Category Archives: New Zealand

AUCKLAND, New Zealand and NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Air New Zealand touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport today, marking the first of its non-stop flights connecting the city of sails and the city that never sleeps.

Minister of Tourism for New Zealand Hon Stuart Nash, Chair Dame Therese Walsh and Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran were onboard the inaugural flight, along with key tourism and travel partners. Foran says the introduction of a non-stop service between Auckland and New York connects his two favorite places.

"As one of the world's greatest cities, Air New Zealand is proud to add the Big Apple to its list of 29 international destinations. By adding greater access to the East Coast of the US, we're connecting our North American customers to the possibilities of 20 destinations within New Zealand as well as the Pacific and Australia, all within easy reach. This is terrific for our customers."

The airline's new international menu was debuted onboard NZ2, showcasing the best of New Zealand produce to the world. This features more choice in the air, so Premium customers can add the likes of seared salmon from Marlborough, free-range chicken from Waikato or bacon, and streamed green vegetables or fresh, crisp salads picked straight from orchards and fields in Gisborne, Waikato and the Manawat.

As part of the new menu, Business Premier customers were welcomed to their dining experience with an amuse-bouche of New Zealand paua saucisson (abalone sausage) with herb cream and tomato.

Air New Zealand now serves seven destinations in North America Chicago (from 31 October), Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver and (after much anticipation), New York City.

The first flight from New York (JFK) to Auckland (AKL) departs at 21:55 ET with an estimated flight time of 17 and a half hours.

Flight schedule between Auckland and New York, effective 19 September 2022:

Flight No.

Aircraft type

From

To

Departs

Arrives

Frequency

NZ2

Boeing 787-9Dreamliner

Auckland

New York

19:40

19:55

Mon, Thu, Sat

NZ1

New York

Auckland

21:55

07:30 +2

Link to broll video of NZ2 departing Auckland International Airport: https://airnz.sharefile.com/d-s3cb34d348575416dbb78c029e80733ff

Link to images of NZ2 departing Auckland International Airport: https://airnz.sharefile.com/share/view/s5ecccadfde2942868faa917770e6c5fd

Link to broll video and images of NZ2 arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Air New Zealand flight attendants in New York City: https://airnz.sharefile.com/d-sac2061cacfa6460e96d32366eaefe23b

SOURCE Air New Zealand

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Air New Zealand touches down in the Big Apple - PR Newswire

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- A shipping container loaded with products of New Zealand and Pacific Island nation Vanuatu left Port of Tauranga, the largest port in New Zealand, on Saturday for the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) 2022 to be held in Shanghai on Nov. 5-10.

More than 200 companies from New Zealand have participated in the previous four editions of the expo in China, which is by far New Zealand's largest trading partner.

Chen Zhiyang, economic and commercial minister-counselor of the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, said China encourages more New Zealand companies to embrace the business opportunities presented by the CIIE.

"CIIE is a key event in China's opening-up. It is a world-class forum for cooperation and a great opportunity for innovation and exploring market potentials," Chen told Xinhua.

"During the past years, New Zealand companies have been actively participating in the CIIE, which provides a platform for the vast Chinese consumers to appreciate the high-quality New Zealand products such as agricultural products of dairy products, wine, meat products, honey, and health products and high-quality consumer products," he said.

"This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and New Zealand. We encourage New Zealand companies to fully avail themselves of the CIIE platform to further pragmatic cooperation and enjoy the shared economic development opportunities," Chen added.

The COSCO SHIPPING container, which was heading to China on Saturday, carried a wide range of products from New Zealand and Vanuatu, such as dairy products, honey, juice, and art crafts. The container is expected to arrive at Shanghai Port in early October.

Kang Xiaoyu, managing director of COSCO SHIPPING Lines New Zealand, told Xinhua that her team in New Zealand had been preparing for the shipment for quite a long time.

"We collaborated with local companies so that we worked out individual shipping plans for them to make sure the products from New Zealand and Vanuatu arrive in Shanghai safe and sound and on time," she said.

David Song, managing director and CEO of Yashili New Zealand Dairy, said he was looking forward to the new products that the company would launch at the fifth CIIE, and highlighted the support from COSCO's New Zealand team.

"Under the challenging circumstances where the global supply chain is at constant risk of disruption, it is great that COSCO supports us with high-quality services," said Song.

YTABC, a New Zealand company participating in the CIIE for the first time, said it has been preparing for the exhibition for months ahead to understand relevant policies and customs clearance procedures. The company is looking forward to showcasing its products at the CIIE.

COSCO SHIPPING is the official international shipping service provider for the CIIE.

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Products of New Zealand, Vanuatu shipped to China for import fair - Xinhua

New Zealand Food Safety has warned about the risk of hepatitis A in frozen berries after several recent illnesses.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) was informed by the Ministry of Health of three cases of hepatitis A. Patients regularly consumed imported berries and are linked through virus genotyping.

Vincent Arbuckle, New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general, said hepatitis A is relatively rare in the country.

While there is not sufficient information on a specific brand to initiate a targeted product recall, the evidence from the cases and from international experience, indicates a risk of exposure to hepatitis A from consuming imported frozen berries, he said.

