新西兰英语 788 Matariki

Matariki is the Maori New Year. Just before dawn this morning, the seven stars of the Pleiades which Maori call Matariki, appeared in the sky. Some Maori iwi celebrate Matariki after the next full moon or at the next new moon. For Maori, it was a tim

新西兰英语 786 Ski season begins

Its winter and snow has fallen in the mountains. Coronet Peak ski field in Queenstown opened last weekend and Mt Hutt near Christchurch opened today. However, the forecast for tomorrow and the next few days is for snow showers so maybe there will be

新西兰英语 785 rain

Most of the South Island has had heavy rain causing flooding. In Nelson, a mudslide came down on top of a house, killing the woman who lived there. Heavy rain caused more mudslides in many parts of Nelson and some roads were closed. Dunedin and Chris

新西兰英语 784 Two candidates for mayor in Christchurch

Lianne Dalziel today announced that she was a candidate for mayor of Christchurch. Mayor Bob Parker also plans to stand as a candidate for mayor so Christchurch people will have a choice of two strong people. This will make the local body elections i

新西兰英语 783 Wild weather

Wild weather hit Wellington last night with heavy rain and strong winds. Winds reaching 200 km an hour caused a lot of damage. Winds lifted roofs off houses. Trees and power lines came down. About 30,000 homes lost their electricity. Huge waves broke

新西兰英语 782 Getting to Milford Sound

Milford Sound in Fiordland is the number one tourist attraction for many overseas visitors to New Zealand. However, it is not easy to get there. Many tourists choose to take a bus trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound and return in one day. The dista

新西兰英语 781 Volunteers help farmers

Many farms in the high country in Otago and Canterbury had so much snow that their animals could not move and the farmer could not move to the animals to bring them hay. For the last two days, 50 or 60 volunteers helped to rescue sheep. Most of the v

新西兰英语 780 Auckland’s transport future

Traffic jams are common in Auckland. They are bad for business and bad for commuters who sit in their cars on the way to work getting more and more annoyed by congestion. The Prime Minister, John Key, announced this week more money to improve Aucklan

新西兰英语 779 Army leaves Christchurch city

Immediately after the February 2011 earthquake, the army moved into Christchurch CBD to keep people out. Fences went up around the four avenues which border the city and the only people allowed in and out were engineers, police or others working on d

新西兰英语 778 Auckland City Plan

Vocabulary ?congestion too many people or cars which means they cant move easily ?urban sprawl city spread out too much ?infrastructure water, sewage, electricity, transport etc ?metropolitan city ?submissions write your opinions and send them to the

新西兰英语 787 No change in Official Cash Rate

The Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said this morning that the Official Cash Rate the OCR will remain at 2.5%. The Governor of the Reserve Bank sets the OCR 8 times a year. Today he said there was still some negative financial news in Europe but

新西兰英语 801 Start of School Holidays

For the next two weeks, schools are closed and children have a holiday. Some are lucky to have a family holiday, perhaps skiing in the mountains. Some children visit grandparents in another town for the holidays. If parents are separated and live in

新西兰英语 807 Increase in unmarried mothers

Last year, about 60,000 babies were born in New Zealand and almost half of the mothers were not married. These are the numbers for last year: 32,019 mothers were married and 29,159 were not married. About 80% of Maori mothers, 50% of European mothers

新西兰英语 806 Maori By-Election results

First listen to April 29th 2013 to hear about the death of Parekura Horomia and the need for a by-election. As a result of the death of the Labour MP Parekura Horomia, a by-election was held on Saturday to elect a new Member of Parliament for the eas

新西兰英语 805 Vet school celebrates 50 years

A vet is a short word for veterinarian, an animal doctor. This year, Massey University in Palmerston North is celebrating 50 years since it opened the Veterinary school. Tomorrow, the school will celebrate this occasion with a day of speakers and a d

新西兰英语 804 Christchurch mayor will give up

The last two weeks have been very busy for the Christchurch City Council. First, there was a decision between the Council and the government about who was going to pay for major re-build projects like the sports centre, the library, the convention ce

新西兰英语 803 No ‘man ban’ for Labour

The Labour Party will not ban men from becoming candidates for election in some seats. The Labour Council wants to discuss the idea during the Labour Party conference in November of having 50% women MPs. However, David Shearer, the leader of the Labo

新西兰英语 802 Jury Service

An Auckland man was sentenced to 10 days in jail for refusing to do jury service. He said he was too busy at work to be on a jury. He is a self-employed engineer. The Minister of Courts said it was the duty of everybody in a democratic society to ser

新西兰英语 800 A telescope in a plane

An unusual Boeing 747 arrived in Christchurch at the weekend from California. It has a telescope on board. The plane will spend the next three weeks flying the skies of the South Island to study the Milky Way. It is called SOFIA, Stratospheric Observ

新西兰英语 799 No Milford Tunnel

First listen to June 23rd 2013 to hear about getting to Milford Sound. Dr Nick Smith, the Minister for Conservation, has now decided not to allow a tunnel to Milford Sound. Although the company wanting to build the tunnel is disappointed with this de