Category Archives: New Zealand

Peter Kelly, from Whangarei, died in South Africa in 1974. The last person to see him alive has been searching for his family since - and found them this week. Photo / Supplied

A mystery New Zealand backpacker who died in South Africa 48 years ago has been identified.

A South African expatriate who witnessed his death at his Johannesburg home made a public appeal through the Herald this week to find the man, known only as "Red".

Family and friends have contacted the Herald to say the man was Peter Kelly, from Whangrei.

"It was quite emotional," said Kelly's sister Colleen Wech, of the moment she read the article in the Northern Advocate. Her voice quivering, she said she immediately recognised the man as her brother.

Kelly died after accidentally falling seven storeys from a balcony in Hillbrow, Johannesburg in 1974.

The last man to see him alive, Tony Brebner*, said he had been haunted by his death ever since and had unsuccessfully tried to track down his family for decades. He had only met him days earlier and did not know his full name or any other details.

Wech said the family never had closure after her brother's death. While New Zealand maintained diplomatic ties with South Africa during apartheid, communication was strained and it was difficult to get any information out of the country.

The family were already grieving the loss of Peter's older brother, Mike, a medical student who is believed to have drowned in the Whanganui Hospital swimming pool four years earlier, aged 21.

South African Police eventually contacted their New Zealand counterparts after Kelly's death, and Colleen recalls a late-night visit from police officers to their Whangrei home to break the news to the parents.

The police recommended that Kelly be buried in Johannesburg. His body would have to return as cargo and there were few flights between New Zealand and South Africa, meaning it could be two weeks before his body came back.

Kelly was buried in a Johannesburg cemetery, and Brebner said he was the only person at the graveside who was not an official. A service was also held in Whangrei, without a body and without much knowledge of how Kelly died.

"It was the most peculiar feeling," said Wech.

"It was an awful time. I remember a year passed and my dad saying 'I would just love to know what really happened'."

Their father died in 1975, and their mother died in 2004. A year later, Wech went to Johannesburg to trace her brothers' last moments and said Mass at his graveside.

An article from the time of his death said Kelly was a keen sportsman, representing Auckland schoolboys in cricket and the Hikurangi rugby club.

Ray Tewake, from Whangarei, worked with him as linesman at the post office in Whangrei before Kelly went overseas.

"He was hard case, great sense of humour, great to have a beer with. And he was the only one I trusted to drive my car, a Zephyr I think it was."

In a letter sent home to family, Kelly spoke about the unfairness of apartheid South Africa, saying black South Africans were "despised" and treated "pretty poorly".

He wrote that he gave a black man a ride home to Soweto and that he was appalled by the poverty and cramped living. He finished the letter saying he was flying to England soon and would send his new address to the family. He never made it to England, dying a few days later.

Brebner, now living in Australia, planned to speak to Colleen Wech this week. He said it would bring him great peace after 45 years to tell Red's story.

"I can't believe how long I have held on to this."

*Brebner previously used the pseudonym Brett

More:

Mystery solved: New Zealand backpacker who died 48 years ago identified by family - New Zealand Herald

ANALYSIS: Communications Minister David Clark might see no reason New Zealand cant be the Silicon Valley of the Southern Hemisphere, but others are more than happy to point out some potential problems.

Here are the big ones: the quality of our education system, immigration issues, a high cost of living relative to wages, a lack of engineers, and cultural issues like the tall poppy syndrome and a natural Kiwi aversion to risk.

Others ask what making New Zealand the Silicon Valley of the Southern Hemisphere really means. Does it mean we want the country to grow more $1 billion-plus companies, or is it about creating a society which is proactive about trying to solve problems through technology?

Then there are the various parts of the country that already lay claim to being Silicon Valley-esque: St Georges Bay Rd or Wynyard Quarter in Auckland, Wellingtonians who call their city Silicon Welly, along with Hamilton, Christchurch and Queenstown which have all tried to portray themselves as being potential Silicon Valley locations at different points in time.

The reasons why we cant become the next Silicon Valley are aptly summarised by former Pharmac director Jens Mueller, who has worked in corporate leadership positions in the United States, and is currently a director of Massey Universitys executive development programme.

New Zealand will do clever things, we have the fastest robotic apple-sorting machine, we have very clever husbandry rules, we know every cow by genetics.

The idea of making this a market that is focusing on gadgetry high-impact, short-term rocket-start type development is never going to be successful because it misses the market, it misses the money, it misses the skills.

But even if we can turn New Zealand into a global technology hub, should we?

The timing of this push to embrace a Silicon Valley ethos in New Zealand is odd too: Tesla is currently moving out of Silicon Valley to Arizona, Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its history, Netflix saw US$45 billion lopped off its market capitalisation after subscriber numbers declined, DoorDashs share price sank below its initial public offering (IPO) level, and Kiwi high-flyer RocketLab has seen its stockmarket value plunge, too.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

David Clark says he sees no reason why New Zealand cant be the Silicon Valley of the southern hemisphere.

Mueller argues we would do better to focus on helping firms that are doing a good trade right now, but could supercharge their offering with help on how to export better or grow.

Nonetheless, the idea of New Zealand becoming a powerhouse of tech unicorns (the title given to privately held companies worth over $1b) is very popular in Wellington and within Government circles.

