Category Archives: New Zealand

The New Zealand womens rugby side completed preparations, and are now all set for the invited guests at the 2021 Rugby World Cup.

Hosting the postponed 2021 edition, the world champion Black Ferns played Japan on Saturday in what was a double-header fixture on Eden Park. Opening the day of two International clashes, New Zealand were emphatic in their team play and execution, and the side ran in 15 tries to win 95-12 over the Sakura.

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Being the current holders, New Zealand has added pressure of not being ranked as World Rugby number one. England is firmly in control of that position, and looks assured as the number one contender to leave New Zealand with the crown alongside European front-runner France. So this Saturdays effort would have pleased fans and saw top points scorer Portia Woodman (see main photo) stake a new mark against her remarkable record [7 tries].

With inbound air traffic filling Kiwi skies ahead of the October 8 kick-off, where the New Zealand womens rugby team will be the most courteous of hosts yet, within their group they are very much ready and set to reclaim the trophy on their home patch. And many see that as the key advantage. In a way, it could neutralize the power of the opposition, with the cheers from Black Ferns fans leveling their sad performances of nine months ago.

At that time, England and France were dominant in dispatching the Kiwi women. So the threat from Europe is front and center on the minds of the other 10 nations competing in New Zealand. How can those highly effective teams be combated? A task that will test every sides processes and player depth.

It was why this final match for the Black Ferns had some benefits even though, the opposition was no comparison with the mighty Red Roses. This match versus Japan may have proved only a warm-up for an emphatically more difficult task ahead.

Since Wayne Smith was introduced to the Black Ferns side, they have shown a vast improvement. The performance levels are matched by a more positive and motivated group of women whose ambition is to represent their nation and their families during the five-week tournament.

Despite the ease at which the New Zealand womens rugby side demolished Japan, England too has had some high-scoring warm-up games. Their most recent was a 73-7 victory over Wales in Bristol showed the form of the tournament favourite.

How Simon Middleton and his squad have done their own preparations will tell over the next 10 days. Arriving and acclimatizing to the conditions is important, whereas the New Zealand womens rugby players are naturally familiar with their grounds. Especially Eden Park.

The fortress again proved all too much for the Wallabies to register a prolonged threat to the All Blacks. And the Black Ferns repeated the dose, and have as good a record on the hallowed ground. A place where they open the Rugby World Cup on October 8 versus Australia.

That first day holds a total of three clashes which will be highly entertaining for each of the six International sides fanbase. South Africa v France, Fiji v England, and New Zealand v Australia. That is a fantastic fixture list, by any fans imagination.

Hosted by a Southern Hemisphere nation for the very first time, it will be a great environment as a fan expereince, as well as for touring sides to enjoy the New Zealand rugby community.Though for all the inbound teams, this is no sightseeing tour.

From the list of qualified teams, one side will go unbeaten through pool play and will ultimately raise the Rugby World Cup.

Within these pools, the draw has brought together two sides that might be seeded first and second. England v France is played in the second round and will determine who will be assured of a quarter-final position. Earning that reward is primary to all sides and going through pool play unbeaten is the optimum goal.

That is unless France can repel the unbeaten side [25 matches in succession]. It will take a ready and well-practiced Les Bleuets to unseat the Red Roses.

Alongside that pool C match, Canada v United States is important too. If the Canadian women can reach their quarter-final place undefeated, it will give them the confidence to meet the knockout stages full of confidence. With eight sides progressing to the playoffs, it is imperative to be on song. They have hosted both Wales and Italy in the last month, so the North American teams form should be good enough to see them lead the charge toward a maiden World Cup.

While it appears there are few others to threaten the top sides hopes, nothing can ever be certain. As in 2014, when New Zealand was beaten by Ireland. That emitted the multi-time World Champions in that tournament; mind you, the 2021 editions has returned to a more reasonable format.

The two top teams in each pool, together with the two best-third-placed teams, will qualify for the quarter-finals, a stage that returns to the womens Rugby World Cup for the 2021 tournament. In saying that, even in a quarter-final, your opposition is just as motivated as any of the top seeds. So dont count out an upset or two happening.

The only thing affirmed is that across the three venues, each team will be out to play an entertaining style of rugby that will hold the attention of global sports fans. And the winning side will have to display all their credentials to find themselves atop all the 12 competing sides.

Main photo credit courtesy of Black Ferns twitter page

More here:

New Zealand womens rugby team set to invite guests to Rugby World Cup - Last Word On Rugby

Tuesday, 27 September 2022, 6:48 amPress Release: Starboard Maritime Intelligence

ALEXANDRA, NELSON (New Zealand), September 27 2022 StarboardMaritime Intelligence and SnapGroup are preparing for a global roadshow of theirvessel monitoring technology. The New Zealand ownedcompanies are bringing together their hardware,communication and software solutions which enable effectiveand efficient fisheries management by harnessing new sensortechnologies.

The partnership between the twocompanies makes perfect sense, not only do our technologiesalign perfectly to create a world leading fisheriesmonitoring tool, but our total ethos and why we do what wedo are also very similar. For two New Zealand companies tobe able to do this life changing work together isamazing, says Chris Rodley, CEO and Founder SnapGroup

The expansion into vessel monitoring systems(VMS) is a natural progression that can supportStarboards existing customers. The company's automaticidentification systems (AIS) based platform is currentlyused across New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific bygovernment agencies and regional fisheries managementorganisations.

The Starboard platform is anemerging technology leader in this market and we have provenour ability to turn vessel position data into insightful andeffective tools for those managing fisheries, says TrentFulcher, CEO Starboard Maritime Intelligence.