Given we are moving towards the summer months where more frozen berries will be consumed, we considered it appropriate to remind consumers of these simple precautions. This is particularly the case for vulnerable communities for whom the consequences of becoming infected with the hepatitis A virus can be serious.

Advice to boil frozen berriesNew Zealand Food Safety is advising people who eat frozen berries to take precautions, especially if they are pregnant, elderly or have chronic liver damage. Precautions include boiling berries before eating them, ensuring the cooking temperatures exceeds 85 degrees C (185 degrees F) for one minute and washing hands before eating and preparing food.

Hepatitis A virus is inactivated by heating to above 85 degrees C (185 degrees F) for one minute. Washing frozen berries will not destroy the virus. Frozen berries used to make smoothies and other drink or dessert products in cafes and restaurants are subject to the same advice.

New Zealand has existing hepatitis A testing requirements for imported berries. New Zealand Food Safety is also informing frozen berry suppliers to ensure they are aware of the potential risk of hepatitis A and are managing the issue.

Imported berries are subject to a sampling regime before release for sale, said Arbuckle.

However, we will never be able to completely eliminate any food safety risk from food for sale. Thats why we encourage consumers to consider extra precautions at home, he said.

The safety of consumers is our number one priority, and we will continue to monitor the situation with that in mind. If we identify any evidence of a wider risk we will assess and take appropriate action, including product recalls.

The time from being infected with the hepatitis A virus to becoming ill can range from two to seven weeks and symptoms usually last less than two months.

Hepatitis A is spread when someone ingests the virus through close contact with an infected person or by having contaminated food or drinks. Symptoms include inflammation of the liver, fever, low appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, and yellowing in the whites of the eyes and the skin (jaundice).

Salmonella and vibrio outbreaksMore details have also been released about an outbreak ofSalmonellaKintambo in July this year. It involved three patients who had consumed sesame-based products from Syria. Two people were hospitalized.

Sequencing of clinical isolates showed cases were closely genetically related to each other and had the same sequence type identified in an ongoing European outbreak linked to the same type of products. New Zealand Food Safety product testing found Salmonella Kintambo, Salmonella Amsterdam and Salmonella Orion.

There was also one Vibrio parahaemolyticusinfection reported in July, bringing the total since November 2021 to 67 cases. The outbreak has been associated with consumption of oysters, mussels, shellfish, fish and kina.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News,click here)

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New Zealand issues hepatitis A warning for frozen berries following illnesses - Food Safety News

Shoppers may be forced to skip tomatoes, eggs and dairy products in New Zealand, as the country experiences the largest annual spike in food prices in 13 years.

Stats NZ released new figures showing food prices had grown by 8.3% to August the largest annual increase since the global financial crisis in July 2009 when food prices jumped up by 8.4%.

Increasing prices for eggs, yoghurt, and cheddar cheese were the largest drivers within grocery food, said Katrina Dewbery, a Stats NZ spokesperson.

Like many nations, inflation is on the charge in New Zealand, with benchmark consumers price index (CPI) inflation at 7.3%, when last measured in July.

Fruit and vegetables particularly capsicums, potatoes and onions had jumped up 15% in the past year and were also the largest contributor to the monthly rise, influenced by higher prices for tomatoes, capsicums and cabbage, Dewberry said.

Grocery food prices were up 8.7% over the year, meat and fish up 7.6%, and beverages up 4.1%. The price of eggs also soared, up 6.7% in August alone.

Over the 13 years, tomatoes had increased by 162.2% the biggest overall price jump and butter prices were up 103%.

Inflation driven by many factors, including the monetary response to Covid-19, global supply-chain issues and Russias invasion of Ukraine has sparked a cost of living crisis in New Zealand, and is adding to the already high food prices.

New Zealand shoppers face some of the most expensive groceries in the OECD. In July 2021, a commerce commission investigation into New Zealands supermarket duopoly found the grocers were making huge profits and charging some of the highest prices in the OECD. The government confirmed in May it had accepted all 12 of the commissions recommendations.

The latest figures have prompted the Green party to call on the government to urgently increase support for people struggling to put food on the table.

There is little doubt that the ongoing inequality crisis is putting huge pressure on the ability of many to afford a healthy meal, said Ricardo Menndez March, Greens commerce and consumer affairs spokesperson.

There is no reason why we cannot ensure every family can afford the food they need now and in the future.

Menndez March said incomes and benefits must be boosted and government-funded food grants should be improved to become more accessible and to match rising costs.

A Westpac senior economist, Satish Ranchhod, told the NZ Herald the food price increase was partly the outcome of poor growing conditions.

However, the pressure on food prices has been widespread, with shortages of many items globally, as well as large increases in production costs including fuel, fertiliser and packaging materials, he said.

Weve also seen shortages of labour and related sharp increases in wage costs.

There was better news for New Zealand exporters, who have enjoyed growth worth $NZ2.8 billion over the last year to record levels.

Stats NZ said the total export value of milk powder, butter and cheese increased by 17% in the year ending July 2022, to $NZ18.8bn.

Dairy products had a strong finish to the export season with a continuation of high prices, especially in the second half of the season, its spokesperson Alasdair Allen said.