Last year, the Productivity Commission alluded to the need for New Zealand to build more Frontier Firms, with technology firms likely to make up a big part of that. A recently released Digital Transformation Plan also champions the idea of trying to grow the tech sector to something many times the size of what it is today.

Currently, the New Zealand technology sector is dominated by Xero, which comprises 79 per cent of the New Zealand technology sectors market capitalisation, and 95 per cent of the SaaS sector, according to a report by Clare Capital released last year.

You might see it as a bad sign that much of the technology sectors valuation comes from the rise of just one company, but Callaghan Innovation head of SaaS (Software as a Service) Bruce Jarvis doesnt see it that way.

Xero has grown (from $144m market capitalisation in 2010 to $22.5b in 2021), but the rest of the technology sector has grown too ($274m in 2010 to $5.9b in 2021), it is just that Xeros growth hasnt stopped.

Jarvis argues this is the exponential growth factor that SaaS can unlock.

The internet has reduced the cost of distribution and production, so it costs a similar amount to service one million customers as it does to service 50 million, meaning your costs stay the same as your customer numbers take off.

There are still costs though, and Rush Digital co-founder Danu Abeysuriya says New Zealand is at a disadvantage because it is a high-cost environment.

He says in the startup phase companies survive by keeping their costs low, but in New Zealand things like land, housing, and basic costs of living, are very expensive especially relative to incomes.

Regardless of where you sit in this debate, there is one major constraint most agree is holding us back: People.

Jarvis says capital was once the main barrier to startups scaling up fast, but with increased interest from global venture capital firms he thinks the biggest barrier now is access to skilled personnel.

The only constraint is people. Its not land, its not physical infrastructure.

The shortage of skilled personnel is a big reason why the Government is spending $1m on an advertising campaign to attract skilled technology workers to New Zealand.

While immigration is generally ranked as an area of lesser concern amongst the public (an Ipsos NZ poll in February showed immigration was not even within the publics top five issues of concern), leaders within the technology sector consistently rank it as one of their biggest issues.

Supplied

Jarvis says people is the big constraint when it comes to the growth of the Software as a Service sector.

Yet there is a big disconnect between what the technology sector is looking for and what the Government thinks is necessary.

Abeysuriya says the announcement of a border exception for 600 tech workers at the end of last year was a real let them eat cake moment for the industry.

The fact that the press release pitched the deal as an excellent way to finish the year, but provided no analysis of how the figure had been arrived at, only added insult to injury.

You know that story where Marie Antoinette says oh the people are starving, let them eat cake. Its like a really fantastic anecdote for a disconnected leadership.

I feel like immigration is like that, thats their f...ing let them eat cake moment.

Its like, okay, you want a couple of hundred companies to split up 600 employees? At least half of those companies have a market capitalisation of over $1b.

So tell me how that 600 number was derived. Was it calculated from our need, or was it calculated from what you can handle? Because if its from what you can handle then thats a f...ing problem.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF

Danu Abeysuriya says a border exception for 600 workers last year was a real let them eat cake moment.

New Zealand Game Developers Association chairperson Chelsea Rapp has a long list of examples illustrating the same point; that the immigration and border exception system around IT workers has been poorly managed over the past two to three years.

One tech sector worker on a temporary visa in the United Kingdom spent so long waiting to get into New Zealand they ended up qualifying for residency in the UK while they waited (and decided not to take up their job offer here).

Then there are the tech sector workers already in New Zealand on temporary visas who cant get new visas because the immigration system has ground to a halt.

A replacement system was supposed to be in place by November, but it has been delayed until July a decision which leaves these workers, and their status in the country, hanging under a cloud of uncertainty.

The number one issue for games right now is immigration, and I think the biggest issue is not necessarily that our immigration settings are wrong, its that they are uncertain.

Rapp says there are enough qualified graduates, but there are not enough people with the right experience, and this is the gap immigration can fill.

Right now we cant hire anybody from overseas, regardless of what their skills are, because we cant guarantee that theyre going to be able to get a visa through immigration in any meaningful amount of time.

Supplied

Chelsea Rapp says immigration is the most important issue facing the gaming industry.

Rapp says it is also hard for fast-emerging sectors to make their case for letting workers in until the sector, or need, becomes more well established.

She says technology trends shift quickly, but immigration rules and bureaucracy do not, and a recent trend in immigration policy to focus on salary makes it much harder for emerging firms like videogame studios to access talent.

I just think that its unfair to say that the requirements should be exclusively salary-based, because I dont think New Zealand studios are ever going to be in a position where they can pay the same amount that American studios pay.

All of this is important because scaling up and grabbing market share before anybody else can is the name of the game in Silicon Valley, and for that you need top engineering talent.

It is no accident that Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, and Singapore - three globally recognised technology hubs are great generators of top engineers and scientists themselves. Silicon Valley from its proximity to Stanford University, Tel Aviv through the Israeli Governments investments in defence-related technology, and Singapore through its highly competitive education system.

123RF

Technology hubs like Singapore produce a large number of scientists and engineers.