SnapGroup has been innovating in the vessel monitoring andsensor technology market since 2007. We are making vesselmonitoring while at sea more accessible with cost-effectivesolutions such as solar powered monitoring units. We are nowfocused on the future possibilities that cameras and edgecomputing will bring to the sustainable management offisheries, says Ali Kennard, PinPoint EarthLead.

With the new systems we are developing, wewill be able to use our technology not only to track vesselsand record what is happening, but using AI to identify redflags and send notifications instantly to those who need toknow, says Kennard.

The technology companies arelooking for pilot partners to implement their existingvessel monitoring solutions and enable them to prototype newtechnologies in a real-world setting.

Thispartnership allows us to offer a cost-effective yettransformative alternative to traditional vessel monitoringsystems. We want to be there for our customers as theycontinue to expand into the future of fisheriestechnology, says Fulcher.

The roadshow kicks offwith the pair exhibiting and presenting at INFOFISH WorldTuna Trade Exhibition and Conference being held 11-13October inBangkok.

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New Zealand Companies Working Together To Deliver On The Promising Future Of Fishing Sensors | Scoop News - Scoop

Women's shoes are seen during the "Pink Shoes into the Vatican" event Sept. 18 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Courtesy of Luc Powell)

Hundreds of Catholic women in New Zealand contributed to a provocative public art protest on Sept. 18 calling for equality of women in the church. The event took place in Auckland, the nation's largest city, and Wellington, its capital.

Called "Pink Shoes into the Vatican," the event consisted of an installation of hundreds of pairs of shoes donated by women around the country that were lined up on the streets leading up to both cities' cathedrals.

Tied to each pair of shoes was a label from its owner describing their contribution to or aspirations for the church. Many of these were heartfelt expressions of sadness and anger or pleas for change. A promotional video released ahead of the event showed some of the shoes and their labels.

Women's shoes are seen during the "Pink Shoes into the Vatican" event Sept. 18 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Courtesy of Luc Powell)

The installation was supported and received by church officials in the two cities in markedly different ways. In Auckland there was a surprisingly positive response. In Wellington, things were a bit different.

The event was staged by a group called "Be the Change, Catholic Church, Aotearoa" (Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand). It was formed in 2020, first in Auckland, then in Wellington, by Catholic women who are agitating for gender equality in the church.

Jo Ayers is a founding member of Be the Change in Auckland and one of the organizers of "Pink Shoes into the Vatican." She has master's degrees in anthropology and liturgy, the latter from University of Notre Dame in Indiana in the United States and teaches at theological colleges in New Zealand. She's unapologetic about the Pink Shoes event being deliberately provocative.

"I have a friend who talks about us being in a ministry of irritation," she told NCR. "We held the 'Pink Shoes' event to keep the topic talked about. It's to make people aware there are members of the church, there are women who recognize the church really needs change and have already done some work on what those changes might be."

"We're hoping to reach people in the church, but I'm also interested in people who are on the margins or who've left the church," she said. "There's lots of Catholic women who've said they've had enough and quit."

The inspiration for the name of Sunday's installation was the "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican" protest held in Rome during the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis. It was orchestrated by the U.S. groupWomen's Ordination Conference. During the conclave, participants in that event lit pink smoke flares to rival the white smoke that would signal the election of a new pope.

Fr. Chris Denham, dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Auckland, greets participants at the "Pink Shoes into the Vatican" event in that city on Sept. 18 (Courtesy of Luc Powell)

"Pink Shoes into the Vatican" was timed to be held the day before Women's Suffrage Day in New Zealand. Women were granted the right to vote there on Sept. 19, 1893, making it the first country where women could vote in parliamentary elections.

In Auckland, Jo Ayers and other organizers laid out the shoes along the streets leading from the Suffrage Memorial to St Patrick's Cathedral. There they received from Fr. Chris Denham, the cathedral's dean, a letter of support from Bishop Stephen Lowe, who was away from the diocese. Ayers described the atmosphere as festive and not confrontational.

"It was positive, it wasn't acrimonious or aggressive," said Ayers. "Onlookers were very interested and a lot of people asked us about it. It's women's suffrage anniversary and we're saying through our event that even though women can run New Zealand we've had women as prime minister, governor general, and chief justice in the church we're second class and we're saying to the church it's time for change."

In Wellington, the placement of shoes started at Parliament House and finished at Sacred Heart Cathedral just a few blocks away. Cecily McNeill is founder of Be the Change in Wellington and one of the organizers of the "Pink Shoes" event there. She said she's been active in the church all her life, leading church music and being involved in social justice groups. She has a theology degree and for nine years was editor of the archdiocesan newspaper. She says that religious and clergy were notably absent from the "Pink Shoes" event except for one priest who was sympathetic.

"There was only one priest there, an elderly Marist, and he made a couple of points," McNeill told NCR. She said the priest compared the treatment of women in the church to the treatment of slaves.

Cecily McNeill, founder of the "Be the Change" in Wellington, during the event in that city on Sept. 18 (Courtesy of John Murphy, CathNews New Zealand)

"You go into any church before Mass and there are lots of women preparing for the liturgy or doing the music, and you don't see many men doing that sort of stuff," said McNeill. "And of course not many women get paid for that sort of work."

McNeill said that Wellington Cardinal John Dew initially had been supportive of the "Pink Shoes" event. But when it came close to the time of staging it he was away from the archdiocese and the women had to work with Coadjutor Archbishop Paul Martin. When they asked Martin if they could advertise the event through Wellington parishes he refused, McNeill said.

In an email that McNeill shared with NCR, Martin said the event had "more of a focus of making a statement and furthering a particular point of view, rather than for building up of the Church community."