Dairy exports are worth $NZ3670 per New Zealander, with the country exporting $NZ10bn worth of milk powder alone last year.

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New Zealand food inflation highest for 13 years as vegetables and dairy drive prices - The Guardian

Kiwi researchers are exploring how effective the Pfizer vaccine was against Omicron, in what was one of the world's few infection-naive countries. Photo / Bevan Conley

New Zealand confronted Omicron as one of the most vaccinated populations on the planet so what difference did that make in blunting the worst impacts?

That's what researchers plan to find out in a new study exploring the effectiveness of multiple doses of the Pfizer vaccine against the variant, in what was also one of the world's few "infection-nave" populations.

Study leaders Dr Anna Howe and Dr Matt Hobbs also aim to answer another critical question: what protection the vaccine gave Mori, Pasifika and other high-risk groups.

By the time the Omicron outbreak forced the whole of New Zealand into the red traffic light setting on January 23, about 93 per cent of our eligible adult population that's 3,910,251 people had already received at least two doses of Pfizer's Comirnaty vaccine.

On top of that, 974,784 of us had been boosted and more than 36,000 Kiwis had received their third primary doses, giving the country one of the highest levels of coverage anywhere.

By contrast, New Zealand had only confirmed 15,175 cases of Covid-19 most of those from the Auckland-centred Delta outbreak that began five months before.

Some 1.7 million confirmed cases later modellers estimate the true proportion of infection could amount to up to two thirds of the population it's clear that high vaccination rate wasn't enough to hold back the quick-spreading Omicron's tide.

But, as vaccinologists have pointed out to the Herald, there's much to suggest vaccination played a big part in giving Aotearoa one of the lowest case fatality rates in the world, by helping slash the risk of severe sickness, hospitalisation and death.

As of Friday, the Ministry of Health had recorded 1245 deaths where Covid-19 had been formally coded as the underlying cause, along with 13,443 hospitalisations 484 of which required ICU care.

While experts say most Kiwis should be relatively well shielded against the very worst outcomes of Omicron for now - thanks to vaccination but also "hybrid" immunity gained from natural exposure to it knowing the vaccine's impact was nonetheless important.

"In the high-coverage post-Omicron environment, some data sources showing only numbers of cases and hospitalisations in vaccinated and unvaccinated people can allow misleading interpretations such as vaccination increasing disease risk," said Howe, of the University of Auckland.

"Internationally, there have been challenges in vaccine effectiveness analyses and uncertain applicability to the infection-naive New Zealand population, particularly Mori and Pasifika."

Although there had now been many effectiveness studies of the vaccine, few had been carried out during Omicron's dominance, she said and there had been none conducted in a population with such a unique immunity profile as ours.

"This information is vital for equitable immunisation policy decisions going forward for New Zealand."

The team would be drawing on health data to measure what the overall number of vaccine doses, as well as the timing of those doses, generally meant for vaccine effectiveness.

Naturally, that wasn't a straight-forward undertaking in an ongoing pandemic and similar overseas research efforts have repeatedly run up against tricky methodological issues.

But recently, a World Health Organisation advisory group set out steps on how to get a clearer measure of effectiveness, which the New Zealand team would align their study with.

"This project will use a layered approach, starting with validated data on severe disease - hospitalisation, ICU admission and death - and vaccine coverage in descriptive analyses," said Hobbs, of the University of Canterbury.

"We'll then use these foundations to generate high-quality, reliable vaccine effectiveness estimates with appropriate statistical adjustment."

"Our findings will provide accurate data that accounts for local context, as trustworthy local data presented in a relatable way is vital for community trust and confidence."

The study would also put special focus on key subgroups, including Mori, Pacific and other ethnicities by age group and presence of medical risk factors.

"This is a priority concern," Howe said.

"If we look at this in the context of historical evidence of inequity in pandemic management and response as shown in the 1918 flu pandemic, Mori had a mortality more than eight times higher than the general population."

That inequity has again been borne out in this pandemic, with Mori and Pacific people accounting for a disproportionate number of hospitalisations while also trailing other groups in vaccination coverage.

Gaining a deeper insight into vaccine effectiveness in Mori and Pacific people, Howe said, would also be "essential" in informing strong, culturally appropriate programmes in future.

Encouragingly, studies focused on earlier variants have indicated Mori and Pasifika were no less protected by the vaccine than other groups.

The programme is among 23 new research projects just awarded funding through a special Ministry of Health pool.

In another project, ESR virologist Dr Sue Huang will investigate the vaccine's effectiveness among several thousand adults and children routinely surveyed through the WellKiwis and Shivers studies.

Huang told the Herald she also wanted to assess how the vaccine might have reduced spread between household members.

Separately, the study's large cohort offered one of the few current bases to measure Covid-19 reinfection in New Zealand and would also enable her team to gather detailed information on factors like symptoms, severity, and how long infections had lasted.

And just as importantly, it would yield more valuable data on how the virus had touched population groups differently.

"The results will guide improved surveillance methods at community level particularly for those at-risk vulnerable sub-populations, such as Mori and Pacific groups," Huang said.

11,742,497 Number of all Covid-19 doses given to date.