New Zealand expat, and Stanford University data science graduate, Keniel Yao, is a current resident of Silicon Valley. He says there is not only more talent in Silicon Valley, but a higher level of technological aptitude amongst the general population there, especially on a campus like Stanford.

Yao says high schools do a better job of teaching computer science in the US, and the best out of that system then go on to Stanford where computer science is the most popular major.

He says it creates an environment where it feels like almost anybody has the skillset to build anything.

So the question is always about the business viability of the idea rather than technological capacity for it.

Imagine trying to do that in New Zealand right? Youre spending most of your time trying to find an engineer.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF

Ariki Creative kaihaut Hori Te Ariki Mataki is using his passion of digital design to create opportunities for others who haven't had the chance to learn about the endless possibilities of computers.

However, the skills required to create unicorns also go beyond just pure technical knowledge.

Mueller says New Zealand does not have enough people who are skilled at turning companies into unicorns.

Crimson Education founder Jamie Beaton agrees, and says it makes a big difference hearing from people who have personally transformed a company from startup into a multibillion-dollar success.

Entrepreneurs in places like Silicon Valley, and students at top universities in the United States, have ready access to these types of people, and get to hear from them all the time.

That makes you believe you can do anything. It really infects you with this belief that you can keep building, and it makes you dream big, Beaton says.

Startups are against the odds, and you have to really believe that youre seeing something that the market hasnt, and youve got to push and push and push against all this resistance.

Beatons company helps train students to get into top-ranked universities around the world, and he is a big advocate of taking a Singapore-style approach to funding New Zealand students to broaden their horizons and study at elite universities overseas.

SUPPLIED

Jamie Beaton believes getting more New Zealanders into elite overseas universities is part of the answer.

Singapore underwrites the cost of citizens who manage to get into highly ranked universities in the United States. In exchange, Singaporean citizens agree to work for a government agency or corporation for six years after they graduate.

Beaton believes getting more New Zealanders educated at top universities overseas would go a long way towards creating the kind of talent pool needed to grow successful startups here.

Mueller says the types of technology skills needed here are more generalised than in large markets like the US, and New Zealand is not a large enough economy to provide employment for those type of specialised skills.

Jarvis says it is important not to focus solely on university education when it comes to trying to generate the skills New Zealand tech firms need.

University education carries a high cost, and some people will choose not to pay it, which will have implications for the diversity of the tech sector that comes out of the other end of it.

Instead, Jarvis is a big fan of focusing more on short-courses that are cheaper and more accessible, but which also can be adapted to fast-moving circumstances in the economy.

The markets the Ferrari, and the traditional education system is the Fergus tractor trying to catch up.

And the gap is getting wider and wider and wider.

SUPPLIED

Keniel Yao says there are so many engineers in Silicon Valley that the focus is much more on business viability.

New Zealand expat Richard Ngo is a researcher in artificial intelligence at OpenAI and his CV includes a two-year stint at Alphabets DeepMind project. He sports degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge.

Ngo says we should be careful to look at education tools beyond formal education, and he strongly supports a greater emphasis on activities like hackathons and competitive programming as a way of supporting future tech talent.

Most of the very best engineers and programmers I know were very self-motivated in their learning - we should think about how this can be nurtured.

Mueller says another factor behind Silicon Valley that New Zealand cannot hope to replicate is the size of its market, which makes it easy for companies to try out a product on large number of consumers to see if it works.

Yao says this is very much the reality in the Valley where processes for doing everyday things are continually changing, and people there are continually bombarded with ads to try new services from startups.

There are cultural differences between Silicon Valley and New Zealand too, not all of them good.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

Auckland-based AI developer Soul Machines addresses ethical issues in digital twin technology

Some people are wary about importing the bad. They point to Silicon Valleys culture of overwork, its lack of diversity, and a gung-ho attitude to business risk.

Hnry co-founder James Fuller, who is originally from London, says there is an attitude in both the UK and the US that people involved in a startup should be burning themselves out with 12 to 14-hour days, and he does not want to see that here.

I dont think anybody wants to live in that kind of a country either. Its about finding that balance.

Instead, he says we should stick with the kind of balance we already have, where there are plenty of hardworking people, but there is a great quality of life to go alongside that too.

Former Lynfield college student Jia Dua also argues that just because we want to become a technology hub, does not mean we have to lose touch with our countrys values.

Dua is now at Duke University on a scholarship, and was part of a team from New Zealand who won the world robotics championship three times.

KEVIN STENT/Stuff

James Fuller says we don't want the kind of startup work culture seen in the US and UK.

You want to be a technology hub or a technology leader, but you want to also identify what is New Zealand known for?

Its known for inclusivity, its known for pushing the boundaries forward. How can we grow upon that in ways that America, even, cant?

Rapp doesnt want to replicate Silicon Valley here, but she is in favour of striving to build a better version of it. A technology hub that is more tolerant of diversity, with a less toxic work culture.

However, she thinks it also wouldn't be a bad idea for us to take a leaf out of Silicon Valleys book when it comes to tall poppies.

In the US you are definitely rewarded for standing out, and here [in New Zealand] Ive had kids tell me stories about how they wont tell their friends that they get good grades because they don't want to stand out.