NCR approached Martin for further explanation of why he refused the women's request and he replied saying that apart from his letter to McNeill, he had "no further comment to make regarding this."

In contrast, Lowe in Auckland apologized in his letter to "Pink Shoes" organizers for not being able to join their event. He called it a "hikoi," a Maori word indicating a "journey with a purpose."

Lowe also referenced the New Testament's account that Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the risen Jesus, and when she announced this to the disciples they didn't believe her.

"Perhaps this is a poignant reminder that the Twelve and their successors can get it very wrong," wrote Lowe. "May we have the courage not to get stuck in the structures that are not necessarily of God."

Lowe also thanked the organizers for a pair of women's shoes they'd given him at an earlier meeting.

"They remain in my office and are certainly a talking point," he said. "They also remind me that I too need to be the change. Together may we be docile to the movement of the Holy Spirit who is active in all the people of God as She invites the Church ever more forth on the way to the Kingdom of God."

Ayers said she was delighted at Lowe's response, and pleasantly surprised by his use of the female pronoun "She" for the Holy Spirit.

Jo Ayers, founding member of "Be the Change" in Auckland, speaking during the event in that city on Sept. 18 (Courtesy of Luc Powell)

"He's making a big theological statement there, he's on board," said Ayers. "You can't gender God. God is male and female. We attempt to describe God but we can't. And using the female pronoun jolts people into recognizing that our traditional view of God as an old man, or young man, or whatever, we've just got to push out from that."

Ayers said she was greatly encouraged by the "Pink Shoes" event and Lowe's support. She said she plans to invite the bishop to attend her Sunday worship community.

In Wellington, McNeill is not so sanguine about changes for women in the church.

"It's almost 60 years since Vatican II started and not much has changed," she said. "In fact I think we've gone backwards. There's a lot that came through in Vatican II but that's been lost. I have hope because it would be beyond me as a Christian not to have hope, but I'm not terribly optimistic."

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Read more from the original source:

New Zealand Catholic women display 'pink shoes' to call for equality in the church - National Catholic Reporter

Air New Zealand has suffered a big drop in the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards.

The national carrier has slumped 10 places to 30th in a survey won by Qatar Airlines for the seventh time.

The poll was carried out between September 2021 to August 2022 and involved more than 13 million customer surveys in more than 100 countries.

In a separate study in July, Air New Zealand placed second behind Qatar in the Airline Excellence Awards, as judged by airline safety and product rating review website AirlineRatings.com.

READ MORE:* Qatar Airways named world's best airline, Air New Zealand slips * Can you trust the 'world's best airline' award? * Air New Zealand wins back airline of the year award* Skytrax names Qatar Airways as world's best airline for 2019

Its been a tough few days for Air New Zealand as its new flagship service to New York has been battling headwinds and headlines.

Aleem Yousaf/wikimedia commons

Air New Zealand has come in 30th in the Skytrax survey.

Elsewhere on the Skytrax awards, Singapore Airlines came home in second, with Emirates third and ANA (All Nippon Airways) and Qantas rounding out the top five.

As well as airline of the year, Qatar won a host of other awards including Best Business Class and Best Business Class Seat.

Chief executive Akbar Al Baker said he is delighted at the airlines progress: To be named as the Worlds Best Airline was always a goal when Qatar Airways was created, but to win it for the seventh time and pick up three additional awards is a testament to all the hard work of our incredible employees.

To win these awards in the same year that we celebrate our 25th anniversary is even more rewarding and I want to offer a sincere thanks to all our passengers who voted for us.

123RF

Qatar Airways won for the seventh time.

Skytrax is based in the UK and is an airline and airport review and ranking site. It has been running the awards since 1999.

In naming the top 100, it said in a press release that the top 40 airlines in 2022 reflect a number of changes from earlier year ratings, and Skytrax attribute part of this to the varying operational levels of some airlines due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions during the period of the customer survey.

Chinas borders effectively still remain closed due to their Covid zero policy which has meant very few international flights being operated for the last 2 years.

Skytrax top 10 airlines for 2022 (last years position in brackets)

Also:

30. Air New Zealand (20)

57. Jetstar (56)

Originally posted here:

Air New Zealand slumps in world airline awards - Stuff

It is over two decades since the Royal Commission on genetic modification (GM) responded to the task of evaluating the technology within the context of New Zealand.

The major theme of the473-page reportwas self-described as preserving opportunities.

The authors went to considerable lengths to explain the different concerns and perspectives of New Zealanders who, by and large, were comfortable with GM for medical purposes, but were less so in food production.

Concerns were around the unproven safety and certainty of the science, the fact that world consumer preferences were against the use of genetic modification in food and that first generation genetically modified crops have shown few obvious benefits for consumers.

In 2001 some of the parroted statements from anti-GM websites were surprising. Two decades on and the statements are simply wrong.

Follow the latest news and policy debates on agricultural biotech and biomedicine? Subscribe to our newsletter.

This month inScience, a team of researchers led by Fred Gould, Distinguished University Professor of Entomology and Co-Director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center of North Carolina State University, pointed out that the current approach to genetic engineering is foolish.

Much effort has been expended globally over the past four decades to craft and update country-specific and multinational safety regulations that can be applied to crops developed by genetic engineering processes while exempting conventionally bred crops. This differentiation made some sense in the 1980s, but in light of technological advances, it is no longer scientifically defensible.

Yet New Zealand is still trying.

Continue reading here:

Viewpoint: Ideologically-based beliefs are preventing New Zealand consumers from experiencing the benefits that gene editing in agriculture can bring...

Once again, we highlight some of the harness racing breeding successes from around the country for the week ending the 25thof September.