91.5% - Proportion of Kiwis aged over 12 at least partially vaccinated.

13,443 Hospitalisations with Covid-19 to date.

1,762,125 Total Covid-19 cases confirmed in New Zealand to date.

49% - Booster effectiveness against symptomatic Omicron infection relative to two doses, according to one large Qatar-based study that also indicated 76% effectiveness against hospitalisation and death.

Excerpt from:

How did Pfizer vaccine fare against Omicron in NZ? - New Zealand Herald

Tennis NZ

Michael Venus hits a return during New Zealand's Davis Cup World Group 1 tie with Finland in Helsinki.

New Zealand have been thrashed 5-0 by Finland in their Davis Cup World Group 1 tie in Helsinki.

Needing to win the doubles rubber to keep the tie alive, Michael Venus and Artem Sitak lost 7-5 3-6 6-3 to Emil Ruusuvuori and Harri Heliovaara in one hour and 44 minutes.

That gave Finland the winning point, and with Ajeet Rai suffering a slight hip problem, captain Kelly Evernden opted to give youngster Isaac Becroft (ranked 1016) a match in the first of the dead rubber reverse singles matches against world No 51 Ruusuvuori.

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The 21-year-old Becroft wasnt overawed by an opponent ranked nearly 1000 places ahead of him, but went down 6-2 6-1 in 53 minutes.

It left Kiranpal Pannu to try to salvage something for New Zealand in the final rubber against Eero Vasa, yet the Finn again proved too strong, winning 6-2 6-3 in 61 minutes.

The chastening result leaves New Zealand in a perilous position, bidding to avoid relegation to World Group 2.

Evernden gave a refreshingly honest appraisal of his teams efforts in the Finnish capital, saying they were nowhere near the level that they needed to be in order to compete against the elite nations.

It was a great learning experience for the guys. Nobody on our team is capable of beating Ruusuvuori and we got to see him in action a little bit. So it was a valuable thing for us. he said.

I think the reality of what needs to be done for our guys, seeing a guy that's ranked in the top 50 in the world, first hand and up close and personal, they realise that no matter what they're thinking about their ranking, 500 or 600 in the world, its nowhere near the level that they're seeing.

Hes [Ruusuvuori] a scary dude right now and they're out there playing the best point they can possibly play and they dont make any headway and its it over and over and over, and over again.

Evernden felt Rai and Becroft could take plenty away from the experience of playing someone of Ruusuvuoris calibre as they resume their individual careers.

Tennis NZ

New Zealand's Isaac Becroft was beaten 6-2 6-1 in 53 minutes by Finland's world No 51 Emil Ruusuvuori.

Ruusuvuoris ball striking was so superior to anybody that we had, I think that's the thing that I wanted them to see, stand on the other side of the court, and get completely thumped out of position by a guy who's playing top 10, top 15 guys regularly in his career, and I think it was an eye-opening experience for them ... they got a little bit of a like, oh, geez, wow, you know, it doesn't stop, Evernden said.

And I and that's the that's the problem with playing at the low levels and playing in the 700s is everybody's making mistakes on simple balls, everybody's missing shots that they should make. That doesn't happen at the top level.

If you give somebody an opportunity to win a point, they're going to put the ball in the right place, they're going to win the point, and you cant make mistakes, and it was really valuable for the kids to see that.

Finland advance to the Davis Cup Qualifiers next March while New Zealand will play in the World Group 1 playoffs.

Read more:

New Zealand suffer 5-0 whitewash to Finland in Davis Cup - Stuff

Kristina Reid is trying to make the best of a bad situation. The walls of the motel room she has called home for the past two years are plastered with photographs of her smiling daughters. Her bed is neatly made, and tins of budget beans and tomatoes are stacked in tidy rows in the small cavity above the mini-fridge.

More than anything, Reid wishes for stability; a rental close to family, somewhere she can plant a garden a place her four daughters can call home.

Reid is one of more than 9,000 people, including more than 4,100 children, living in New Zealands emergency accommodation, which is almost entirely run through privately owned motels.

After a stint living in her car, the 38-year-old moved into a room on Rotoruas Fenton Street a strip of motels that once served visitors in the famous tourist town and now houses the regions homeless.

The use of motels for emergency accommodation began in 2016, under the previous National government. It was intended to be a stop-gap, but as the countrys housing crisis worsened, the need for motels swelled. In 2020, when international borders closed due to Covid-19, the government used newly empty motels to move people off the street as the country locked down.

Despite the governments attempts to build more public housing, demand keeps growing. There are now more than 26,000 people waiting for social housing, nearly 21,000 more than five years ago, as a cost of living crisis driven by surging inflation adds to the already immense economic pressures on households.

The wait for a permanent home can lead to months, or even years, of limbo.

It takes a toll on your family you get judged because you cant afford a house, Reid says.

Reid says the shame that comes alongside deprivation is something everyone in the motel feels, saying that she often shops early in the morning so fewer people see what she puts in her trolley.

We all have the same connection, she says. The loss of something.