More:

Silicon Valley of the South Pacific: Grand dream or pipe dream? - Stuff

Sport

24 Mar, 2022 04:48 PM2 minutes to read

Dame Lisa Carrington has married her long-time partner Michael Buck. Photos / Andrea Stephens Photography

Six-time Olympic medallist Dame Lisa Carrington has married her long-time partner Michael Buck.

Sharing the news on social media, Carrington announced the couple's marriage on Thursday night.

"Introducing ... Mr & Mrs. A glimpse into the best day ever celebrating with our amazing whanau and friends," Carrington posted on Instagram.

The caption is accompanied by a number of photos taken from the couple's special day.

Many people congratulated the pair including a number of female Olympians such as Canoe slalom athlete Luuka Jones and rugby sevens stars Tyla Nathan-Wong and Ruby Tui.

The pair announced their engagement back on March 11, a few months before the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.

Carrington became New Zealand's greatest Olympian in the Japanese capital, overcoming a tough schedule to win gold in the K1 200m, K1 500m and K2 500m (with Caitlin Regal), increasing her tally to six medals (five gold and one bronze).

Since the 2012 Olympics, Carrington has been involved in 29 per cent of the 17 gold medals achieved by this country.

Last month, Carrington won the supreme award at the 59th Halberg Awards ceremony.

She was named the sportswoman of the year earlier in the night, before being presented the supreme award honours by Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro.

It was Carrington's second supreme award, having also won the ultimate honour in another Olympic year in 2016, while she has now won five consecutive sportswoman of the year awards, to go alongside her sportswoman of the decade honour, claimed last year in the absence of the yearly Halberg Awards due to the impact of Covid-19 on New Zealand sport.

Original post:

New Zealand's greatest Olympian Lisa Carrington announces her marriage to long-time partner - New Zealand Herald

The biggest name in plant-based meat has landed in Aotearoa. Its about to cause some beef.

Its completely mind-blowing, says Sophie Gilmour. The owner of Fatimas has only been on the phone for a few moments, yet shes already running out of adjectives to describe something that appears to be a little bit like magic. Its like theyre playing a trick on your brain, she says. Its so clever thats their genius. It feels impossible. There is no difference.

For the past five months, chefs at Gilmours Auckland Middle Eastern restaurant chain have been meddling with their koftas. Ground meat goes into a mixing bowl with spices, ginger and coriander, and is then shaped and fried. These are served in two ways, in a pita pocket with harissa, tzatziki and pickled cucumber, or on skewers with spicy tomato sauce and garlic yoghurt.

The twist? The ground beef Fatimas uses to give their koftas a meaty texture doesnt come from cows. Its from Impossible, the biggest and coolest name in the plant-based craze. Lab-designed, made in California, then shipped to Aotearoa, Impossibles arrival in supermarkets this week has many chefs smiling, vegans frothing and beef and dairy farmers probably feeling a little anxious.

After a trial run in select restaurants, the first Impossible product, a plant-based burger patty, can now be found on shelves at 200 Countdown stores. Mince meat, like that used in Fatimas koftas, is coming later in the year, and fans will be hoping Impossibles full range of plant-based products pork, sausage, chicken and even nuggets joins them shortly.

Its a brand Gilmour believes is here to stay. Fatimas Impossible koftas are so popular they pop off in Ponsonby theyve become a permanent menu fixture. She raves about the products resemblance to regular beef. It looks and cooks and eats like mince, she says. Shes had no trouble winning over customers, or staff. Half of them are vegan. Theyre jazzed about it.

Theyre not the only ones. At Burger Burger, a $19 Impossible burger sold out at all five stores on launch day. Ive been chasing Impossible Foods, trying to get them on the menu, for five years, owner and Sophies sister Mimi told Stuff. Customers are loving it. Just like meat and so tasty with just the right amount of patty, pickles, cheese and sauces, wrote one on Instagram.

New Zealand fans have been waiting for this moment for years, ever since Impossible launched in Californian restaurants to rave reviews in 2016. Its taken this long because New Zealands a small market, but also because a key ingredient in Impossible beef, heme a genetically engineered soy ingredient that makes Impossible products bleed like beef wasnt approved until 2020.

Over that time, the market for plant, pea, kmara and soy-based meat alternatives has exploded. Veganism is on the rise and increasing numbers of meat eaters are trying to eat less of the stuff for the good of the environment. Most supermarkets have dedicated chilled sections full of vegan and vegetarian sausages, bacon and burger patties. New Zealands own innovation Sunfed is a popular chicken alternative made of yellow pea protein, and Off-Piste offers jerky. At $12 for a two-pack of patties, Impossible is among the most expensive.

How will it fare? If it doesnt taste good, it doesnt really matter, says Nick Halla. Impossibles senior vice president of international, who joined the company as its first employee shortly after Patrick O Brown founded Impossible Foods in Silicon Valley in 2011, is beaming in via Zoom, with travel restrictions keeping him away from Impossibles Aotearoa launch. Inferior products have built up consumer disappointment, he says. We have this anxiety built up, [that] if it comes from plants, its not going to be good.

Thats not the case with Impossible. Many meat lovers are unable to spot any difference to the real thing. Thats the key to winning over New Zealands massive meat-eating population, says Halla. What we see is consumers pick it up pretty quickly, whether its, Im going to overhaul my diet, or, Im going to replace [meat] once a week,' he says. I think pickup will be very quick.