Leading Pacing Sire:Bettors Delight| 6 winners

Leading Trotting Sire: Peak | 3 winners

Leading Pacing Broodmare Sire:Christian Cullen| 6 winners

Leading Trotting Broodmare Sire:Sundon| 3 winners

Not much more can be said about Bettors Delight, Christian Cullen and Sundon in their respective categories. They are in a class of their own and have the numbers and records at stud which speak for themselves by now.

Peak on the other hand, well he is worthy of a mention given this is the first time he has appeared on the list as the leading trotting sire for a weekend.

The New Zealand Trotting FFA winner who now resides at Mountain View Stud in Victoria struggled to compete for mares in a crowded market but has proven time and time again to have sired stock with some sizeable engines. Unfortunately, many came with the caveat for being highly strung, not the greatest mix for a gene pool that includes 100s of daughters of Sundon.

His three winners for the weekend included a double at Alexandra Park with Invictus and A Trophy Wife both saluting for their connections. His third winner came in the first at Motukarara with Gazza Beatt who like the filly A Trophy Wife, cleared maidens at just his second start taking his lifetime tally to 41 NZ bred winners.

Click hereto see the leading NZ Sires table.

Leading Breeder: An eclectic mix of breeders from all ends of the spectrum shared the honours for this weeks leading breeder with two wins a piece.

Brian West of Studholme Park and Woodlands Stud have each won the prestigious Breeder of the Year accolade at the Harness Racing New Zealand awards. Between them they breed close to 10% of the countries registered foal crop and while both may be scaling back their breeding numbers in the seasons to come, it is never unexpected to see their names prominent in the race results on a weekly basis.

Wests breeding winners included the A Rocknroll Dance four-year-old gelding, Rockin Va Va in the fourth on the card at Winton on Thursday, as well as the Bettors Delight three-year-old gelding, Bach in Race 7 at Addington on Friday. The Robert & Jenna Dunn trained Bach made it two wins from just two starts in the Show Day Futurity Prelude and was ultra-impressive in easily accounting for a quality field of three-year-olds after sitting off the pace. He is out of the Dream Away mare La Soiree who has also produced a full brother in Anthem who was placed at Group 2 level and ran sixth in a New Zealand Derby before being exported to America.

Woodlands Stud secured another win for their boom sire, Downbytheseaside when the Steve & Amanda Telfer trained Aardiebytheseaside notched her second win in as many starts. The two-year-old filly was driven like the best horse in the race by Tim Williams and she proved much too strong at the finish. She is out of the unraced (and now hacked) 18YO Christian Cullen mare Divine, who in turn hails from the famed Tabella Beth line showing why it shouldnt be too much of a surprise to see a quality filly appear from the mare, albeit a little later in her career then most would have expected.

Their second success came at Addington also in the last on the card, when the blue blood Invitation Only (Bettors Delight) got the chocolates for Cran and Chrissie Dalgety. The three-year-old gelding is a full brother to Group One winner, Another Masterpiece, being out of the Christian Cullen mare Elegant Art. She was the only live foal produced down under by imported American mare, Elegance (Artsplace), who was a half-sister to the world champion $2.9 million dollar earner Darlins Delight.

Jenny Butt produced two winners from the incredible trotting line she and her late husband Murray Butt have had such a huge hand in overseeing going back to broodmare gem, Abundant (1985-Game Pride). These are the tail lines of trotters such as Dominon Handicap winner, Vulcan (Earl), 2YO Ruby winner, Custodian (Muscle Mass) and Northern Breeders Stakes winner, Princess Mackendon (Skyvalley).

Nazareth kicked things off on Thursday night when the three-year-old son of Love You cleared maidens in the sixth on the card. Nazareth is the fifth foal from Maysoon (Sundon), who was the 12th and final foal of Abundant. She is also the dam of the listed Sires Stakes Classique winner, Chloe Rose. The manner in which Nazareth cleared away from the majority of his opposition suggests there is plenty of fun in store for his connections.

NAZARETH REPLAY

A day later, Invictus (Peak) made it win number 13 when taking out the open trot on the card at Alexandra Park. He is out of the unraced Ambro Invasion mare, Aine, who is a half-sister to the 10-time Group One winner, Vulcan. 10 of the 13 wins for the Hackett/Wallis trained squaregaiter have come over his pet distance of 2200m and all but one of the 13 victories have come at the ribbon of light.

James Geddes did the double with his first winner coming in the last on the card at the Winton meeting on Saturday afternoon. American Ideal gelding Mogul continues to age like a fine wine and won the 17th race of his career at his 123rd start, a pretty honorable achievement for a pacer in this country. Geddes co-bred the pacer with Clarrie Scott who owned and trained the dam, Village Lady (Equitable II) who traces back to the 2005 NZ Broodmare of Excellence winner, Star Lady (Smooth Fella).

Geddes second winner came on Sunday at Motukarara when he and his father Jim produced another iron horse, Sods Law (Muscle Mass) to win fresh up on the grass. Wearing the famous Geddes black silks with the white sleeves and spots, Sods Law was able to win the ninth race of his career from his 103rd start. He is out of the unraced Sundon mare, Galleons Tribute, who is a half-sister to the wonderful producer, Rob The Nest (Chiola Hanover).

Finally, Grant and Di Beckett had a weekend to remember when Phoebe Majestic (Majestic Son) was able to help deliver the 500th training success for Cambridge horsewoman Nicky Chilcott at Alexandra Park. Phoebe Majestic is the third foal of racing age from Monarchy mare, Duchess Of Phoebe, who is off to a cracking start as a broodmare being the dam of 21 race wins from her first three foals. She is out of the 1-win Sundon mare, Ashley Sunset, a half-sister to Dominion Handicap and Interdominion Grand Final winner, William Dee.