For many people, motel accommodation is vastly preferable to living on the street or in a car. But a recent investigation by TVNZ has raised serious concerns about the substandard conditions of some of Rotoruas motels, and highlighted issues of violence and sexual abuse on site, and of fire risks to some of the buildings.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, told TVNZ that the government did not want motels to be long-term places for any New Zealander, but that she would much rather that people have temporary housing that is not a garage, [or] a car.

As a government [we are] responsible for building 10% of the state houses that New Zealand has in total, Ardern said. Thats how quickly weve moved over 10,000 houses but we need to keep going so that in the longer term we dont need those motel contracts in the first place.

But the report has prompted calls for an independent investigation from both Te Pati Mori (the Mori party) and National into emergency accommodation, particularly in Rotorua.

After two terms in power, the government can no longer continue to rely on comments that motels are better than being in cars or a garage, says Rawiri Waititi, Te Pati Moris co-leader.

If youre sleeping in motels that are unsafe for our people, that have allegations of sexual abuse, it might be better to stay in a car, Waititi says. Theyve got to stop pushing that rhetoric and start putting people in homes like they promised.

Rotorua has become a hotspot for motel accommodation but it is a nationwide scheme, with most tenants living in the countrys biggest city, Auckland.

Helen Robinson, the missioner for Auckland City Mission, said the government recognised the problem but could not build or acquire houses fast enough to keep up with demand, adding that the country is playing catch-up on 30 years of underinvestment in social housing.

Living in motels is revolting for families and people should not be staying in them beyond a few days, she says. But thats just not realistic in the current system.

Now the border has reopened, Robinson also worries motels will evict housing tenants to make way for tourists. Its one of those things that Id quite like to be very wrong about.

For Letitia Banks, 40, and her 21-year-old son, the wait for a home feels endless. The pair has been shuffled between motels in Rotorua for five years, after Banks previous relationship broke down and she had to leave her home.

Banks has been searching for a rental property ever since, but with more people moving to the region, higher rents and intensive vetting processes, her hope is dwindling.

Its more paperwork, more questions. A lot of people out there dont know the situation were in. Its just not that easy to get a place these days.

Now, Banks faces another move, after the motel she was staying in was deemed a fire risk. If housing services cannot find her a permanent home in the next few weeks, she and her son will be moved to yet another motel.

I get bad anxiety, sometimes I dont even want to leave my room You dont know how long youre going to be here, if youre going to be moving, its quite stressful, she says. All of us just want to be in a home and feel safe.

Read the original post:

New Zealands motel generation caught between life in limbo and life on the street - The Guardian

One airline has a special treat for travelers headed to New Zealand who have a little extra time on their hands.

Air Tahiti Nui has launched a special promotion offering travelers headed from the United States to New Zealand a three-night stopover in Tahiti.

Travelers can take those 3 days on the way to New Zealand, on the way back, or split over both periods.

Why choose just one breathtaking South Pacific destination when you can visit two? asked the airline when announcing the deal. Our new special stopover invites passengers to spend 3 days and nights for free in the Islands of Tahiti on their way to or from Auckland.

And when they say free, they mean it. Three nights of hotel accommodations at the oceanfront Hilton Hotel Tahiti are included with the deal.

Visitors interested in the deal need to act soon. Flights must be booked by October 7, and travel must take place between December 1 and March 31, 2023.

Prices begin at $999 for the round-trip flights from either Los Angeles or Seattle to Papeete, Tahiti, then on to Auckland.

Transportation between the airport and the hotel is not covered. Also, travelers will have to pay the $3 per person, per day city tax in Tahiti, as well as a $12 resort fee per room, per night at the Hilton. Other than that, all taxes and fees are covered in the deal.

There are some blackout days over the Christmas holidays for both the flights and hotel stays, so those must be worked around when booking.

Air Tahiti Nui is aiming to make these trips a memorable experience for passengers.

Your journey to the islands of Tahiti and Auckland starts the moment you step on-board our new fleet of Tahitian Dreamliners, the company writes. Enjoy our warm Tahitian hospitality and award-winning full service including a choice of meals, alcoholic beverages, in-flight entertainment, an amenity and safety kit, as well as a complimentary checked bag.

To take advantage of the deal, bookings must be made exclusively through the airlines call center at 877-824-4846.

For those contemplating the trip, as of September 13, visitors to New Zealand no longer need to show proof of COVID vaccination to enter the country.

The deal comes as Air Tahiti Nui begins expansion in the United States. Previously flying only out of Los Angeles, the Seattle flights are launching October 5.

North America is a key market for our destination, Mathieu Bechonnet, Air Tahiti Nui managing director, said in a release. So, when we decided to open a second gateway on the West Coast, Seattle was a natural answer for us.

The flights will be the first time any planes have flown non-stop from Seattle to a Southern Hemisphere destination, according to officials at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Seattle is honored to be only the second U.S. destination for Air Tahiti Nui, said Lance Lyttle, the airports managing director. Were excited that Seattleites will now have yet another magical destination to explore, whether thats Tahiti itself or other nearby islands like Bora Bora or Moorea.

The Seattle-Tahiti routes will fly twice weekly, with flights from Seattle on Wednesdays and Sundays, and return trips on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Be sure to read up on our most recent airline news, including:

Original post:

New Air Tahiti Nui Deal Flies You To New Zealand And Tahiti For $999 Heres Whats Included - TravelAwaits

Prince William and Princess Catherine were greeted to a haka, He Taua, by New Zealand troops at a military base in Surrey on Saturday.