That could be concerning news to one particular sector: New Zealands massive beef and dairy farming community. If too many people eat Impossible products, it could affect their livelihoods. Is Impossible coming for them? I think its an opportunity to think about where agriculture and farming are going to go, Halla warns. Its getting harder and harder. Prices are going down, pressure on the systems going up. Its an opportunity for innovators, for building food a better way.

If that sounds like fighting talk, thats because it is. Everyone knows whats at stake: the climate. Food production accounts for one-quarter of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions and takes up half of the planets habitable surface, reports carbonbrief.org. Beef is among the worst emitters. Things need to change. We cant feed the world this way, even if we wanted to, says Halla. As incomes rise, meat consumption rises too. We dont have the land and resources to feed [the world]. Impossible productsuse 96% less land, 87% less water and emit 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to beef. Converting diets, and minds, while helping the planet survive, is Impossibles mission impossible.

The only way to do that is to make a better product than meat. The reviews are in, and Impossibles already passing the taste test. Celebrity chefs like David Chang love it. Impossibles already appeared on The Simpsons. It has rave reviews across the board. Even dietitians think its protein and vitamin levels are pretty great. According to CNBC, the brand is worth $4 billion.

All that positive press means Impossibles landing in Aotearoa with Tesla levels of tech cool. Thats entirely by design. Halla talks about their products levelling up like an iPhone. We went from [version] 1.0 to 2.0 in 2019, says Halla. He admits the company has a Silicon Valley mindset. We should be getting better with our food system, he says. Many of our recent product launches are starting to beat the animal in taste. We launched our chicken product recently. In blind taste tests, Impossible is preferred over the meat counterpart.

Its impressive, but so far, theres one product that no one, not even Impossibles chefs and scientists, have been able to replicate using plants. Theres nothing quite like an eye fillet steak, grilled to perfection on a Weber barbecue, on a hot summer evening. Is it coming? Its completely possible, it just takes a bit more work to do, Halla says. When pressed, he laughs and says: Theres nothing to announce right now. He might as well wink at me. Hallas probably already taste-testing version 2.0.

Originally posted here:

Is New Zealand ready to eat the Impossible? - The Spinoff

The New Zealand government has announced plans of reopening borders for international tourists, starting April. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that they are all ready to welcome the world back. The country has decided to scrap all the border restrictions earlier than decided time.

Ardern said, I'm proud that New Zealand is a country able at this moment in time to provide a safe place for our tourists to return to."

Also, those from countries having visa-free arrangements with New Zealand, including prime Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan along with markets in the Northern Hemisphere will also be permitted to enter the nation from May 1.

Ardern said that tourism is struggling due to the pandemic and with this change, she expects to boost the countrys tourism industry. She said, "We are ready to safely move into a new chapter of our management of the pandemic, this change brings with it huge economic opportunities."

Apparently, tourism was the countrys major export earner before the pandemic. New Zealand used to generate around NZ$16 billion ($10.9 billion) annually, with 40% of vacationers coming from Australia.

See the original post here:

New Zealand to reopen borders for tourists from April, New ...

Passengers arrive at Auckland's International Airport, in Auckland, New Zealand, on Wednesday. Michael Craig/AP hide caption

Passengers arrive at Auckland's International Airport, in Auckland, New Zealand, on Wednesday.

New Zealand will let some international tourists enter earlier than previously anticipated in an effort to accelerate the nation's economic recovery, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Wednesday.

"We have now received guidance that it is safe to significantly bring forward the next stage of our border re-opening work: our tourists," Ardern told reporters at a press conference.

Starting April 12, vaccinated travelers from Australia can enter without having to quarantine at all. While vaccinated tourists from countries that don't need a visa, including the United States, will now able to enter beginning May 1.

The country's COVID response, which includes a high vaccination rate and a low death rate, has made New Zealand a "safe place to visit," Ardern said.

New Zealand has recorded just over 100 deaths and confirmed nearly 400,000 COVID-19 cases. Most of those cases have appeared since the start of this year amid a wave of the highly transmissible omicron variant.

"Closing our border was one of the first actions we took to stop COVID-19, over two years ago, and its reopening will spur our economic recovery throughout the remainder of the year," she said.

The move comes months head of schedule. Australians, which make up most of New Zealand's tourists, and citizens from other countries that do not need a visa to enter, including the United States, weren't supposed to be able to enter until mid-2022. Citizens from countries that require a visa, such as China, will still have to wait until October, but Ardern said that could change.

Tourism, previously a multibillion dollar industry that made up more than 16% of New Zealand's annual gross domestic product, has taken a significant hit since the pandemic began two years ago when the country swiftly shut its borders and implemented some of the toughest immigration controls in the world. And while this strategy won New Zealand early praise as a model for keeping the coronavirus at bay, it came at a high cost economic cost particularly to New Zealand's crucial tourism sector.

In 2020 the number of international arrivals fell by over 75%, according to government data. The next year, international arrivals fell to a 50-year-low down nearly 95% since the last pre-pandemic data in 2019.