The same family produced his second breeding success at Motukarara on Sunday when the Paul Nairn trained El Conqueror (Sebastian K) won the second race of his career in the penultimate race of the afternoon. He is out of the Wrestle mare, Phoebe Revival, a half-sister to the dam of Friday nights Auckland winner.

EL CONQUEROR REPLAY

The cherry on top for the Becketts came earlier in the week when Royal Aspirations sired the 24th race win of his career at Addington Raceway with Royal Del. The pair stand the stallion on their farm at Phoebe Stud in Cheviot, Canterbury. It was a gamble that has started to pay dividends in recent times with the colonial bred trotting stallion kicking goals left right and center and looking likely to serve more than double his largest book in any one season this coming spring.

1: The number of breeding trifectas coming from last weekends racing.

We have seen a number of breeding quinellas over the last 6 weeks, but not a trifecta and we have put in a request to see how rare of a feat this one actually is.

Spreydon Lodge managed to breed the first three home in race nine at Addington on Thursday night with Franco Mac (Bettors Delight), Franco Norton (A Rocknroll Dance) and Franco Indie (Always B Miki) returning a dividend of $1909.40 for anyone who had the trio on a ticket.

Franco Mac was able to get the better of his more fancied stablemate Franco Indie with the pair being split by the fast-finishing Franco Norton in the Spreydon Lodge colours of Steven McRae.

The winner is out of a four-win Mach Three mare, MacFire who in turn is the fourth foal from Sparks Under Fire, the dam of 68 race wins from her nine foals of racing age.

73: The number of race wins by the progeny of the magnificent trotting mare, Juliana (Sundon). The daughter of Janettas Pride is a full sister to five Group race winners including three New Zealand Trotting Derby champions, Dependable, Ima Gold Digger and Shirley Temple.

And while her own racing career was limited to just five starts as a two-year-old, she has carried on the legacy of the Keith and Bevan Grice breed with a gusto. Her 73rd win as a broodmare came in the Group Three Sires Stakes Trotting Classique for three-year-old fillies when Hidden Talent (Bacardi Lindy) lived up to her name and trekked north for a sensational win.

It was very much shades of her full sister, Dark Horse, who had a sublime turn of foot but went amiss when failing in the 2017 Dominion Handicap. With any luck, this filly looks every bit as good and has burst on the scene as a possible threat to the dominant Double Delight come the New Zealand Trotting Oaks in November.

HIDDEN TALENT REPLAY

2796: The number of New Zealand bred race wins by New Zealands greatest colonial sire, Christian Cullen.

Its becoming somewhat of a rarity to see his name in the winners list with his final racing crop of 13 now five year olds.

Makara was able to salute victorious for the 1998 New Zealand Cup winning sire at Alexandra Park on Friday night, marking his 3rd winner for the season, the lowest number of his career going back to 2003 when his first crop of two-year-olds produced five winners from 12 starters. As we know, his legacy lives on through his daughters and possibly his siring son Raging Bull who will resume stud duties in Australia in 2022.

byBrad Reid, for Harnesslink

See original here:

New Zealand weekly breeding round up - Harnesslink

Dileepa Fonseka is a senior Stuff journalist who writes on business and politics.

ANALYSIS: A former contractor to Immigration New Zealand says its IT systems are a f.....g shambles, a former immigration officer says staff are not reading the policy instructions properly, and an immigration adviser says so many changes have been made the system is cracking under the pressure.

They are all answering a question that is being asked at business conferences, lunches and dinners up and down the country: what is going on at Immigration New Zealand?

The question has been asked in different forms by migrant groups over the years: why is it taking so long to process my residency application? Will I be allowed to stay? Will I be allowed to work? Or, why havent I been allowed to see my daughter for a tenth of her life?

READ MORE:* Catch-22: Immigration says sorry, and welcome back - but won't let her into NZ* Migrants helping govt investigation upset they're ineligible for fast-tracked residency* Nearly 165,000 migrants eligible for fast-tracked residency* Eight years on a work visa: The long 'waiting game' for residence

Now business groups are asking why there are long delays around simple work visa applications that once made their way through the system with ease.

BusinessNZ manager for education skills and immigration Rachel Simpson says there is a growing sense that the immigration system needs to get moving again and an increasing frustration that it isnt:

We need fast and efficient processing from Immigration [NZ]... the skill shortage issue is absolutely the biggest barrier, not just to growth, but to actually being able to keep lights on.

Eda Tang/Stuff

A long line of people waiting for immigration medicals for the R21 resident visa.

Visa delays for travellers, workers and students have been seen all over the world. The Economist magazine puts these down to post-Covid demand from both workers and countries seeking workers, along with staffing issues at foreign embassies after the pandemic.

However, in New Zealand none of these barriers would seem to exist: work visa applications to New Zealand rely less on embassies, immigration has been rebalanced at lower levels than before the pandemic, and businesses have already managed to become accredited employers without much fuss.

Immigration Minister Michael Wood was given several days to make himself available for an interview on the subject but eventually declined the request.

Instead, Wood argues via a written statement that Immigration NZ is performing strongly in several areas, including with an average 10-day processing time for job checks where the target time is 10 days.

Into NZ immigration adviser Katy Armstrong says while there have been improvements in some areas, the situation has been chaotic right through the pandemic and still is now.

She says there have been more than 70 amendments to immigration rules in the past 12 months, when in a normal year you would get 10.

I would not want to be managing this. There are so many working parts that are not gelling and it is all out of control.

