Category Archives: New Zealand

New Zealands navy has conducted an unusual mercy mission to retrieve two people stranded in Singapore for 18 months due to Covid-19.

A medical condition meant the two could not fly to New Zealand, and their shrinking bank balance made staying in Singapore difficult.

According to documents released under the Official Information Act, the mission occurred after an adviser to New Zealands high commission to Singapore interceded on the pairs behalf, saying their position was very unique and he feared their situation could turn into one that is even worse.

The couple, whose case was first reported by Stuff, received a special exemption to travel on board the HMNZS Canterbury, which was being refurbished in Singapore at the time. The ship left Singapore in November 2021. The journey took 19 days, meaning the couple did not need to quarantine upon arrival in New Zealand.

Disclosed government emails demonstrate a concern the mission could set an inconvenient precedent. However, one official wrote: It is not a Dunkirk-style evacuation of [New Zealanders] from south-east Asia.

In a separate email the official wrote: If we establish a precedent whereby people who have no ability to fly find themselves at a place where there is a [navy] vessel, that is heading for [New Zealand], with available space and medical staff on board, I can live with that.

New Zealands foreign ministry noted that the case involved a very specific and unusual set of circumstances and declined to comment further.

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New Zealand navy rescues duo stuck in Singapore for 18 months - The Guardian

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivers a Covid-19 update at Parliament House, Wellington, New Zealand, in August 2021. EFE/EPA/MARK MITCHELL

The New Zealand governments elimination response strategy for Covid-19 meant implementing aggressive measures to tackle the virus hard and early. While this strategy was initially successful, a survey by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) showed that as the New Zealand health system prioritised the response to Covid-19, other health needs were not adequately addressed and health care access was significantly delayed. New Zealands health system was not ready for a pandemic and it is easy to see why when looking at a recently published report showing that the right to health care and protection has not improved in the country since long before the pandemic.

In 2021, HRMI, hosted by the New Zealand economic research institute Motu, took a deep dive into the right to health care and protection in Aotearoathe Mori name for New Zealandto measure whether the New Zealand government is taking the necessary steps to fulfil its international human rights promises. A complimentary article on OpenGlobalRights shows this evaluation for the right to adequate housing in Aotearoa. Both these articles are based on research commissioned by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission.

Through signing international human rights treaties, the New Zealand government has made promises to ensure all available resources are used to improve everyone access to the right to health care and protection over time. The government has also committed to minimum core obligations for the right to health care and protection, which range from ensuring access to health facilities, basic shelter, and safe water, to providing minimum essential food to ensure freedom from hunger. These obligations highlight the fact that all economic and social rights are interconnected.

The report provides new methodologies for measuring whether the government is living up to five of its international human rights promises for the right to health care and protection. These methodologies are the same as those described in the OGR article on housing.

The New Zealand government is failing to fulfil all its promises for the right to health care and protection

Table 1 shows that while most health outcomes have not worsened in Aotearoa, many health outcomes have failed to improve over time for all people.

Of the 23 right to health outcomes that we can track over time, 14 have failed to improve and seven have deteriorated. Within physical health, the under-five mortality rate and the unmet need for dental health care have not improved, and the rate of rheumatic fever hospitalisations has worsened. Within underlying conditions of health, Aotearoas relative poverty rate has failed to improve, and the inflation-adjusted funding of Mori health providers per capita has decreased.

The two best performing indicators are within the mental health key dimension. Aotearoas suicide rate and the percentage of people who have experienced lifetime intimate partner violence have both decreased over time, meaning rights outcomes have improved.

Notes: For the promise to improve health outcomes over time, compliance is achieved if the majority of indicators have improved over time, a failure is concluded if the majority of indicators have deteriorated or stayed constant over time, and mixed evidence is concluded if the indicators show different results. For the promise to ensure health outcomes dont deteriorate over time, compliance is achieved if the majority of indicators stay at least constant over time, a failure is concluded if the majority of indicators deteriorate over time, and mixed evidence is concluded if the indicators show different results.

Additionally, of the 20 health outcomes we can compare across population subgroups, 17 show breaches of the promise of non-discrimination. New Zealands current health care system makes achieving good right to health outcomes more difficult for Mori and Pacific Peoples, disabled people, women, those with low educational certification, and those who are not employed.

