shopping list of modern hazards and foreign enemies and add their own local products. In one conspiracy prime minister Jacinda Ardern is part of an international plot to microchip New Zealanders using the Pfizer vaccine as the vector. Her reward? The UN secretary generalship.

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New Zealand gang leaders unite to urge community to get Covid shots

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Gangs put aside their differences make video calling on the public to get the vaccine after Māori minister came up with the idea

Seven New Zealand gang leaders, representing four of the countries most well-known street gangs, have joined forces in a video urging their communities to get vaccinated, in a concept that was conjured up by a government minister.

The video was commissioned by the minister for Maori development, Willie Jackson, after a discussion with gang leaders, who then provided footage that was edited by Jackson’s son, Hikurangi, the Herald reported.

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Jacinda Ardern ends press conference after being heckled over Covid vaccines – video

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The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, abruptly halted a media conference after being heckled by at least two people who appeared to be anti-vaxxers. One man claiming to be a journalist continued interrupting, asking Ardern: 'Why is the vaccine not working in Israel? And you are still pushing it.' Ardern replied: 'Sir, I will shut down the press conference if this continues.'

For context, Israel is recording a seven-day average of about 600 new daily cases, compared with a peak of about 11,000 daily infections in September. No vaccine on the market claims to be 100% effective at preventing transmission

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New Zealand’s children will all soon study the country’s brutal history – it’s not before time | Vincent O’Malley

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A more truthful understanding of history is largely dependent on education. A lot is riding on the success of this new curriculum

Aotearoa New Zealand has come a long way in the past few years in its efforts to engage with its history in a more upfront and honest manner. For those of us who have campaigned for such a change, this is not before time.

This newfound willingness to move beyond a rose-tinted approach to the nation’s past in which anything uncomfortable or considered to reflect poorly on the Pākehā (European) majority is shunned and ignored has taken considerable effort and is still very much a work in progress.

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Best bird a bat: tiny flying mammal wins New Zealand bird of the year competition

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No stunt, say organisers, who wanted to raise awareness of the pekapeka-tou-roa, which faces the same threats as native birds

In a huge upset to New Zealand birds, but a win for one of the country’s only native land mammals, a bat has swooped in “by a long way” to take out the annual bird of the year competition.

Forest and Bird, which runs the election, thew the bat among the pigeons as a surprise entry this year. The pekapeka-tou-roa, or long tailed bat, is one of two bats in the country and one of the rarest mammals in the world. It is as small as a thumb, and the size of a bumblebee when it is born.

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Forced retreat: one New Zealand town’s fate highlights coming fight over climate adaptation

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The tiny town of Matatā provides a bleak preview of the challenges that could play out across the country in the decades to come

There’s a moment on the road from Auckland to the Bay of Plenty, after hours of farmland, when the view of the sea rears up in front of you. The fields retreat, the horizon expands, the road is lined by Pohutukawa trees clinging to the cliffs. The change in view is as stark as an etch-a-sketch being wiped clean.

Follow that road and you come to a tiny settlement, slipped between the sea and a steep spine of hills running down New Zealand’s Toi-te-Huatahi coastline. Gradually, the once-orderly and plush beachfront homes are disappearing. Houses are replaced with grassed lots, weeds push up through the cul de sac pavements. Soon, the view will be transformed further still, the last remnants of the neighbourhood replaced with a reserve stretching from the road to the sea. On one of the few remaining fences is a sign: “Leave our homes alone! Watch out the rest of New Zealand – you’re next!”

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A catamaran and a plan: desperate to get home, New Zealanders set sail across the Tasman

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With government-controlled quarantine spots in very short supply and long waiting lists for flights home, some stranded citizens are taking to the seas

New Zealanders stranded in Australia are sailing across the Tasman Sea aboard small boats with seasick strangers in a desperate bid to get home, saying the notoriously perilous trip is easier to navigate than the country’s fraught border system.

The country’s borders have been strictly controlled since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic – only citizens, permanent residents and a handful of essential workers can enter, and all of them must make a booking to spend two weeks in government-controlled quarantine (MIQ).

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Covid live: UK records 40,954 new cases; Belgium brings back restrictions weeks after ending curbs

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UK also reports 263 further deaths; Belgium reinstates curbs after 75% jump in daily cases in a week

Headteachers have described the “sinister” intimidation tactics being used by protesters against the vaccination against Covid of teenagers in schools.

“It started with a few emails from a group calling itself Lawyers for Freedom,” the Guardian was told by the headteacher of one of a number of Liverpool schools that have come under pressure from anti-vaccine activists. “An email is relatively easy to ignore.”

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Sean Wainui: death of New Zealand rugby player treated as suspected suicide

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Coroner investigating after the Chiefs, Bay of Plenty and Māori All Blacks player died in a car crash

The death of New Zealand rugby union player Sean Wainui is being treated as a suspected suicide, according to a coroner.

The 25-year-old, who played for Super Rugby team the Chiefs, Bay of Plenty and the Māori All Blacks, died in a car crash at McLaren Falls Park in the Bay of Plenty on 18 October.

In Australia, crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

In New Zealand: Lifeline Aotearoa’s suicide crisis helpline 0508 828 865; the Mental Health Foundation 09 623 4812

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‘They created monsters’: How New Zealand’s brutal welfare system produced criminals

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Rangi Wickliffe was one of many Māori children repeatedly abused in welfare institutions including the notorious Lake Alice psychiatric hospital

Rangi Wickliffe’s body is a map and a history of New Zealand’s welfare and prison institutions, where the 60-year-old has spent about 45 years of his life.

There are the scars the length of his inner left forearm that he slashed up with a razor blade when he was 16. That was in D Block in Paremoremo prison, the harshest wing in New Zealand’s maximum security prison.

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New Zealand’s Covid outbreak spreads to South Island

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The first community case in the south was reported in Blenheim, but officials play down risk of further contagion

New Zealand has reported 104 new coronavirus infections, including the first community case of the virus in the country’s South Island in nearly a year, health officials said.

Most of the new infections reportedon Saturday were in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city that has been under a strict lockdown for more than two months. Looser restrictions are in place in most of the rest of the country of 5 million.

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Auckland’s lockdown has finally given me what I always wanted – a licence to pry | Leni Ma’ia’i

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I’m one of the city’s many undercover agents, ready to pounce on any and all lockdown infringements

Nine weeks into Tāmaki Makaurau’s lockdown, having pushed the limits on baking, introspection and backgammon, I’ve taken to running.

No, not for any of the health benefits – running at my size can’t be healthy; it’s a chance to go snooping. I’ve always enjoyed sticking my nose in other people’s business, but society has repressed these urges. Lockdown, finally, has given me the licence to pry.

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