Pressure to reopen the borders has mounted against Ardern for months, as residents criticized the ongoing strict lockdowns, stranded Kiwis outside of the country begged to come home and businesses across the South Pacific island nation pleaded for relief.

Overall, though, New Zealand's economy has recovered much faster from the initial COVID-19 shock due to quick "effective virus containment, measures to protect jobs and incomes and highly expansionary macroeconomic policies," according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The New Zealand's GDP grew by a shocking 4.7% in 2021, and is expected to grow nearly 4% this year.

Much better than many of its other Pacific neighbors, particularly the smaller, tourism and commodity-dependent island countries. The Sydney-based Lowy Institute predicts that if bigger countries do not step in and aid the Pacific in its recovery from the pandemic, an entire decade "lost" of economic development.

See more here:

New Zealand will open its borders to some tourists much earlier than expected - NPR

WELLINGTON, New Zealand Les Elder played her first game of rugby when she was 8. The boys team in the rural New Zealand town where she lived, Taumarunui, was short a player, and Elder had just come off the netball court. As she played, something clicked. I just loved the physicality and challenge of the game, she said.

For years, she stole moments on the field until, at age 14, she decided she would join her schools team. But the school had never had a girl play. Before games, while her teammates crowded the changing rooms, she got dressed, in hand-me-down gear, behind nearby trees or in her parents car. After a few years, her coach pulled her aside to tell her she wouldnt be invited back for the next season.

The school, she was told, did not know how it would run overnight training camps if Elder was going to be there. Rather than seek a solution, it was easier to leave her out. The disappointment put her off rugby for years.

The teachers and coaches didnt know how to handle that because it was new to them, said Elder, who was drawn back to the sport as an adult and is now the captain of New Zealands Black Ferns, the womens rugby union world champions. No girl should have to go through that.

For decades, rugby has occupied an almost religious position in New Zealand. That is particularly true for men, who are raised to play, watch and obsess over the game. According to Alice Soper, a prominent rugby analyst and player, rugby holds a core place in male identity in New Zealand.

But a gender revolution is brewing. For years, the number of New Zealand men playing rugby has been declining, with women fast replacing them. Now, one in five rugby players in the country are women. In 2022, for the first time, there will be a professional domestic tournament for womens fifteens rugby. In October, the country will host the womens World Cup.

Yet even as womens rugby enjoys unprecedented prominence, old rugby stereotypes have proved hard to eliminate. On International Womens Day, the All Blacks New Zealands famed mens rugby team grabbed headlines when they tweeted that they were: Forever grateful to the women in our lives that allow us to play the game we love. Partners, mothers, daughters, doctors, physios, referees, administrators and fans. A notable omission: any mention of the defending world champion Black Ferns.

To many, it was a reminder of the persistence of stereotypes and structural challenges that have hampered the womens game. Its not just old-fashioned racism and sexism, Soper said. Men have built rugby into their core identity. What does it mean if women are occupying that space? The team later apologized, but the damage was done.

Barriers to women who want to play rugby start with the basics.

Youre going to be wearing mens clothes, because theres very few providers who actually make female kit, Soper said. In clubs across the country, she added, the changing rooms are still full of urinals, the honor boards are still full of blokes names.

All of those say, This is not your space. Not to mention that some of the guys at the bar are happy to tell you that, too.

Those challenges persist at the sports highest levels. In 2018, Sports New Zealand the government entity that oversees the countrys sports system required the governing boards of every representative sports body to be at least 40 percent women. The only major body not to achieve that target is New Zealand Rugby, which has only two women on its nine-member board.

Advocates for equality say this has allowed New Zealand Rugby to take a dismissive attitude toward the womens game. Rugby is still run by older white chaps, when this game is played by women, by Maori, by Pasifika, Soper said. Were not represented in the seats of power. Women, as result, get less investment, fewer resources and far less news media coverage.

Worryingly for a country that takes pride in its reputation as a rugby leader, that neglect has undermined New Zealands dominance in international competitions.

For decades, the Black Ferns maintained a winning percentage in international test matches of almost 90 percent. The team has won five of the last six World Cups. But the absence until recently of a high-quality professional womens league in New Zealand prevented Black Ferns players from training and testing themselves as regularly as their overseas rivals, who are fast emerging as credible challengers.

We saw that last year, said Farah Palmer, a former Black Ferns captain who now serves as the vice chair of New Zealand Rugby, with the Black Ferns struggling against Northern Hemisphere teams who have way more opportunities to play their close neighbors.

Underinvestment has also prompted fears that New Zealand is losing talented players who cannot take significant unpaid leave while trying to break into top-tier competition. People are generally unpaid until they crack into the Black Ferns, Soper said. As an athlete, how do you take that risk, put your life on hold and bet on yourself before your country will back you?

Things have begun to change. New Zealand Rugby is devoting significantly more money to womens rugby than it did previously. And this year, it introduced Aupiki: a professional tournament for four regional teams that has significantly increased the number of women paid to play rugby and games they can play.

But because of challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic and a fear that there werent enough players of sufficient quality to sustain a full tournament, Aupiki will have only three rounds and a final matching the two best teams. The equivalent mens competition has more than 90 matches.

