新西兰英语 123 World Potato Conference in Christchurch

The 7th World Potato Conference was held in Christchurch this week. This is the first time it has been held in New Zealand. A large number of scientists from many different countries attended the conference. New Zealand is a good country to host a po

新西兰英语 401 Valentine’s Day

Tomorrow is Valentines Day, a day for lovers. The celebration of Valentines Day is mostly an American and British custom but some New Zealanders also like to give cards, chocolates or flowers. Flower growers are happy to encourage this custom because

新西兰英语 311 All Whites Welcomed to Wellington

Almost 20,000 football supporters came out in Wellington on Wednesday to celebrate the success of the New Zealand football team, the All Whites. The Wellington City Council organised a special parade for the team and the Prime Minister, John Key, was

新西兰英语 121 Woman has baby on plane

A 30 year old Samoan woman gave birth to a baby on a plane from Samoa to New Zealand. The baby was found by cleaners after the plane landed. It was in the toilet rubbish. The mother was found waiting at immigration because she had lost her passport.

新西兰英语 314 MP Chris Carter

The Labour MP Chris Carter is in trouble today. He wrote a letter which he handed to some reporters. The letter said that he believed Phil Goff, who is the Leader of the Opposition, does not have a chance to win the next election. He believed that an

新西兰英语 203 Boy Racers

Listen also to May 26th 2009 The law to crush boy racers cars passed in Parliament today. The government hopes that boy racers will be so frightened of having their cars crushed that they will drive sensibly. The Minister of Police, Judith Collins, s

新西兰英语 282 Violence in Thailand

Since March there has been conflict in the streets of Bangkok between the Red Shirt protestors, who support the last Prime Minister, and the Thai army. However in the last fortnight the violence has increased, with over 60 people dead and more than 1

新西兰英语 88 Problems in Fiji

Relations between Fiji and New Zealand are very tense at the moment. Two years ago, Commodore Bainimarama got rid of the Prime Minister and took over the government of Fiji himself in a coup. He established martial law, which is rule by the army. New

新西兰英语 423 Schools share sites in Christchurch

Thirty-four schools in Christchurch have a red sticker which means the school is badly damaged and not safe. Nearly all schools are now open but for most of those 34, it means sharing with another school one in the morning and one in the afternoon. T

新西兰英语 109 Scholarship Results

On Wednesday, high school students who sat scholarship exams at the end of last year, found their results on the NZQA website. By now, all students will have their results by mail too. Scholarship exams are for the top students in schools. They are e

新西兰英语 115 Workers lose their jobs

Each week now we hear of more workers who are losing their jobs. This week, Sealord will lay off 180 workers from their Nelson fish processing factory but they will employ another 50 on the fishing boats. These days it is cheaper to process fish on t

新西兰英语 238 Mike Moore US Ambassador

The government announced our new ambassador to the United States will be Mike Moore. This is an interesting choice as Mike Moore was a Labour Party MP and also, very briefly, the Prime Minister in 1990. The present government is a National government

新西兰英语 117 ACC in financial trouble

The Head of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) was fired from his job on Monday because the ACC was in debt. The costs are more than the income. Our ACC means that we cannot sue anyone who causes an accident. This is different from countries

新西兰英语 130 Michael Cullen to resign

Michael Cullen was Deputy Prime Minister for nine years under the Labour government led by Helen Clark. He has announced that he will leave Parliament at the end of April. Like Helen Clark, he has been an MP since 1981. He was Finance Minister during

新西兰英语 131 John Key in Thailand

The Prime Minister, John Key, is on his way to Thailand for the Asean conference which will be held this weekend in Pattaya, 100km south of Bangkok. Ten Asian countries including Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and China, will be represented at

新西兰英语 156 David Bain Not Guilty

Over the past three months, TV news has shown the David Bain re-trial. This is his second trial. David has spent 13 years in prison for murdering five members of his family, his mother, father, two sisters and his brother in 1994. David Bain said tha

新西兰英语 276 John Key in Afghanistan

Prime Minister, John Key, has just ended a 3-day visit to Afghanistan. Helen Clark also visited Afghanistan when she was Prime Minister. We have 70 members of the SAS (Special Air Services) fighting in Kabul and 140 soldiers working in Bamiyan provin

新西兰英语 324 More babies born

Statistics New Zealand released figures of births for the year ending June 2010. The figures show that births are up by 2%. Most of that increase is in Auckland. In 1961, women had an average of 4.3 children but today women have an average of 2.2 chi

新西兰英语 413 Official Cash Rate

The governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Bollard, reduced the official cash rate (OCR) by half a percent from 3% to 2.5% today. For background to the OCR, listen to June 10th 2010 and follow the links. Most banks immediately dropped the floating mortgage

新西兰英语 287 Dairy Farmers feel hopeful

Fonterra said today that the 11,000 dairy farmers in their co-operative will receive an opening price of $6.60 a kg of milk solids for the 2010 / 2011 year. They will also get 30c to 50c for each share they have in the company. In fact, the price cou