新西兰英语 44 The Weather

This weekend, parts of New Zealand have experienced some very violent weather. A low pressure system coming from northern Australia hit Northland on Saturday and lasted for about 36 hours. The system moved south east to the Coromandel and the Bay of

新西兰英语 70 MMP

MMP may be responsible for a delay in deciding whether National or Labour gets to form the new government. With 120 seats in parliament, the winning party needs 61 to have a majority. After the last elections, Labour had 50 seats while National had 4

新西兰英语 79 New Geothermal Power Station

Today a new geo-thermal power station was opened in Kawerau, in the eastern Bay of Plenty. Geo means earth and therm means heat. The power station uses hot steam from the earth. Like the geo-thermal power station at Wairakei, which opened in the 1950

新西兰英语 84 Japanese Climber Rescued

Early this morning, one Japanese climber, Hideaki Nara, was rescued from Aoraki Mt Cook and the body of his climbing mate, Kiyoshi Ikenouchi, was taken down the mountain by helicopter. The two men were both experienced climbers and Mr Ikenouchi was a

新西兰英语 202 ACC

Last week, the ACC Chairman said that ACC needs to increase levies that we pay. ACC means Accident Compensation Corporation. It provides insurance to pay for health care if we have an accident. This is a No Fault insurance because we cannot sue a per

新西兰英语 144 Auckland Motorway Extension

The Auckland south-western motorway now goes 13km from the airport to Mt Roskill but on Friday, another 4km to Sandringham Rd will open. This motorway is called State Highway 20 (SH20). The plan is for this motorway to continue further so that it lin

新西兰英语 149 Future for Cycling

After the jobs conference (see February 27th 2009) the Prime Minister, John Key, was very interested in the idea of cycle tracks from the north of the North Island to the south of the South Island, about 2,000km. As well as being Prime Minister, John

新西兰英语 166 NZ Economy

There was some good news for the New Zealand economy in the latest figures from Statistics New Zealand ( www.stats.govt.nz ). For the first time for many years, we earned more money from our exports and paid less for imports. The surplus money was $8

新西兰英语 220 Yike Bike

Time magazine included the Yike Bike in their list of the 50 Best Inventions for 2009. The Yike Bike is an electric bike which folds. It weighs about 9kg and has a battery which charges in about 20 minutes. You sit up straight on a Yike Bike holding

新西兰英语 222 Electricity changes

The government plans to change some of our electricity companies. Two of the North Island electricity companies Genesis and Mighty River will have some South Island power stations and the South Island power company, Meridian, will get a North Island

新西兰英语 348 Improving Auckland city

Len Brown, the new mayor of Auckland, has plans to improve public transport in the Auckland. He wants a railway from the airport into the city, a rail loop through the central city and a railway over a new harbour bridge. The central city loop would

新西兰英语 358 New Auckland City

The new Auckland City came into existence today with early morning celebrations. Celebrations continued when the new mayor, Len Brown, and 20 councillors were sworn in this evening. The new council will meet tomorrow morning at 9am, ready for busines

新西兰英语 404 Pay for night work

Workers in homes for intellectually disabled adults are paid just $34 a night for sleeping in the IHC home. IHC used to mean intellectually handicapped children but now it is people with intellectual disabilities, adults and children. If adults canno

新西兰英语 402 Coast-to-Coast Race

This year the 29th year since the race first began there were 800 competitors. Competitors run, cycle and kayak 243km; some do this in two days (Friday and Saturday) some do it in teams of two, while others prefer to do the individual Longest Day sta

新西兰英语 389 Petrol Prices rise

Regular petrol 91 octane is now $2 a litre well, $1.99.9. Although this price is high, in July 2008 it reached $2.19. At that time, the price of a barrel of oil was higher and the kiwi dollar was lower. Now the price of oil is around $100 a barrel an

新西兰英语 369 No progress on rescuing miners

Very little progress has been made today in rescuing the trapped miners in Pike River Coal mine. The army robot with a camera on it broke down about half a km into the mine perhaps because of the water in the mine. A second army robot has arrived but

新西兰英语 408 Christchurch earthquake

After Tuesdays terrible earthquake, 200 people are still missing, almost certainly dead. Just over 100 bodies have already been recovered from collapsed buildings. Thousands of people still have no power, water or sewerage system. Thousands of homes

新西兰英语 407 Census

This week you will receive your census papers. You fill in these forms on March 8th. There is an individual form and a household form. One person in your house fills in the household form. The information is about the kind of house you live in, the n

新西兰英语 285 The drug P

A customs officer found the drug P (methamphetamine) in a tourists luggage last week at Auckland airport. Other members of the tour party were searched and a total of 8kg of P was found. Seven tourists were arrested and are now in prison, waiting for

新西兰英语 333 Some earthquake facts

Here are some facts about the earthquake which struck the Canterbury region on Saturday. It measured 7.1 on the Richter scale. At first we were told it was 7.4. That would mean nearly three times stronger. Each 0.2 means double the strength. On avera