Category Archives: New Zealand

Dunedin rolls with it after losing world’s steepest street title

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Mayor of New Zealand city says a tweak to signage might be all that’s needed, while some living on Baldwin Street are relieved

The New Zealand city of Dunedin has sought to look on the bright side after losing its claim to have the world’s steepest street to a town in Wales, with its mayor saying: “The street certainly hasn’t got any less steep as a result of the decision.”

This week, Guinness World Records officially stripped Dunedin’s Baldwin Street of the title and instead awarded it to Harlech in Wales. Its street, Ffordd Pen Llech, has a gradient of 37.45% at its steepest point – 2.5% steeper than Baldwin Street.

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Street in Wales wins record for world’s steepest

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Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech beats renowned Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand

A meandering street in north-west Wales that challenges the fittest of walkers and cyclists has been confirmed as the steepest in the world.

Ffordd Pen Llech in the historic town of Harlech – better known for its castle and rousing song, Men of Harlech – has been judged steeper than Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand.

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‘That was a bit of a shame, eh’: Kiwis endure understated agony of World Cup defeat

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New Zealand cricket fans suffered through the night as their team fell excruciatingly short of victory at Lord’s

They emerged tired and emotional in the predawn light. They shuffled from living room couches or from the New Zealand bars lucky enough to organise short-notice liquor licences. Then, they went back to their Monday mornings.

No teacher or manager in the whole country would be naive enough to believe them if they said they had come down with the flu. They would have to wear their decision to stay up all night and watch the most thrilling cricket World Cup final ever played.

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Jacinda Ardern’s neighbour reportedly admits to killing Paddles, first cat of New Zealand

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Man going by the name of Chris says he wrote condolence card for Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford

The man who killed New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s cat has reportedly broken his silence, a year after he ran over the first cat of New Zealand.

Shortly after Ardern became the prime minister-elect in October 2017, her polydactyl cat named Paddles shot to fame, and even had her own Twitter account.

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All Blacks coach criticised for saying domestic violence ‘not a gender thing’

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Steve Hansen made the comments after naming Sevu Reece, who admitted to assaulting his partner, to the side

The All Blacks head coach has been called out for saying that domestic violence is not a gendered issue after he named a player who pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner in his side.

Steve Hansen, a former police constable, made the comments after putting Canterbury Crusaders winger Sevu Reece in the latest All Blacks’ squad.

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Google accused of ‘flipping the bird’ at New Zealand laws after Grace Millane murder

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Justice minister Andrew Little says tech giant’s contempt for murdered backpacker’s family is unacceptable

Tech giant Google is “flipping the bird” at New Zealand laws by refusing to change any company policy after it broke suppression orders related to the murder case of British backpacker Grace Millane.

Last December, a 27-year-old Auckland man appeared in the city’s high court charged with murdering Millane. His name was suppressed but it appeared in Google’s “what’s trending in New Zealand” email that went out to thousands of subscribers.

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Austrian far-right leader searched on suspicion of forming terrorist group with Christchurch shooter

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Investigation widens to include Martin Sellner’s fiancee Brittany Pettibone following her contact with Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell

The Austrian identitarian leader, Martin Sellner, has been subjected to further searches by Austrian police in connection with the Christchurch shooter, according to Austrian media reports and videos on Sellner’s own YouTube channel.

The investigation has also reportedly widened to include Sellner’s US-based fiancee, Brittany Pettibone, and her own alleged connections with Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell.

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The Pacific is in danger of becoming a semi-narco region

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Caught in the middle of a drug trafficking route, island countries are in danger of falling under the control of drug cartels

Four years ago I stood in front of a top level security conference and warned that we have just a few years to get on top of the problem of drugs being trafficked through the Pacific region or it could turn into a semi-narco region, controlled by criminal syndicates.

In the four years since I gave that speech, things have gotten worse.

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Pacific nations are ‘victims’ of Australian and New Zealand appetite for drugs, experts say

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Australia urged to take action to stop cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking from Latin America through Pacific region

Australia and New Zealand have been urged to do more to fight the drug trade across the Pacific and take responsibility for the fact that the demand for drugs in cities such as Sydney and Auckland was having devastating effects on small Pacific nations.

Drug traffickers transport cocaine and methamphetamines through Pacific nations from the US and Latin America to Australia and New Zealand, where drug users pay the highest price per gram (about A$300 or £180) for cocaine and have the highest cocaine use per capita in the world.

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Wine and chauffeurs: ANZ under pressure after NZ boss’s $400,000 in expenses revealed

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Questions over how chief executive David Hisco was allowed to run up large expense accounts and over wife’s purchase of a bank property

Pressure is mounting on the ANZ bank board after New Zealand’s central bank ordered two independent reviews into the company’s conduct following the departure of its NZ chief executive who ran up expense accounts averaging more than $400,000 a year.

The bank’s chairman, former New Zealand prime minister Sir John Key, last week announced the departure of David Hisco, who is an Australian, after the company learned of his spending for “non-monetary benefits” including a personal chauffeur service and wine cellaring.