The Prince and Princess of Wales visited the army training centre in Pirbright and met with troops from the Commonwealth, who will be take part in the state funeral of the Queen on Monday, People reported.

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

New Zealand troops perform a haka for Prince William and Kate Middleton during a visit to Army Training Centre Pirbright.

According to a release from Kensington Palace, soldiers from New Zealand, Australia and Canada have gathered at the military base to rehearse their roles for the ceremony.

At the end of Prince William and Princess Catherines visit, the 24 New Zealand troops performed He Taua for the couple, who watched on before acknowledging with a nod before leaving.

He Taua, a call to arms, was written by WO (retd) Wallace RNZAF in response to a request from a NZDF sports team.

Although each of the services have their own haka, He Taua can be performed when NZDF come together, including for operational deployments.

On Twitter, the Prince and Princess of Wales thanked the troops for taking time out of their rehearsals to meet with the couple on Saturday.

To those we spoke to from Australia, Canada and New Zealand, we really appreciate you being here.

More than a dozen New Zealanders will attend the Queens funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Kiingi Theitia and former SAS soldier Willi Apiata.

The broad range of New Zealands representation is a testament to the Queens long-standing relationship and engagement with our country, Ardern said in a statement on Tuesday.

Arden has paid her respects at the coffin of the late Queen, and was among the first of world dignitaries to attend the lying in state at Londons Westminster Hall.

Earlier, Ardern met with Prince William and Princess Catherine at Windsor Castle.

View post:

New Zealand troops perform haka for William and Kate - Stuff

This story is from the team at thespinoff.co.nz.

Weve just experienced the most extraordinary period of the century so far, during which unprecedented restrictions were put on our lives. These largely ended this week but, Duncan Greive writes, rather than returning to things as they were, New Zealanders are coming to terms with a country transformed.

The pandemic truly began with a televised address on a Saturday afternoon, one which had the air of a wartime address the flags, the wood panelling, the black and white portraits of former prime ministers. And Jacinda Ardern down the barrel of the camera, telling us that from next week, our whole lives would change.

It set the stage for two months many of us spent inside, watching the world in horror and Aotearoa in the hope that we might avoid the same fate. That gave way to two and a half years in which we ran on a separate track to the rest of the planet. For much of it we had no known cases in our community, and even when delta did escape, never to be contained, the caseload didnt run rampant the way it did elsewhere. It was only with the arrival of omicron, an irresistible variant, that the country succumbed to the roaring intensity of the pandemic.

By then, the vast majority of us who wanted to be vaccinated had taken our two shots. And while the last six months have seen Covid-19 finally breach our lattice of national defences, they also saw us, at a population level, lose something of our fear of the virus. Some of this was the vaccination campaign, some of it was the milder strain, some of it was the experience of contracting the virus and the vast majority of us surviving (though an unfortunate minority live with long Covid, about which too little is known).

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That change in our attitude toward the virus, from fear to something more resigned, manifested in multiple ways. Most prominently, it showed in our adherence to the restrictions of the orange setting, under which we were nominally still operating until days ago. These mandated a number of things, the most visible being mask usage in many indoor settings. Yet anyone who went into a supermarket or caught the bus knows that compliance with those laws became increasingly scattered over the past few months. While there was a second peak in July, numbers have since declined steadily, a kind of natural endorsement of this new behaviour.

The Spinoff

That change in our attitude toward the virus, from fear to something more resigned, manifested in multiple ways.

And while experts like Siouxsie Wiles and advocates for the immunocompromised were right to say that this represented a dangerous new frontier, and that the government should not blithely abandon a course of action which had served us so well, Labour ultimately had little choice. In a democracy, we are largely governed by consent. With what appeared a majority of the population deciding to cease complying with these laws, to carry on would have meant millions of us were on some level engaged in daily criminal activity. For the sake of defending our more persistent laws, they had to go, if only to defend the behavioural matrix which helps us operate as a society.

So here we are again days shy of two and a half years on, back with normal service resumed. Yet so much has changed as to make that a laughable suggestion. It seems like the right time to reflect on the different aspects of our lives which remain profoundly impacted by the pandemic, for better and worse, and show that even with 2020s Public Health Response Act off the books, some things remain quite radically different.

Aside from the lockdowns, the most defining feature of the pandemic was our changed relationship with the border. Previously porous, it became subject to incredibly tight control. For many of the million of us who were away from their whenua, it also became the subject of deep anguish, as the hard-capped supply of places in managed isolation meant the opportunity to return home became an unnecessarily cruel lottery.

While some of those here on temporary visas when the pandemic struck elected to stay, sometimes with harsh consequences, many left, meaning New Zealanders were largely stuck with each other for a couple of years. This created a giant experiment which saw unemployment, expected to rise as our economy fell, plumb record lows. Our tourism infrastructure pivoted to trying to attract and service a domestic market, with mixed results.

