新西兰英语 06 Southern Institute of Technology

The Tertiary Education Commission (the TEC) announced the funding for polytechs and universities for the next 3 years. The TEC is the government organisation responsible for tertiary institutions like polytechs and universities so this is government

新西兰英语 05 Restricted University Courses

The Auckland University Council has voted to restrict entry to courses in Arts, Science, Education and Law from 2009. Some specialist courses, like medicine, engineering and business, have always been restricted but universities in New Zealand give o

新西兰英语 03 Birth Statistics

Mothers and babies have been in the news this last week. First, Statistics New Zealand announced a slight increase in the birth rate and secondly the Capital and Coast District Health Board (which has hospitals in the Wellington area) is worried abou

新西兰英语 429 Tornado hits north of Auckland

A tornado hit parts of Aucklands North Shore this afternoon (Tuesday). It killed one man and injured 14 other people. It caused a lot of damage to houses, shops, trees and cars. The Albany shopping mall lost its roof. Sheets of steel from the roof an

新西兰英语 710 Royal baby

Probably everyone knows by now that the Duchess of Cambridge wife of Prince William is pregnant. For some time now, Britain and the Commonwealth heads of government have been talking about changing the law to allow a female baby to be next in line to

新西兰英语 717 Fires burn on islands near Auckland

High temperatures helped to spread fires on two big islands near Auckland. A fire on Waiheke Island started five days ago but is now under control with the help of helicopters with monsoon buckets. The fire destroyed 10,000 square metres of bushes. A

新西兰英语 716 Waiheke Island

Yesterday Waiheke Island was in the news because of fire. Listen to Jan 24th 2013 to hear more about this. Today an outdoor sculpture exhibition opens in Waiheke Island. It runs for three weeks. Sculptures are along a 2.5km path on the coast. This ex

新西兰英语 715 Warrant of Fitness changes

Today the Associate Minister of Transport, Simon Bridges, announced changes to the Warrant of Fitness laws. These changes will happen next year. At the moment, all cars which are less than 6 years old need a WoF (Warrant of Fitness) every 12 months.

新西兰英语 714 New Zealand Post may cut mail deliveries

NZPost is losing money so the company would like to cut mail deliveries from 6 days a week to 3 days a week. NZPost is planning to put computers in some places, like supermarkets and petrol stations, so that people can post their own mail electronica

新西兰英语 713 Fracking

What is fracking? It is a way of getting gas or oil from inside rock, deep underground. Mining companies break the rock using water. This week, the Commissioner for the Environment gave a report on fracking in New Zealand. She said that the mining co

新西兰英语 712 End of school year

First listen to November 12th 2012 to hear about NCEA. NCEA exams started three weeks ago and most students finished last week but the last exam was Level 3 Spanish this afternoon. There were 120 different exams at the three levels. 143,000 students

新西兰英语 711 Tornado hits Auckland

A tornado hit parts of west Auckland around midday today. Three construction workers were killed when concrete panels fell on top of them. Seven other construction workers were injured. Roofs lifted off houses in the strong wind and trees fell on top

新西兰英语 709 Royal Commission Report

Yesterday the Royal Commission, which investigated the collapse of the CTV building after the February 2011 earthquake, made their final report public. First the report was given to the government at the end of November. Last weekend it was given to

新西兰英语 708 Cyclone in the Pacific

Cyclone Evan hit Samoa on Thursday evening with strong winds and heavy rain. Four people are dead and eight in fishing boats are missing. The captain of one fishing boat managed to swim to a nearby island and was found by a Royal New Zealand Air Forc

新西兰英语 707 Fiji after Cyclone Evan

Although the cyclone was category 4 the second highest level gusts of wind were 270km an hour at times. Both the wind and the rain caused damage. Many houses in Fiji are not strong and can easily be destroyed in a storm. Some houses blew away in the

新西兰英语 706 Politicians get pay increase

Our MPs and judges all got a 1.9% pay increase at the end of this year. It was also back-dated to July 1st. This means the pay increase should have started July 1st so they get that extra increase in one big payment. For most back-bench MPs that one-

新西兰英语 705 Christmas in New Zealand

Christmas Day in New Zealand is often hot. Its the middle of summer, a few days after the longest day. Because our two main islands are quite narrow, most New Zealanders live close to a beach. A traditional European Christmas dinner roast lamb follow

新西兰英语 704 Boxing Day Sales

The day after Christmas Day is called Boxing Day. It is not clear where this name came from but maybe it came from people putting left-over food into boxes to give to the poor. Nowadays, it is the day when shops have sales and offer good bargains. Th

新西兰英语 703 Milk in schools

The milk processing company, Fonterra, is going to give free milk to all schools in New Zealand if they ask for it. There are about 350,000 primary school children, from Years 1 to 6, in New Zealand. The milk comes in a small box and is heat-treated

新西兰英语 61 Parliament Ends

Last week was the final session for Parliament before the elections on November 8th. During the session last week, MPs who were retiring gave their farewell speeches. One well-known National MP, Katherine Rich, decided to retire from Parliament as sh