And while more women are being paid to play, many of their coaches and support staff are not. Its awesome that our top-tier athletes are being paid professionally at the moment, Elder said, but unless they have a meaningful structure and people who are resourced to support them, theres still more work to do.

Until issues of pay and opportunity are addressed, however, the burden falls on women to champion the game.

You talk to most womens rugby players and they understand that their job is not just to play the game, but to promote the game, coach the game, be a full-time hype person for the game, Soper said. It would be really easy if all you had to do was enjoy rugby to play rugby.

See the rest here:

New Zealand Rugby Faces a Gender Revolution - The New York Times

Marine mammals die at Farewell Spit on the South Island, the site of at least 10 strandings in 15 years.

More than two dozen whales died in a mass stranding at a New Zealand beach, wildlife rangers have said.

The Department of Conservation said 29 long-finned pilot whales were already dead when the pod of 34 marine mammals was found at remote Farewell Spit on the South Island late on Thursday.

The department said it was attempting to refloat the remaining five whales with the mornings high tide.

The process can take some time and we may not know if it is successful or not for several hours, it said on its Facebook page.

Spokesman Dave Winterburn said rangers were providing care for the animals but noted the whales have now been out of the water for some time.

While this event is unfortunate, whale strandings are a natural phenomenon, he told the AFP news agency.

Project Jonah, a local whale rescue group, said that its medics were at Farewell Spit with the Department of Conservation.

This is a stressful time for the whales after their time spent stranded yesterday and this morning, so close monitoring of their condition and responses in the water is key, the group wrote on Twitter.

Farewell Spit, is a 26 kilometre (16 mile) sliver of sand that extends into the Tasman Sea and creates intertidal sand flats that can extend across many kilometres.

It has seen more than 10 pilot whale strandings in the past 15 years.

The largest was in February 2017, when nearly 700 of the mammals beached, and 250 died.

Scientists are unclear on why the beach is so deadly. One theory is that the spit creates a shallow seabed in the bay that interferes with the whales sonar navigation systems.

Pilot whales, which can grow to as many as six metres (20 feet) long, are the most common species of whale found in New Zealand waters.

Excerpt from:

Dozens of whales die in New Zealand stranding - Al Jazeera English

Today marks two years to the day that the call went out for New Zealanders who were travelling or living overseas to return home.

In those strange, dangerous days the pandemic was threatening to unleash so many unknowns: how short was the transmission window? How effective were masks and ventilation? And what did hospitalisation and death look like in a first world country?

There were early precedents the tragedy unfolding in Italy for one but for at least a month New Zealand was thinking along the same lines as the rest of the world. Flatten the curve, using progressive measures including physical distancing to simply slow the spread. Aside from a handful of (at the time) unknown epidemiologists like Prof Michael Baker there were few experts or commentators calling on the government to stop the spread.

That was until 23 March when prime minister Jacinda Ardern made the most important decision of her career, and perhaps the most important decision any post-war prime minister has made: that night New Zealand would move to Alert Level 3 and two nights later to Alert Level 4, effectively locking down the country.

Ardern appeared before the country and with persuasion and a good deal of humility made the case to go hard and go early, introducing a term that would unite the country for the next year and a half the team of 5 million.

The next day parliament met to pass $52bn in emergency spending, grant the Inland Revenue Department the power to remit interest on tax owing, and to freeze rents and prevent no-cause evictions for at least six months.

Seven months later and New Zealand voters rewarded Ardern and her government with a historic MMP majority. Labour took true blue seats like Ilam in Christchurch. Riding a leftwing tide the Greens Chloe Swarbrick took Auckland Central while the Mori partys Rawiri Waititi took Waiariki. And yet, on current polling, Ardern and her government are dropping up to 10 points from this time last year, and even more if you take the election result as a benchmark.

In the One News Kantar public poll National is registering at 39% support with Labour trailing at 37%. The last time National was polling ahead of Labour was before the pandemic. Granted, this is one poll Labour is still ahead of National (just) in the latest Taxpayers Union-Curia poll and comfortably ahead in the Huis poll of Mori voters but the trend is clear.

The Labour government is gradually losing support. Why? The decline seems to puzzle the governments diehards. National leader Chris Luxons first and seemingly only policy idea is to hit the tax cuts button, promising a change to the tax brackets and scrapping the top tax rate for the extremely wealthy.

It makes little sense do people earning over $180,000 really need a massive tax cut? but the point is less in the detail than in what those details represent. A return to Nationals core business, as a CEO might say, and a break from the Judith Collins era and its weird obsession with the obscure from Samoa to Tasmania to fat shaming to nuking ones own colleagues.

Luxon is, without wanting to extend the metaphor, promising a smooth landing for National voters.

That leaves Labour in an uncomfortable position. Over the last four months the government has repeatedly departed from its core business, abandoning the Alert Level system and replacing it with the confusing Traffic Light system in December, wavering on mandates after the Canadian-inspired clown convoy made its way to Wellington, and hastily cutting fuel excise tax in a gift to Luxon and his argument that its possible to cut your way out of a cost of living crisis (where cut means cut taxes).

This isnt to say the government isnt also undertaking necessary and excellent reform subsidising public transport across the country is a move that the rest of the world is watching with keen interest but triangulating, searching for a third way between irreconcilable positions is very much the politics of another era.