123RF

Immigration New Zealand's visa account was already $58 million in the red before borders closed last year but that more than doubled in the following four months and continued to grow. (File image)

National Party immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford says Immigration New Zealand did not do enough work to plan for the reopening of the borders after the pandemic. Then the July deadline for the border reopening was suddenly sprung on it by the Government and it was left scrambling to keep up.

That has put huge pressure on staff. So they are running around doing the best they can. I dont blame them at all, I feel like they are under huge pressure with multiple competing demands.

Immigration NZ general manager Richard Owen says, via a written statement, that the organisation had been planning for a border reopening since the middle of last year but it was for an unspecified date.

Forecasting has been particularly challenging given the uncertainty around when our borders would reopen, what that would look like, and what demand there would be from offshore migrants.

Owen says there has been high demand from New Zealand employers for skilled overseas workers and the demand for visitor visas has also been three times higher than expected.

We have more work to do to process work and visitor visas at the speed employers and applicants expect.

He says a type of emergency response team called the incident management team has been brought in from MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) to Immigration NZ to leverage the scale of all MBIEs resources to solve some of those visa issues.

Supplied

Katy Armstrong says the whole immigration system has been chaotic right through the pandemic.

This might sound like good news but a contractor to MBIE, who has requested anonymity because of his tie-ups with other government contracts, says this kind of emergency approach of jumping from fire to fire is why things keep going wrong at Immigration NZ.

They tend to throw people and spreadsheets at problems but the leadership is very poor.

The contractor uses the example of the March 15 terrorist attacks in 2019, when he says Immigration NZ went into crisis mode to deal with the visa applications for relatives of terror attack victims who might need to come to New Zealand.

He argues a well-functioning Immigration department should have been able to handle the visa processing requirements of a few hundred individuals at short notice without needing to go into war room mode.

The contractor says Immigration NZs information technology systems are among the most dysfunctional parts of its operations.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Erica Stanford believes immigration officials were unprepared for the border reopening.

Immigrations new IT systems failed the day the Governments major residents visa was launched but this contractor claims the problem lies not in the new IT system but with the legacy systems and paper-based business processes that the new system hooks into.

If you want to know what this means, he encourages people to imagine a Ferrari with the engine of a lawnmower inside.

The whole system is just poorly run, it is cobbled together, they have got three independent systems ... it is just a hodge-podge of years of mismanagement.

Owen says the new IT systems are still bedding in but asserts a new online portal is working well.

We acknowledge that there were initial issues that caused some frustration.

Unsplash

Immigration NZs IT systems failed the day applications for the R21 visa opened.

Former Immigration NZ officer Erin Goodhue, of Goodhue Immigration, says Immigration NZ keeps throwing people at these problems when the problem is often the process itself.

Goodhue was involved in an efficiency drive within Immigration NZ, setting target timeframes for visa processing, something she understands has gone out the window.

You can throw as many people as you want at a process but if the process itself is inefficient and broken, it does not really matter.

Goodhue left Immigration NZ in 2015; however, a former immigration officer who was involved in residency applications confirms what she says around the abandonment of targets.

The former immigration officer has requested anonymity because he thinks speaking out could affect his career, but says the abandonment of targets was one of the key causes of a major backlog in residency applications, one that had ballooned out to more than 36,000 applications by April 2021 the largest residency queue in New Zealands history.

Officers used to have to make one decision a day but then they scrapped that target, he says.

It would have been 2018 or 2019, when the Labour coalition came into power, and they said there is no number target any more, we just want to see how good your decisions are.

Abigail Dougherty/Stuff

Immigration Minister Michael Wood declined to be interviewed about the state of Immigration NZ but says that it has performed well in some areas.

This meant the job became less about allowing people through if they met policy criteria and more about finding reasons to delay things, he says.

He also claims cultural and personal biases would creep into decisions, which would further delay things and lead to more decisions being overturned later on by the Immigration Protection Tribunal.

Some of those delays would occasionally bubble up into the public arena around issues like partnership visas for people in arranged marriages, or same-sex cross-cultural couples being unable to prove their relationships were genuine.

He says it got worse when Labour and NZ First could not come to an agreement on the New Zealand residence planning range a target for the number of residence places that could be granted.

The political stalemate would eventually create a backlog of applications too large to process and the Government would introduce a new R21 resident visa to clear it granting residency to more than 165,000 people.

The ex-immigration officer argues the removal of processing targets for individual officers did not improve the quality of the decisions but instead did the opposite.

Between 2015 and 2017, fewer than 40% of tribunal residency cases were successful on average meaning the appeal by the migrant was allowed or the decision was referred to the associate immigration minister.

However, between 2018 and 2021 that appeal success rate jumped by half to an average success rate of more than 60%.

The ex-immigration officer says this was in part because the quality of immigration officers was poor and many of the newer recruits could not read policy or apply it properly.

He put this down to poor pay which led to staff churn, because staff often saw Immigration NZ as a stepping stone to a better job within the bureaucracy.

The Governments career website, which is based on MBIE data from 2018, says immigration officers with up to three years experience can expect to earn between $45,000 and $55,000 a year.

Owen says staff turnover rate at Immigration NZ is not high, noting that in the financial year ended 2022 the rate was 10.5% and the year before it was 7.3%.

Supplied

David Cooper says the funding model behind Immigration New Zealand needs to be re-examined.

Malcolm Pacific chief executive David Cooper, an ex-immigration officer himself, argues Immigration NZs funding model also needs to be revisited.

Immigration NZ is wholly funded out of the visa fees paid by migrants, so the organisation experienced a major cut to its cashflow when the borders closed and has had to significantly hike its fees now that the borders have reopened.

Overall, Cooper does not blame the organisation for a lot of the problems it has been facing recently because he thinks many of them have actually been driven by Government decisions.