After assessing the New Zealand governments performance against each of their human rights promises, we now have a clear understanding of the many ways the government has allowed its health system to become stagnant. We can show the government where change is most urgently needed. A good place to start is addressing Aotearoas unmet need for primary and dental health care, high relative poverty rates, and high levels of food insecurity so further health problems can be prevented.

Overall, the report shows that human rights arent just aspirations, they are international commitments for which performance can be assessed. This type of research must be conducted to hold governments to account and ensure human rights are taken seriously.

This is particularly important during the pandemic. HRMIs research shows that government Covid-19 measures often have a negative impact on human rights, particularly amongst those already vulnerable. Of the 39 countries surveyed, 65.4% of respondents said that Covid-19 had affected peoples enjoyment of the right to health. If a country prioritizes improving physical and mental health care and protection against underlying conditions of health for everyone, ensuring that disparities in access to health care are eliminated, they will be in a better position to respond to Covid-19 and prevent further harm and human rights violations.

Other countries can use the methodologies laid out in the report to empirically measure whether the government is meeting its human rights promises. In doing so, more governments can realise their failures and redirect their policy strategies sand resources to most efficiently improve human rights outcomes for everyone. Check out HRMIs Rights Tracker to see how your country is keeping its human rights promises, including on the right to health care and protection. Also see HRMIs Human Rights During the Pandemic report to learn how your governments Covid-19 response has impacted human rights in your country.

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New Zealand's failure to meet its human rights promises on health care and protection - OpenGlobalRights

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There are very few things in my morning media diet with the potential to tickle my fancy, and the New Zealand Taxpayers Union (NZTU) fighting a losing Twitter battle with the furry community a battle that it initiated simply hits different.

On Tuesday, the NZTU shared a tweet in response to an article about four IT professionals who also happened to be members of the furry community.

Unbelievable, it said. Taxpayers are funding pro-furry propaganda.

The Unions issue? The article which explored experiences in the furry community, misunderstandings about the fandom, and the overlap in furries and people who work in IT had been written as Public Interest Journalism, funded by New Zealands Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

The $55 million dollar Public Interest Journalism fund is an initiative aiming to support at risk journalism. Its a three year package being administered by NZ On Air an independent government funding agency.

It should be noted that, despite its name, The New Zealand Taxpayers Union is a lobbying group and not a government body that represents all of New Zealands taxpayers. Whatever the case, it seems the NZTU did not appreciate funds going towards an expose on furry culture.

Only a few moments after the NZTU starting kicking up a fuss, dozens of furries from the domestic and international community came out to defend the piece.

Furries count as public interest and its highly unlikely all that money went to one article, said one comment. You guys clearly dont understand anything about funding or tax.

I pay taxes too...I paid taxes when I wasn't even in the country, I pay more since I became a Furry and started dabbling in IT read another.

Seemingly not content with the initial response to the tweet, the NZTU made a poster. God knows why.

In a statement, the NZTU told VICE that it believed taxpayers did not want public funds being spent on information about furries.

The global furry underbelly might be able to throw its weight around on Twitter, but as we all know, normal people dont use Twitter, said a spokesperson.

Normal people use Facebook, where the response to the furry article has been very different.

Kjaru, a member of New Zealands furry community, told VICE the community was absolutely in the public interest.

Its a group that has been historically bashed by media, and this has added stigma to the community. The furry community is just a hobbyist collective where people can express themselves without strictly being associated with our usual identities, they said.

Many furries are LGBT+ or neurodivergent, and despite the profound benefits of being able to express yourself in a way that gets around public anxiety or body image issues, the stigma is often the biggest issue for people.

Kjaru estimates that there are 500-600 active furries in New Zealand, and that the number is growing steadily.

Its absolutely in the public interest to show that were not only doing no harm, but are also, ultimately, just trying to live our best lives, Kjaru said.

Another New Zealand furry, Ranger Martin, said furry fandom was a self-sustaining economy driven by commissioners paying artists for art of their original characters.

Everyone here has come from all walks of life, from office workers to manual labourers, to executives [and people in] government and military positions, they said.

Furries are not out here trying to show that theyre better. Theyre just chilling out with their friends and commissioning artworks.

Ironically, by starting a flame war on Twitter the NZTU has brought the argument to furry home turf. It may have started a war it has already lost.