This ultimately had the effect of forcing the test of a longstanding thesis of the left that some inward migration contributed to negative pressure on salaries, particularly among lower-paid workers. It turned out to have some truth to it, with average hourly earnings up 6.4% in the year ended June 2022.

Our border is now theoretically operating much as before. Only, it seems to be working more one way than the other, as the persistent downward trend in migration data shows, resulting in a net loss of 11,500 people in the year ended July.

Broadly it feels like our young people are off on long-delayed OEs, but arent being replaced by the bold and curious of other countries (Come! Its probably better than where you are, see below). Which is slightly unnerving, for both tourism operators and employers who require particular kinds of workers to achieve their goals. It seems clear that even with a border changed and migration settings freer than before, things are just not quite what they were.

When Covid arrived there were predictions that housing would crash, but the money bomb unleashed by the government and Reserve Bank ended up having the opposite effect, seeing already OECD-leading prices rocket up 30% or more. This was very good news for those who were heavily invested in property, and made homeowners feel more wealthy, but unavoidably made those locked out of the market feel even more alienated.

The odd thing is that the rise in house prices was largely on the demand side. Most people were staying put to see what the pandemic would bring, which meant that the number of houses for sale plummeted. Many were working from home, which made some keen to upgrade meaning the cost of building rose, which (along with low interest rates) justified paying more for existing homes. At the same time, New Zealanders coming home were desperate to buy, creating a temporary demand shock, with returning migrants movements strongly correlated with house price increases.

The paradox of it all is that while it felt like our housing market was exploding in 2021, the seeds of a form of rebalancing were in place. The closed border meant that net migration plummeted, meaning fewer people are chasing our existing homes. The building consent boom of the past few years saw record numbers of homes planned, increasing future supply. And interest rates are spiking, meaning banks wont loan as much, reducing how much wage earners can pay for a home.

It all adds up to a situation in which rents and prices are starting to meaningfully sag for the first time in some years, helped by the expectation that new planning rules might bring far more intensification to our biggest cities in the coming years. To be clear, prices are still absolutely rooted, so lets not get too excited, and we still have a heartbreaking situation unfolding in emergency housing. But there are more reasons than there have been in years to express cautious optimism that our housing crisis might one day merit a downgrade to a mere disaster.

Joseph Johnson/Stuff

Aside from the lockdowns, the most defining feature of the pandemic was our changed relationship with the border.

We lived through a decade in which inflation felt a quaint thing your grandpa used to fret about. Then came a pandemic-induced supply chain disruption, huge government stimulus, and central banks loaning any bank any money for any reason if they promised to keep our economies in motion. This made prices go way, way up though we were told it was a blip. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and China continued its ultra-doomed zero Covid policy, and the blip suddenly looked a lot less blippish.

Inflation is back, baby. Its currently running at 7.3% in Aotearoa, a level not seen since Act founder Richard Prebble was a staunch Labour man, and there is no good reason to think it wont stay this way for a while. Unlike the border, or even housing to some extent, the government has a somewhat limited ability to impact the price of things. We exist in a globalised trading environment, with many important prices set at markets a long way from here.

Some elevated inflation is not entirely bad parts of government privately applaud it. If wages go up while house prices and rents stagnate, for example, that represents progress on the goal of making housing more affordable. But its well above that level now, and is such a chaotic beast that even those who are enjoying it are rightly wary of where it might lead. There are some reasons for cautious optimism, such as a decline in shipping costs (which impact almost all goods we buy) but elevated inflation seems a freaky post-pandemic reality which could easily hang around.

At the start of 2020, health did not feel like a major consuming interest. Its something which everyone alive needs to think about yet many of us actively avoid contemplating. Our health system has long been oddly structured and underfunded, and served many of our most vulnerable particularly poorly (Emma Espiners Getting Better podcast remains mandatory listening to understand this at a micro level).

But while its a major area of spending, it was not a major area of news coverage more one to be visited for investigations than under persistent scrutiny. There were only a handful of specialist health reporters outside of the noble likes of NZ Doctor. At a societal level, we were just not paying much attention.

Then the pandemic arrived and killed millions of people, and eventually thousands of us. It made us pay very close attention to our health system, and stories of it buckling and failing in some places felt real because any of us might imminently need it. Every reporter became a health reporter, many of them brilliant.

The pandemic also viscerally demonstrated that health was indeed a system. Not just hospitals and GPs, but pharmacies and researchers and public health experts and vaccine supply chains. Some of these worked really well for some of us, but after the Pfizer vaccine arrived en masse the weekly statistics told a damning story about how well our system reached different communities.

This was not just a medical issue Mori confidence in the system is intimately connected to centuries of hard-earned distrust in the state but you saw it very acutely in health. This was never OK, but the health systems racial inequities were even more inescapable in the post-George Floyd era. Reporting on healthcare now pays attention to how different communities experience it, and this seems only right.

Health was also ground zero for a major change in government policy, with the government replacing the patchwork of DHBs with a new centralised provider, and Te Aka Whai Ora, the Mori Health Authority. Only time will reveal whether this, the largest of the governments centralisation projects, will lead to a meaningful change in access and outcomes for communities the system currently fails. But the pandemic has made us appreciate our reliance on the totality of the health system, and how fragile elements of it were going in.