You have thrown at Immigration New Zealand the 2021 RV, the biggest residence programme in living history, you have then thrown at them this new accredited employer job check work visa, you have opened up the border.

They, like any other employer, are struggling to get people and then we are all sitting back wondering why this has not worked out that well.

Well, what did we expect?

Read more:

Inside the delays at Immigration New Zealand - Stuff

Introducing the first of several challenging sets of images as a part of Rent Week 2022.

Any renter will know that when you move into a new place, there are some design choices that are simply beyond your control. You can light a candle, brace yourself with 3M hooks and say a prayer to the Patron Saint of Wear and Tear, but no amount of artistic flair and personalisation can change the fact that the person who actually owns your house choose to etch LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE into the glittering asbestos of your living room ceiling.

Auckland designer Richard Parry has long been cataloguing such curiosities on his Instagram page in a long-running segment called Crap Rentals. As a part of Rent Week, Parry has given The Spinoff the keys to his illustrious archive of shocking, uneasy, hilarious and ridiculous rental properties advertised across Aotearoa. Today, we launch with the 10 most bizarre and challenging pieces of art that the rental market has ever seen.

Kelly Tarltons found jealous.

Down the back, with the ties, still the Louvre.

I rent at the edge of the universe, like everybody else.

I think we can all agree: Suits Be Cheap.

This bathroom is worth $350 million. (No running water.)

The actual room where Savage Garden wrote their hit single To the Moon and Bac.

Timeless.

How much would you pay to live in the original Food in a Minute set?

Call the police.

Call. The. Police.

Rent Week 2022 runs from September 27 to October 2. Read the best of our renting coveragehere.

Read more here:

Cursed rentals of New Zealand: Freaky artwork edition - The Spinoff

A little corner of Northland is home to one of the last frontiers of tourism in New Zealand. It's a place few Kiwis or international visitors ever fully explore. It's wildly beautiful, charmingly rustic and steeped in fascinating history.

I'm talking about the magnificent Hokianga home to one of the largest harbours in New Zealand, yet firmly off the tourist trail for many.

The journey to this magical place begins in spectacular style. If you come from the south, as most visitors do, you first need to weave through the ancient world of the Waipoua Forest, which is home to the mighty Tne Mahuta.

After a magnificent drive through the kauri forest, you reach the golden sands of Hokianga heres what to do when you get there.

READ MORE:* New Zealand's most underrated tiny towns and what to do there* Where to find the secret spots of Northland * World Famous in New Zealand: pononi's Manea Footprints of Kupe Experience

Manea Footprints of Kupe/Supplied

Manea Footprints of Kupe uses a theatrical experience to tell the story of Kupe, with performers including Andee Bristow.

The Hokianga and surrounding region are hugely significant to Ngpuhi the largest iwi in New Zealand.

The Hokianga is said to be where the great navigator Kupe first landed his canoe, and a new $9.6 million cultural centre called Manea Footprints of Kupe brings the story to life.

The experience starts with a pwhiri before visitors experience a 4D theatre which includes live music and dance.

Youll leave with a new appreciation of the Hokiangas place in Aotearoas history, and be armed with knowledge to explore the area.

Brook Sabin/Stuff

Wairere Boulders is a geological gem.

One of the Hokianga's best-kept secrets is a little-known ancient lava valley millions of years in the making.

Wairere Boulders is a forest walkway with 22 bridges that weave through a labyrinth of enormous cracks and boulders.

The Jurassic valley began its formation 2.8 million years ago after a lava flow created a layer of basalt 15-30 metres thick. Over millions of years, the rock has eroded and slowly rolled down into a valley, where thousands of enormous multi-storey boulders now lie. You can explore it all in a series of walks.

Brook Sabin/Stuff

Rwene is one of New Zealands most beautiful tiny towns.

No visit to the Hokianga is complete without a stop in Rwene; this charming little seaside town is brimming with rustic charm colourful buildings even line the waterfront representing its own style of renaissance.

Don't miss lunch at the Boatshed Cafe, which sits out over the water and serves excellent food and coffee.

Brook Sabin/Stuff

Historic Kohukohu Villa is more than 160 years old.

While in Rwene, catch the vehicle ferry to the other side of the harbour and explore the quaint village of Kohukohu.

The village describes itself as being full of "musicians, artists, writers, forward thinkers, environmentalists, conservationists, craftspeople and gardeners". Its the kind of place you immediately relax on arrival; its a village of yesteryear and nobody is in a rush. I loved it.

Make a night of it by staying at the Historic Kohukohu Villa, one of the country's oldest homes.

The house was built sometime between 1840 and 1860 and started life as an office for a vast kauri mill that was once the centre of town.

The house has been meticulously restored by hosts Dee and Sean Morrissey, who will even cook a delicious meal in the evening probably the best food you'll find in all of the Hokianga.

Its one of the best bed and breakfast experiences weve had.

Brook Sabin/Stuff

The hidden side of the Rangi Point sand dunes reveal a remarkable landscape.

One of the Hokianga's most spectacular sites sits across the harbour: its magnificent sand dunes. These are most famous for sandboarding, where you can slide straight off the sand and into the water. But few people realise you can also take one of New Zealand's best short walks, and explore what feels like another planet.

Hokianga Express Charters will take you across the harbour to the dunes, before pointing out where to walk. It's then a 40-minute journey to the top, with incredible views of the harbour along the way.

The effort is worth it; what's revealed at the top is spectacular. You'll see a series of dramatic formations whipped up by the wind over thousands of years, together with sand canyons. You can explore these over a few hours, but be sure to leave only footprints: much of the area is considered sacred.

Brook Sabin/Stuff

Awesome Adventures runs a jet-ski tour.

