新西兰英语 221 Indoor Dairy Farms

Three companies want to build big dairy farms in the centre of the South Island called the Mackenzie Country. This is a beautiful part of New Zealand with lakes and mountains. It is near Mt Cook, Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki and Lake Ohau. If you drive t

新西兰英语 721 NCEA results

First listen to November 12th 2012 and January 17th 2010 to hear about NCEA. More than 163,000 students received their NCEA results today. The results were available online and each student had their own password to see their own results. There are t

新西兰英语 718 Cats are a problem

The Forest and Bird Society, along with millionaire Gareth Morgan, want people to say, This cat will be my last cat. When the cat dies, people should not get another one. The problem with cats is that they are predators. Predators catch and eat other

新西兰英语 719 John Key in Antarctica

Prime Minister John Key and his wife flew to Antarctica last night (Friday) for a three-day trip. The plan was for a four-day trip, leaving on Thursday evening but the weather in Antarctica was a problem. So Thursday evening, John Key and his wife we

新西兰英语 720 Gisborne Rail

KiwiRail announced this week that it will close the railway from Gisborne to Napier. Heavy rain in March last year washed out 3km of railway line. The line has not been repaired partly because it was difficult to reach. KiwiRail decided that it would

新西兰英语 722 Don’t text while driving

Since November 2009, it has been illegal to use a mobile phone while driving. This includes making phone calls, answering phone calls and texting. Hands-free phones are legal; however, they can also distract drivers. A driver needs to pay attention 1

新西兰英语 723 Australian Bush Fires

Once again, Australia is experiencing terrible bush fires. The temperatures are in the 40s in many places and could reach 50 degrees next weekend north of Adelaide in South Australia. Strong winds help to spread the fires. The leaves from eucalyptus

新西兰英语 724 Beach Rescues

This week has been a very busy time for Surf Lifeguards. The sea around many parts of New Zealand has been quite dangerous recently with high waves and rips. In the week since New Year, Surf Lifeguards at Papamoa beach in the Bay of Plenty rescued 37

新西兰英语 725 Summer in the Southern Hemisphere

Today has been warm and sunny throughout the whole country. This is a reminder that in New Zealand we have to be careful to protect ourselves from the harmful UV rays from the sun. The earth is closer to the sun during the southern summer than during

新西兰英语 726 Strange summer weather

Those of us who live in New Zealand know that we can have warm days in winter and cold days in summer. We also know that the weather in the north can be entirely different from the weather in the south. Likewise, the weather in the west is often the

新西兰英语 727 new Year’s Day

New Zealand is one of the first countries to experience New Years Day. Our time zone is UTC +13 at the moment with daylight saving time. So already it is New Years Day here. Samoa is now first in the world because they moved the date line a year ago.

新西兰英语 728 Man killed by a shark

A man, who was swimming today at Murawai beach near Auckland, was attacked by a shark and died in the water. The man lived at Murawai. He was married with a young family. One fisherman, who was on rocks nearby, said he saw two sharks. Another fisherm

新西兰英语 732 Census

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 is census day. This is the day we count the people in our country. We fill in our census forms on March 5th. You should receive your forms soon. Every family will receive one form for each person and one for the dwelling. It

新西兰英语 731 Christchurch schools

As a result of the earthquakes in Christchurch, many families in the residential red zones have moved. Red zones are those areas where the land has been badly damaged by the earthquakes and the houses will be demolished after July. There have been bi

新西兰英语 730 Remembering the earthquake

Today, we remembered the terrible earthquake in Christchurch two years ago. It killed 185 people and injured many more. Last years memorial service was held in Hagley Park, the place where so many people gathered, waiting for news after the earthquak

新西兰英语 729 SkyCity had special treatment

If you listen to April 10th 2012 you will hear about the governments plans for SkyCity casino to build a convention centre for Auckland. The government announced these plans nearly a year ago but the Green Party was concerned about whether it was fai

新西兰英语 04 Electoral Finance Act

Parliament is still discussing the Electoral Finance Bill. This Bill is about how much money political parties and other people can spend on an election. Last general election, in 2005, there were some problems over spending money to encourage people

新西兰英语 12 Nai Yin Xue

The hunt for the murder suspect, Nai Yin Xue, has come to an end when he was found in a small town in Georgia in the south of the United States. Two New Zealand police officers will probably bring him back to this country to stand trial for the murde

新西兰英语 11 District Health Boards

District Hospital Boards (DHBs) have been in the news lately. New Zealand has 21 DHBs. The job of the Board is to meet the health needs of the community. The Board is responsible for governing hospitals and health services in their own areas but they

新西兰英语 10 War medals stolen

On December 2nd last year, 91 war medals were stolen from the Army Museum in Waiouru (just south of Lake Taupo). On Friday, they were handed to the police. The war medals were won by soldiers during several wars, for brave actions. The most famous me