新西兰英语 63 High School Issues

The PPTA is holding their annual conference this week. PPTA means Post-Primary Teachers Association and it is the union for high school teachers. Discussion today was about the Labour governments plan, called Schools Plus, for keeping all young peopl

新西兰英语 182 Whitebait

Whitebait is the name we give to four different kinds of very small native fish. The most common whitebait is called inanga in Maori. It is only about 5 or 6 cm long so you need quite a lot to make a meal. However, it is hard to catch and expensive t

新西兰英语 180 New Zealanders Returning Home

There are many New Zealanders returning home to live at the moment. Traditionally, young Kiwis go overseas to live and work for a few years and this is called an OE (overseas experience). Some return home after a year or two and others stay away for

新西兰英语 113 Government to buy new trains

When the Labour government bought Kiwi Rail last year (see May 10 2008) the National Party said this was a big mistake. However, now the National government has to find some money to improve the trains. Today, we heard that the government will spend

新西兰英语 111 Green Party Co-Leader will retire

The Green Party co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, announced that she will step down from her position as co-leader in June, and leave politics altogether at the next elections. She has been co-leader of the Greens for 14 years. The Green Party must hav

新西兰英语 689 Lord of the Rings court case

The Lord of the Rings author was JRR Tolkien. He was a Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University in England. He died in 1973, aged 81. He signed the movie rights to a company in Hollywood in 1969. This included rights to sell

新西兰英语 688 Hobbit actors arrive in Wellington

A special AirNZ plane, painted with Hobbit characters, brought Hobbit actors to Wellington today in time for tomorrows premiere of the movie. It is called The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This will be the first of three films of the Hobbit. Like Th

新西兰英语 702 New Year’s Eve

How do New Zealanders celebrate New Years Eve? Many cities and towns offer outdoor concerts finishing with fireworks. Auckland has brought in 3 tonnes of sand for the Britomart Beach Party. There will be live music, dancing and, at midnight, firework

新西兰英语 701 Winner of the New Zealand Music Awards

The annual New Zealand Music Awards were held tonight in Auckland. The popular singer-songwriter/guitarist, Kimbra, returned from Canada for the event. She had nominations in many categories and won five of these. She also won the most important awar

新西兰英语 700 Cook Strait Ferry Crossing

The government is again looking at a plan to move the South Island ferry terminal from Picton to Clifford Bay, about 50km south of Picton. This is a shorter distance from Wellington to Christchurch. It would cut 110 minutes off the time by rail and 8

新西兰英语 699 Pike River Report

The Royal Commission Report on the tragedy at the Pike River coal mine was released today. On 19th November 2010, 29 men died in an explosion in the Pike River mine. Listen to November 20th 2010 to hear about this. Between July and November last year

新西兰英语 698 Frost damages grape vines

Although it is Spring now, the last few days have been very cold in parts of New Zealand. In some grape growing areas, the temperatures have dropped to minus 5 degrees at night. During the spring, new leaf buds develop on the vines and frost can kill

新西兰英语 696 NCEA exams start today

NCEA means National Certificate in Educational Achievement. Level 1 is for Year 11 students, Level 2 for Year 12 and Level 3 is for the final high school year Year 13. 46,000 students in New Zealand sat Level 1 English exams this morning. These are c

新西兰英语 695 Prince Charles has a birthday party

Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, arrived in New Zealand last weekend for a 6 day visit. The visit is part of the Queens 60th Jubilee. It is too far for the Queen to travel now but her son and grandson have been visiting countries in the Commonwe

新西兰英语 694 Solar Eclipse

Yesterday morning, New Zealanders were lucky to see a partial solar eclipse. This occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. In Queensland, Australia, there was a total eclipse total darkness for about two minutes. A partial eclipse m

新西兰英语 693 Labour Party Conference

The Labour Party held their annual conference over the weekend. More than 500 members attended. A member is someone who pays a membership fee to belong to the Labour Party. This includes the 34 Labour Members of Parliament. The Leader of the Oppositi

新西兰英语 692 Labour Party Leadership

First check back to November 18th about the Labour Party conference. During the conference last weekend, David Cunnliffe refused to say if he supported David Shearer as Leader of the Opposition. This looked as if Mr Cunnliffe wanted to challenge Mr S

新西兰英语 691 Explosion on Mt Tongariro

Three months ago, Mt Tongariro erupted, sending a cloud of ash into the sky. Today the same thing happened and it happened suddenly, without any early signs or noise. Again it sent a cloud of ash into the sky, about 5000m high. Listen to August 8th 2

新西兰英语 690 John Key at ASEAN meeting

The Prime Minister, John Key, attended the ASEAN meeting in Cambodia earlier this week. ASEAN is the Association of South-East Asian Nations. There were many South -East Asian leaders and others who are interested in Asia, including President Obama a

新西兰英语 697 CTV Coroner’s Inquest

For the last two weeks, the coroner has been listening to evidence about trying to rescue people from the CTV building after the earthquake. The CTV building collapsed during the February 2011 earthquake and caught on fire. More than a hundred people