The Hokianga Harbour is vast it's the fourth-largest in the country and the best way to get an appreciation of it is on a jet-ski safari with Awesome Adventures Hokianga.

Under the watchful eye of Lenny Naera, you'll be taught how to use a jet-ski before beginning your adventure. The trip starts with a journey to the entrance of the harbour to point out the place where legend states that Kupe first landed. You can then sandboard the dunes, or continue on a longer trip up to Rwene, where you jump off the jet-ski for a coffee stop.

Back on the water, you then explore the lesser-known parts of the Hokianga, such as winding waterways lined with mangroves. Along the way, Lenny will point out pieces of history that date back hundreds of years.

Brook Sabin/Stuff

Wild Forest Estate has an off-grid tree house.

On the way to Hokianga, stay the night in the trees at Wild Forest Estate. This new glamping retreat has a series of escapes hidden among 35 acres of bird-filled native bush, intersected by three rivers. It's found in Donnellys Crossing, just before you enter the Waipoua Forest.

The retreats include a tree house, Lotus Belle tent and a 'tin box' eco-escape made from a converted shipping container.

Our favourite was the tree house, which despite being off-grid, has a flush toilet and hot shower. There's also an outdoor forest bath and a large hammock over the deck to unwind in. If you need a place to forget the worries of the world for a night, this is it.

Getting there:

pononi, the heart of the Hokianga, is a four-hour drive from Auckland. You can also fly to Whngarei or Kerikeri with Air New Zealand, and drive across. See: airnz.co.nz

Playing there:

Hokianga Express Charters offers trips to the sand dunes for walks and to go sandboarding. Phone: 021 405872 or email hkexpress@xtra.co.nz

Wairere Boulders is $15 for adults, $5 for children or $35 for family. See: wairereboulders.co.nz

Manea Footprints of Kupe Experience is $65 for adults and $12 for children. See: maneafootprints.co.nz

Awesome Adventures Hokianga jet-ski trips from $299. See: aah.nz

Staying there:

Historic Kokukohu Villa from $250 per night, including breakfast. See: kohukohuvilla.com

Wild Forest Estate from $192 per night. See: wildforestestate.com

Carbon footprint: Flying generates carbon emissions. To reduce your impact, consider other ways of travelling, amalgamate your trips, and when you need to fly, consider offsetting emissions. To offset your carbon emissions, head to airnewzealand.co.nz/sustainability-customer-carbon-offset.

The author's trip was supported by NorthlandNZ. This story was produced as a part of an editorial partnership with Tourism New Zealand. Read more about our partnership content here.

See original here:

Hokianga: The untouched part of New Zealand you need to see - Stuff

Supplied

Mad Doggerel Cabaret, featuring poet Laureate David Eggleton, poet Daren Kamali and musician Richard Wallis, have taken to the road as part of Arts on Tour.

An arts group that has brought Kiwi performers to small New Zealand towns for nearly 30 years will have to scale back after missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding.

Arts on Tour NZ has been funded regularly by Creative New Zealand since 2005, but was denied another three years of support in the latest round of funding decisions. The group was granted $705,000 from 2020 to 2022.

The group is one of four that missed out on Creative New Zealand funding this month. An artist residency run at the former Auckland home of New Zealand painter Colin McCahon and the Shakespeare Globe Theatre of New Zealand were also dropped from the long-term funding scheme.

A staff member for McCahon House confirmed they had lost the funding, but could not comment further. The group had received $175,000 in funding from Creative New Zealand to run three artist residencies a year for the past three years.

READ MORE:* New arts research supports need for funding reform - expert* $70 million and how to share it: Behind the scenes at Creative New Zealand* Shaping the future of Aotearoa's arts and culture sector

Arts on Tour artistic director Steve Thomas said they would have to find other funding sources to keep running tours. The group has helped musicians, actors and poets tour to small and remote New Zealand towns since 1995.

It was an incredible shock and really disappointing, he said.

We will scale back because we dont have the level of funding that we are accustomed to receiving.

We have a programme that has been very popular and is greatly appreciated for reaching places that most other agencies dont get anywhere near.

Supplied

Actor Michael Hurst has taken shows across New Zealand with Arts on Tour.

Creative New Zealand will grant the group $80,000 in transitional funding for the first six months of next year. They will also be able to apply for annual funding.

They are making their best effort to support us having kicked us into touch, Thomas said.

He said they had 200 bookings across New Zealand this year and 259 bookings lined up for next year.

Creative New Zealand chief executive Stephen Wainwright said the longer term support fund was contestable and funding agreements had fixed terms of three or six years.

We acknowledge the good work Arts on Tour has done to provide New Zealanders in the regions with access to high-calibre arts experiences, he said.

I appreciate its difficult for established organisations to not have funding renewed.

He said Creative New Zealand was short of money after supporting many arts groups through the Covid-19 pandemic.

RYAN ANDERSON & JASON DORDAY/STUFF

August 1 marks 100 years since the birth of one of New Zealand's most important artists - Colin McCahon. This video was first published in August 2019.

This year we have been particularly challenged by our reduced financial capacity.

They had granted funding to arts organisations in Gisborne and Northland to bring more culture to regions where traditionally there has been relatively low levels of public investment in arts infrastructure.

Creative New Zealand wants to ensure that, over time, our investment programmes better reflect the diversity of New Zealands population and its arts practices. We also aim to extend the reach of our investment to make arts attendance and participation accessible to more communities.

We realise in the case of Arts on Tour that some regions will feel that this signals a lack of support for them and their ability to participate easily in the cultural life of Aotearoa.

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Arts groups across New Zealand lose core Government funding - Stuff