Follow Arielle onTikTokandInstagram.

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The New Zealand Taxpayers Union Is Currently Being Trolled By a Bunch of Furries - VICE

Cyclone Cody is now expected to track just east of New Zealand instead of making landfall this weekend, forecasters say.

But if Cody stays offshore it will still make for very dangerous coastal conditions, with rips, surges and large swells making it unsafe to head into the water or even walk on many beaches.

The slow-moving cyclone is currently north of New Zealand but is expected to move southwards and brush past East Cape on Monday, according to MetService.

There's still uncertainty in the latest models, meaning things could change rapidly if the track moves slightly east or west.

Cody was generating large easterly swells that were set to affect the eastern coast of the North Island from Saturday through to Tuesday, MetService said.

And the cyclone would bring with it a "tropical air mass" which meant heavy rain was likely in the northeast of the North Island on Monday, along with gale force winds.

"Hazardous conditions are expected about exposed eastern coastlines of the North Island, where large easterly swells, significant sea surges/rips and coastal inundation are possible."

Those conditions would be caused by gale and storm-force winds from offshore and as the cyclone approached the northeast of the island.

Northland is likely to see very big waves from Saturday and they are set to arrive in the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel on Sunday as the cyclone moves south, according to MetService meteorologist Angus Hines.

Gisborne and Hawkes Bay would then see "very, very heavy swell" before Monday brought big waves further south along the east coast - possibly down to Marlborough.

13 Jan, 2022 06:53 PMQuick Read

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Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stotlz earlier told RNZ people needed to be careful and stay clear of beaches.

"Everyone that lives along the beach just watch out for what is going on there, and then again, as always, we might see some surface flooding."

Civil Defence teams had been checking in with communities and campers along the Gisborne coastline to make sure they were aware of the cyclone, while there was a high chance some beaches could be closed, RNZ reported.

Weatherwatch's Philip Duncan Cody would now technically become an ex-cyclone as it was no longer tropical - but it would still be a powerful storm.

The latest modelling showed Cody would track closest to New Zealand on Monday but water conditions would go downhill rapidly on Sunday as swells arrived.

"Very dangerous conditions - rips, currents and rogue waves - so unless you're very experienced we would recommend that pretty much everybody stays out of the water as this storm comes in closer," Duncan said.

He said it was possible Gisborne could see 120-150mm of rain brought by the weather system.

A heavy rain watch is in place from midnight on Sunday to midnight on Monday for Gisborne and the Wairoa District, MetService said.

Periods of heavy rain are forecast in the area and it's possible the amounts may reach warning criteria.

A strong wind watch is also in place over that time for Bay of Plenty east of Whakatane and Gisborne north of Tokomaru Bay.

The forecast is for south to southeast winds that could approach severe gale speed in exposed places.

Elsewhere it was possible Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and the far east of Bay of Plenty to see warning amounts of rainfall and severe gales on Monday and early Tuesday. There was also a lower risk of heavy rain and severe gales for Bay of Plenty, Taupo, eastern Taihape and Wairarapa.

MetService forecast the weather would remain fine until Cody arrived, and that fine weather would continue into next week for western and southern areas that were minimally affected by the cyclone.

More:

Weather: Cyclone Cody forecast to miss New Zealand, but huge waves, heavy rain, gales still expected - New Zealand Herald

Prince Andrew has now been stripped of his New Zealand title. Photo / Supplied

Prince Andrew has been stripped of his New Zealand military title, the Prime Minister has announced.

Earlier today a statement from Buckingham Palace said the Queen has stripped Andrew of his royal titles, as he faces a lawsuit that he sexually assaulted an American woman when she was 17.

Jacinda Ardern said Andrew had also lost his titles in New Zealand as a result.

"In New Zealand, the Duke of York was formerly the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment (The Duke of York's Own)," read the statement.

"As a result of patronages returning to the Queen, his appointment has now ended.

"Any further changes to Royal patronages and appointments would be a matter for the Prime Minister to raise with the Queen of New Zealand in due course."

NZ Republic campaign chairman Lewis Holden said they had been calling for Andrew's title to be dropped since last year.

"Essentially the Government's position up until now was that they're not going to do anything but obviously with the Queen removing his titles now, things should really change.

