新西兰英语 128 More Job Losses

Sometimes we hear that the economic problems in New Zealand are not so bad. On the other hand, we heard of more job losses this week. The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) will cut 70 jobs. The TEC is a government business which gives funding and c

新西兰英语 236 Prince William’s Visit

Prince William arrived in New Zealand yesterday. He is representing the Queen. This morning he opened the new Supreme Court building which is in Wellington. This is the highest court in New Zealand. The Queen is now in her 80s and a long trip to New

新西兰英语 258 Kiwi disabled skier wins gold

The disabled skier, Adam Hall, won the slalom skiing in the Paralympics in Vancouver today. He fell on his second run but had such a fast time on his first run that he still won the gold medal. Adam Hall has spina bifida which makes it difficult for

新西兰英语 294 Maori and the Sea

We have heard a lot of talk in the last six years about the foreshore and seabed. The foreshore is the beach up to the high tide mark. The seabed is the ocean as far as New Zealands limit, 200 miles out to sea. This is the part of the ocean which New

新西兰英语 406 Universities start this week

Universities begin classes this week. There are eight universities in New Zealand: the University of Auckland and the Auckland University of Technology are both in Auckland. Massey University has a campus in Auckland and in Palmerston North. Massey a

新西兰英语 104 The Heat Wave

New Zealand is experiencing a hot summer this year. The East Coast of both the North and South Islands have had temperatures in the 30s. Central Otago has also had a heat wave and even Northland has had higher temperatures than normal. While Auckland

新西兰英语 136 New Zealand Place Names

The New Zealand Geographic Board is thinking about changing the names of the North Island and the South Island. The Board members think that these two islands should have Maori names instead. Certainly, North Island and South Island are not very inte

新西兰英语 381 Growing Up in New Zealand

This month we saw some early results from a study of small children. The full report is at Growing Up in NZ About 7,000 children, born between April 2009 and March 2010, are in the study. They live in Waikato, or a particular area in Auckland. This i

新西兰英语 247 The Coast-to-Coast Race

Yesterday was the famous Coast-to-Coast multi-sport race, from the Tasman Sea on the West Coast, across mountains, down a river, then on the road to the Pacific Ocean on the East Coast. It is called multi-sport because competitors have to be good at

新西兰英语 291 Queen’s Birthday Honours

Today, we learnt that one woman is now a Dame and six men are Sir. Many other people will receive medals for community work. The award is not given for their paid job but for the voluntary work they have done. For more about the Honour awards, listen

新西兰英语 230 New Year’s Honours

This government brought back titles Sir and Dame for people who receive the top honours in our country. Listen to March 8 2009. Now our most famous film maker is Sir Peter Jackson. He made the Lord of the Rings movies and King Kong. Three other peopl

新西兰英语 264 Easter Shopping

There are three and a half days in the year when the law says that shops must not open. Two of these days are at Easter. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are important days in the Christian church. Most shops are closed on these two days. Shops are clos

新西兰英语 126 Earth Hour

Last night at 8.30pm on 28th March 80 countries took part in Earth Hour by turning off lights and other things which use electricity. The idea began in Sydney in 2007. Last year, Christchurch was the only New Zealand city to observe Earth Hour but th

新西兰英语 152 The Budget

Today, the Minister of Finance, Bill English, read the Budget in Parliament. The Budget is a plan of how much money the government has and how the government will spend it. For the last few weeks, Bill English has told us some of the things that woul

新西兰英语 201 Rugby World Cup on TV again

There has been another surprise change to which TV channel will show the Rugby World Cup in 2011. Now TVNZ, TV3 and Maori TV will all share in filming and showing the games. Maori TV will be the main channel but other channels will also have a share

新西兰英语 195 Samoa needs help after tsunami

After Wednesdays terrible tsunami which killed at least 150 people in Samoa, help is needed. The country needs helicopters to find bodies in the sea and needs people to identify those bodies. Help is needed to care for the injured. The survivors need

新西兰英语 411 Daily life after an earthquake

The Prime Minister announced today the name of new Governor-General. He is Lieutenant-General Jerry Mateparae. His job will start in August this year and last for five years. Jerry Mateparae began his career as a soldier in 1972 when he was 18 years

新西兰英语 165 Home Insulation Plan

Many houses in New Zealand are cold. Our traditional wooden house had no insulation. If you live in a house like that, you are paying for heat to escape from the ceiling, walls and under the floor. Insulation is made from material like wool or fibreg

新西兰英语 237 Tax

The Tax Working Group, which is a group of experts, gave their report this week. They have been looking at our tax laws to see if they are fair to everyone and if they help the economy to grow. The Working Group said that at the moment some rich peop

新西兰英语 223 $3.8 million dollars still missing

This story began six months ago and has not finished yet. In May, Leo Gao who had a petrol station in Rotorua, asked Westpac Bank to lend him $100,000 because his business was in financial trouble. A bank employee made a mistake and put $10million in