Juan Zarama Perini

Health was also ground zero for a major change in government policy, with the government replacing the patchwork of DHBs with a new centralised provider.

Education has experienced a near perfect inversion of what health went through in the past couple of years. It was necessarily sacrificed to preserve health initially, with school abandoned for months while we pursued elimination. While there was a huge effort to move to online learning, access to those tools were unequally divided, leading to a major and partially successful push to get devices into the hands of those who lacked them.

Unfortunately MIQ sites were concentrated in Tmaki-Makaurau, and the riskiest of all the once-notorious Jet Park, where positive cases were transferred was located in South Auckland. This is also the site of New Zealands largest Pacific community, its most overcrowded housing, and a population with major healthcare challenges. This combination lead inevitably to major outbreaks and lockdowns with correspondingly lengthy absences from school, totalling around six months of a two year span.

During this period many older students were faced with a bleak choice: continue attending school online, often in conditions which made learning very difficult, or enlist as essential workers and bring a wage home. Others became disenfranchised, and some data suggests that there is a kind of educational long Covid kids missing school, unexplained, who had previously attended regularly. They now have a correspondingly higher risk of missing out on much more as they go through life.

Deeper into the education system, we have lost, in part intentionally, many of the international students who used to populate parts of our tertiary system. But with immigration still well down on 2019 levels, it means an increased pressure on our system to create the kinds of workers our society used to be able to import (see: nurses and teachers). So far the reform of our polytech sector is over budget and has already seen off one highly experienced CEO. Any long-term recovery from the pandemic requires education to get enough attention to start to repair the individual and collective sacrifices students made during the pandemic, and meet the needs of our future economy.

When we locked down, we got more internet than ever before. You saw this in surging, likely unrepeatable large audiences for online news, and temporary resurgences for linear TV. Yet there was also a small but not insubstantial minority of us for whom the pandemic galvanised a real distrust of the media, and particularly its relationship with the government.

This rumbled along, propelled by hyper-use of social media publicly on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, privately on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. Initially a vague discontentment, leaders like Billy Te Kahika, Kelvyn Alp, Sue Grey and Voices for Freedom gave this tendency shape, creating a kind of constellation of brands under which anyone so inclined could find a home.

Over time it fused with various conspiracies about the origin of the virus and the vaccines into a full-blown movement, one which swelled around the time the mandates were announced, peaking with the occupation of parliament. The 23 day siege attracted thousands of people, transfixing the nation. It culminated in flames and hurled cobblestones and a sense that our country had a new, highly disenfranchised population that had started to live in a different reality to many of the rest of us.

Their fury felt equally directed at politicians, whom they blamed for job losses, and the media for enabling them. The governments Public Interest Journalism Fund became an obsession for many in this group, and while there are legitimate criticisms to be levelled at it, the extent to which a piece of relatively routine procurement has become a sinister conspiracy is a wound that will take some time to heal.

Its also worth acknowledging that the past couple of years have been a collective trauma, and that its entirely natural that people respond to it in different ways. It still feels like we give too much attention to those who have been radicalised online, and too little to platforms that enable and profit from the heavy engagement that radicalisation engenders. On some level, Mondays Covid announcement could be read as a call to lay down our online arms to welcome those who felt alienated by mandates back into our collective whnau. Its impossible to yet know whether these divisions are permanent or simply a product of extraordinary times and measures.

I know this piece so far reads like a catalogue of bad vibes. No one wants to come here anymore, everything is more expensive, our health and education systems are kinda wrecked and we basically hate each other. Yet pick almost any other country and the same things are in worse shape. Inflation runs hotter in many other rich countries. The health and education systems crumbled in far more catastrophic ways, and much larger proportions of their populations died during the peak of the pandemic.

Braden Fastier/Stuff

The 23-day siege in Wellington attracted thousands of people, transfixing the nation.

Most of all, the divisions which flamed during the pandemic feel uglier and more entrenched in many of the other countries to which we often compare ourselves. To address all that broke and was revealed by the pandemic will require enormous effort, but will also be made far easier by the ability to agree on desired goals (if not the path there) as much as possible. A political and media system that accepts the legitimacy of elections and believes in the good intentions of its main participants is perhaps the most precious thing we still hold.

I wrote about how I was feeling a couple of months ago under the only somewhat facetious headline Everything feels bad all the time. Based on the feedback I got, I was not alone. Yet to be here, in spring, with case numbers falling and the repeal of the restrictions which weve sat with since March of 2020 even if that is itself not uncomplicated feels like a moment we shouldnt just let pass by with a shrug.

It got a little lost in the passing of the Queen, and the fact that many of us had abandoned those restrictions already. But the pandemic was something we all did together, under very extreme circumstances. As much as some key parts of our society are under strain, and face years of hard work just to get back to baseline, almost everything really is so much worse nearly everywhere else.

Its not much maybe, especially to those whose lives have been irrevocably altered by the pandemic. But its more than most of the rest of the world can say an outcome any of us would have taken on that fateful day when the prime minister stared down the camera and told us this ride was about to begin. As we commence the long and arduous work of building the post-pandemic era, that should not be taken lightly.

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New Zealand is now as it was but nothing is the same - Stuff