If one can date the governments decline 17 August 2021 is it.

On that breezy winter Tuesday the prime minister announced the country would move to Alert Level 4 at midnight. Back then, public compliance was high, and the team of 5 million did its duty. That initial lockdown would drag into December as the Delta variant proved a tougher opponent than the initial coronavirus variant, yet compliance remained high with movement data indicating similar patterns to previous Level 4 and Level 3 lockdowns in Auckland.

When the usual cast of conspiracists and losers turned out to protest the lockdown in August they could muster no more than 100 supporters. Yet six months later some members of that same pathetic cast managed to turn out thousands of people for the clown convoy to Wellington. How?

What distinguished the countrys first extended lockdown in March 2020 from its second in August 2021 was that the first lockdown came with the social and financial support needed to sustain it.

Alongside freezing tax interest, freezing rents and banning evictions came hundreds of millions of dollars in direct support to social service providers and a six-month mortgage holiday scheme for homeowners. A similar commitment to preventing hardship was absent in the August 2021 lockdown, and as Alert Level 4 and Alert Level 3 dragged on in Auckland stories were breaking that detailed exactly what that hardship looked like.

In South Auckland, it was often high school students taking jobs as essential workers. This is what did in the governments strong support from New Zealanders, allowing communities to fracture as hardship went unanswered and unsupported.

You would find very few New Zealanders who strongly disagree with the governments overall pandemic response. But for that response to work it needs the social and financial support to sustain it. Otherwise, people vote with their feet.

Read more from the original source:

Jacinda Ardern united New Zealanders when Covid hit. Then a long second lockdown split the team of 5 million - The Guardian

10:47 AM9 hours ago90'

The referee has added three minutes of time;

Rogerson enters the field and Champness leaves.

Semmy's cross to the area is too powerful and goes over the end line;

New Zealand took the lead on the scoreboard in a play where they took a quick free kick and ended with Waine's finish.

Howieson and De Jong leave the field, in their place come Old and Waine, both making their debut with the New Zealand national team.

The Papua New Guinea goalkeeper arrived before the New Zealand center forward to snatch a clear chance;

Lewis' corner kick is headed by Champness, but the ball is cleared off the line by an opposing defender.

The players returned to the field for the second half of the game.

The first 45 minutes end with a scoreless score at the end of the game

The referee has added one minute of extra time in this first half.

Ati Kepo leaves the field because he has discomfort and can not continue, in his place enters Kolo Kepu

Dangerous free kick in favor of New Zealand by Champness, but the ball goes wide of the goal defended by Warisan.

Cam Howieson finds Andre de Jong on the edge of the area, who shoots, but the ball goes just over the goal.

A three-on-three counter-attack ended with Raymond Guenemba's shot, but the Lae City striker slipped and the ball sailed over the goal;

New Zealand players claim foul by Semmy on Kosta Barbarouses

Kosta Barbarouses came in from the right and put a good ball into the area that Andre de Jong narrowly missed.

The first card of the match goes to Lewis who arrived late and cut off Papua New Guinea's counter-attack.

The ball is rolling in Doha

The 22 players are in the tunnel, before the start of the match the national anthems will be played.

Wellinghton Phoenix goalkeeper makes debut in New Zealand jersey

At the end of this match, the other match of this group will be played between the teams of New Caledonia and Fiji.

Yesterday was played the firstIt will be the second match of the qualifying phase and the first in Group B.match of the qualifiers for Qatar 2022 of Australia Oceania where Solomon Islands won 0-2.

In 1 hour Papua New Guinea vs New Zealand begins, both the preview and the match can be followed here on VAVEL;

There will be two groups of four teams that will play a group stage in one venue and the top two of each group will qualify for the semifinals, all this will be held in a single venue, in this case in Qatar to see which team will be in the 2022 World Cup.

New Zealand has not played an official match since 2017, although it has been playing friendly matches. The last one was on January 28, 2022 where they lost 1-3 against Jordan. In 2021 the three friendly matches they played they won, against Bahrain, Gambia and Curacao. In 2017 they were on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup, but in the play-off against Peru for a place in the tournament they lost by 0-2 and that caused them to be left out.

A team that has not played matches for three years. In 2019 they played the Pacif Ganes tournament between teams from Australia and Oceania and lost in the fight for third place against Fiji. In 2017 they contested the qualification for the World Cup, but finished in last place with three points in a group where they faced Tahiti and Solomon Islands.

Five times Papua New Guinea and New Zealand have met with a balance of three wins for New Zealand, one draw and one victory for Papua New Guinea. The last time they met was in the final of the OFC Nations Cup where the match ended in a goalless draw and in the penalty shootout Papua New Guinea won the title. In 2012 they also met in the qualification for the World Cup where New Zealand won 1-2.

Papua New Guinea and New Zealand meet in the first match of the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

My name is Manuel Carmona Hidalgo and I will be your antifriacute; n for this match. We will offer you the pre-match analysis and news here live from VAVEL.

More here:

Summary and highlights of Papua New Guinea 1-1 New Zealand in Qatar 2022 Qualifiers - VAVEL.com