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The new drug highway: Pacific islands at centre of cocaine trafficking boom

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Explosion in number of boats carrying cocaine and meth from Latin America to Australia is causing havoc for islands on the way

• Cocaine used as washing powder: police struggle with Pacific drug influx

It is the drug route you’ve never heard of: a multibillion-dollar operation involving cocaine and methamphetamines being packed into the hulls of sailing boats in the US and Latin America and transported to Australia via South Pacific islands more often thought of as holiday destinations than narcotics hubs.

In the past five years there has been an explosion in the number of boats, sometimes carrying more than a tonne of cocaine, making the journey across the Pacific Ocean to feed Australia’s growing and very lucrative drug habit.

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Cocaine used as washing powder: police struggle with Pacific drug influx

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Under-resourced but undeterred, Fiji’s officers battle surge in trafficking – with just one boat

• The new drug highway: Pacific islands at centre of cocaine trafficking boom

Sitiveni Qiliho, Fiji’s police commissioner, says he doesn’t watch films any more because, since taking on Fiji police’s top job two years ago, his life has enough drama.

Over the past few months he has found himself scuba diving in search of multimillion-dollar stashes of cocaine stored in huge underwater nets, arresting drug traffickers on the high seas and informing remote islands communities that the mysterious packages washing up on their beaches are full of cocaine and shouldn’t be baked into cakes or put in tea.

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Milk, bread, democracy: New Zealanders get to vote in supermarkets

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Shake-up of voting laws by Labour government will also allow same-day registration

As well as picking up a carton of milk and a loaf of bread at the supermarket, voters in New Zealand will also be able to pick their new prime minister at the next election, after a shake-up of voting laws allowed for ballot boxes to be placed in busy shops and malls.

The new regulations announced this week will also allow same-day registration and voting.

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‘Not welcome’ in Australia: from Tampa refugee to Fulbright scholar, via New Zealand

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New Zealand gave a home, and hope, to Abbas Nazari. He wishes all refugee children could be given the same chance

Abbas Nazari was stranded on a ship in the Indian ocean when he first heard the words “New Zealand”.

Then aged 7, Nazari’s mother, father and four siblings were among 430 asylum seekers, predominantly of the ethnic minority Hazaras of Afghanistan, plucked from a sinking fishing boat by the Norwegian cargo ship, the Tampa. They were later transferred to the HMAS Manoora, where they waited for asylum after Australia refused to accept them; creating an international quagmire over which country would, or should, offer sanctuary on humanitarian grounds.

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Christchurch massacre: Brenton Tarrant pleads not guilty to all charges

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Trial to be held in May 2020 for Australian man who faces 51 murder charges, 40 of attempted murder and one terrorism charge

Australian Brenton Tarrant has pleaded not guilty to all charges in relation to the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand.

Tarrant, 28, is facing 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of engaging in a terrorist act. The trial, estimated to take six weeks, will go ahead on 4 May, 2020.

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‘I feel hopeful’: New Zealanders cautiously welcome Wellbeing Budget

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Praise for spending on mental health and child wellbeing is tempered with concerns that the economic plan fails to address root causes of inequality

Pensioner Garry Harvey lived in Australia for decades before returning home to a tidy council flat in South Dunedin earlier this year. The socio-economically deprived suburb at the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island is in the crosshairs of the nation’s first-ever “wellbeing budget”, a radical economic plan for the country devised by Jacinda Ardern to improve the lives of the poorest citizens.

For the first time the annual budget puts social wellbeing indicators ahead of GDP when it comes to spending decisions. From now on, the health of New Zealand will not be measured by growth alone, but instead by the overall wellbeing and prosperity of its nearly 5 million people.

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Fears for British hiker missing for five days in New Zealand mountains

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Search for Darren Myers, who went missing in the Tararua ranges on Saturday, hampered by bad weather

Hopes of finding a British hiker alive after he went missing in New Zealand five days ago are dwindling as rescuers battle severe weather on a mountain range where he was last seen.

Darren Myers, 49, failed to return from a hike in the Tararua ranges in the North Island at noon on Saturday. The Tararuas are a rugged destination popular with hikers from Wellington.

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New Zealand speaker claims suspected serial rapist working in parliament

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Claim follows review into bullying and harassment that uncovered three allegations of serious sexual assault

The deputy leader of New Zealand’s opposition party has called for an investigation after the parliament’s speaker suggested there was a rapist working at Parliament House.

After the release of a review of bullying and harassment in parliament, speaker Trevor Mallard said there were three allegations of “serious sexual assault” that amounted to rape.

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First images emerge from New Zealand’s Pike river mine

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Pictures show a lot of groundwater has seeped into the mine since 2010 disaster that killed 29

The first images from inside the New Zealand’s Pike river mine, where an explosion killed 29 men nearly nine years ago, have been released.

The shots were taken as a three-person re-entry crew broke through the 88cm concrete seal on Tuesday at the mine’s opening to start the process of gathering evidence on what caused New Zealand’s worst mining disaster since 1914. The bodies of the 29 victims remain in the mine.

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Leaders and tech firms pledge to tackle extremist violence online

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Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron met companies and G7 nations in Paris for Christchurch Call summit

World leaders and heads of global technology companies have pledged at a Paris summit to tackle terrorist and extremist violence online in what they described as an “unprecedented agreement”.

Wednesday’s event, organised two months to the day since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, drew up a “plan of action” to be adopted by countries and companies to prevent extreme material going viral on the internet.

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