新西兰英语 124 New Auckland Super-City

Auckland has 1.4 million people and eight councils. Cities the same size in other parts of the world have only one council. A Royal Commission of three people has had the job of deciding what to do about Aucklands seven local councils and one regiona

新西兰英语 307 Rugby World Cup Party in Auckland

Most New Zealanders know that the Rugby World Cup will take place here in September and October 2011. Teams from 19 countries will compete. The final will be held at Eden Park in Auckland. Last year the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) and the governm

新西兰英语 358 New Auckland City

The new Auckland City came into existence today with early morning celebrations. Celebrations continued when the new mayor, Len Brown, and 20 councillors were sworn in this evening. The new council will meet tomorrow morning at 9am, ready for busines

新西兰英语 308 Relations with Fiji

The Fijian Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama thinks that Australia and New Zealand have been interfering in Fijian politics. Last year Fiji was expelled from the Pacific Islands Forum because Bainimarama did not hold elections by the end of the year.

新西兰英语 269 ECan replaced by Commissioners

ECan is short for Environment Canterbury. This is a regional organisation which has been responsible for water, clean air, buses, and many other matters which affect our environment. Every three years, we have voted for people to be on the council of

新西兰英语 229 Molesworth

The road through Molesworth high country farm is now open for the summer. It closes again at Easter. Molesworth is in the northern part of the South Island. Molesworth is the biggest farm in New Zealand. It is 180,787 hectares. It has about 10,000 be

新西兰英语 260 Indoor Dairy Farms on Hold

The three companies that were planning 16 indoor dairy farms in the Mackenzie country have decided not to go ahead at the moment. They said it had cost them nearly $4m already but now the Environment Ministry wants more information about the effluent

新西兰英语 310 Chinese company wants to buy farms

A Hong Kong company, Natural Dairy, wants to buy 16 dairy farms which belonged to the Crafar family. Thirteen of the farms are dairy farms and in total, the land is 8,815 hectares. The Crafar family went bankrupt and could not pay their debts of arou

新西兰英语 376 ANZAC poppies

ANZAC poppies are made of fabric. They represent the red poppies that were flowering when so many soldiers from Australia and New Zealand were killed at Gallipoli during World War I. Listen to April 24th 2010 for more background to ANZAC day. These p

新西兰英语 197 Strikes and lockouts

There may be some disruption to bus services in Auckland tomorrow as NZ Bus intends to lock out bus drivers. This is in response to a strike that the unions had organised. The unions want pay increases for their drivers who currently earn between $14

新西兰英语 97 Baby milk powder scandal in China, again

Last week, 21 people were found guilty in the case of contaminated baby formula in China. Two men who added melamine to the milk powder will be executed. The chairwoman of San Lu Dairy Company was sentenced to life imprisonment because she knew about

新西兰英语 184 Samoa drives on the left

Today, Western Samoa changed from driving on the right hand side of the road to the left hand side, just like New Zealand. American Samoa will continue to drive on the right hand side just like the USA. However, all the other Pacific Islands drive on

新西兰英语 421 Business owners want access

Business people who have a shop, office or restaurant in the CBD (Central Business District) of Christchurch want access to their business. Most of the CBD has been closed since the earthquake in February. The Head of Civil Defence says it is too dan

新西兰英语 231 Paua Poaching

Paua poachers are fish thieves, says the Ministry of Fishing. They steal paua which should belong to everyone. Paua are shell fish which are called abalone in the US. You find them on rocks all around New Zealand, at low tide, usually in water just a

新西兰英语 246 Jeanette Fitzsimons retires from Parliame

The Green Party MP and co-leader, retired from Parliament today. She has been in Parliament for 13 years. She was elected as a list MP for the Alliance Party in the first MMP Parliament in 1996. At that time, the Greens were part of the Alliance Part

新西兰英语 118 Nine-day fortnight for workers starts soo

After the Job Conference in Auckland two weeks ago, (see February 27th 2009)the government has moved quickly to bring in a nine-day fortnight. The idea is for workers to take one day off every two weeks for training. This will help employers who do n

新西兰英语 261 Hadda Beetle

When you arrive in New Zealand, people from Biosecurity check that do not bring any food with you. Because we are an island country, we try to keep out pests from other countries. We are not always successful though. Listen to September 25th 2008 for

新西兰英语 141 Mt Albert Electorate

When Helen Clark left Parliament, the Labour Party announced there would be a by-election in Mt Albert to find a replacement MP. Russell Norman, co-leader of the Green Party, and John Boscawen of the ACT Party both want to be the MP for Mt Albert. Th

新西兰英语 98 Lunar New Year in New Zealand

Both Chinese and Korean people are celebrating the Lunar New Year. This is a three day festival for Koreans called Seollal. The Chinese New Year is the start of the Spring Festival. It finishes with the Lantern Festival 15 days later. For Chinese and

新西兰英语 138 Swine Flu

After the news that more than 100 people have died from swine flu in Mexico, New Zealand is now worried about travellers who have just returned from Mexico. Swine flu comes from pigs, not from eating pork. It comes at first from the animals but after