"There are very serious allegations that Prince Andrew is now having to stand trial for in the US. Regardless of what anyone thinks about the monarchy, it obviously leads us to the point where he shouldn't have those titles in our armed forces.

"This also just highlights that it's really nonsensical to have, even these titular roles, in the hands of British royals, because we end up being in situations where we have to wait for them to make a decision about these titles which really just undermines our independence."

Link:

Prince Andrew stripped of New Zealand military title - New Zealand Herald

OPINION: Slavery is often perceived as an African/American issue, a past era when indigenous Africans were kidnapped and sold to work on American plantations.

But modern slavery as we know it actually goes back to the Arab Moors who wreaked havoc around the Mediterranean.

In the AD 1544 Sack of Lipari, one of the Aeolian Islands off northern Sicily, arch pirate Hayreddin Barbarossa attacked, enslaved, and sold off virtually the islands entire population of 7000 inhabitants.

The Pacific too has seen its share of slavery blackbirding it was called - whole villages rounded up and shipped off to work on colonial plantations in South America, Queensland, Fiji and Samoa essentially any place where the indigenous folk were not able to be coerced into working for the white man.

READ MORE:* Migrant exploitation complaints jump more than 250 per cent* Barbados bids farewell to British monarchy, becomes republic* Pompeii dig yields rare window on daily life of enslaved* A plywood box in a liquor store backroom, home for one of New Zealand's estimated 3000 modern day slaves

Established in Apia in 1857, German plantation owner DHBG (Deutsche Handels-und Plantagen Gesellschaft) grew to be a key player in the Samoan economy by the end of the 19th Century.

At first, they used indentured labour from Niue and Rarotonga, but this changed in 1867 when they switched to more compliant Melanesians, nearly all collected from the Solomons and Bismark Archipelago of Papua New Guinea.

In Samoa, these Melanesian labourers became known as the Tama Ulis, Black Boys, their skin being so much darker than the Polynesian.

New Zealand took ownership of the German plantations in Samoa, including their workforce, soon after New Zealand troops landed without resistance at Matautu near Apia in 1914. All the German plantations were formally confiscated and turned into the New Zealand Crown Estates (later New Zealand Reparation Estates).

It is well recorded in Samoa how under their German owners, the Melanesian plantation workers were strictly controlled, one could certainly suggest to the point of ill-treatment.

Cattle whips and sticks were often used on them by their overseers, and their movements were strictly controlled, largely forbidden to leave their individual plantation blocks to make social visits to other Tama Uli.

Alexander Turnbull Library

Part of New Zealand Expeditionary Force camp at Malifa, Western Samoa, taken in 1914.

Colonial correspondence reveals that the Germans preferred Melanesians because of their humble nature; they hardly ever complain, even when ill-treated, reported one German commissioner.

Robert Louis Stevenson arrived in Samoa in 1890 at the height of the German occupation, describing the German plantations as being prolific producers of cattle, coconut, coffee, rubber, pineapples and other crops.

His estimate of total area intensively worked by DHPG was around 10,000 acres, all so well-kept as to have the appearance of fairyland.

It was always going to be a difficult legacy to appropriate.

When New Zealand took over the German plantations, the treatment of the indentured labour did become more humane, all the punishments stopped for a start. But because of acute labour shortages no way would any successive Kiwi government make any moves to repatriate any of the approximately 125 original Melanesians back to their home islands which they all desperately wanted to return to.

This is complex territory, remembering the Melanesians were not taken at the point of a gun.

Oral histories clearly reveal most were tricked and bribed to come to Samoa in the first place, verbally promised that they would be returned to their home islands after three years with a wooden box of trade goods which at the time was highly regarded in their communities.

John Titchen/Getty Images

The grave of Scottish writer, poet and traveller Robert Louis Stevenson on Mount Vaea behind his home at Vailima, Western Samoa.

Another complication here came in 1957 when the New Zealand Reparation Estates, and all their employees, were handed over to the Western Samoa Trust Estate Corporation (WSTEC), ahead of independence in 1962.

Effectively we offloaded the Tama Uli on the Samoan Government, adding another layer of post-colonial complexity.

So what has happened to them all?

Today the Melanesian descendants of the original Tama Uli in Western Samoa number with their families around a 1000, most of them still residing around the old plantation district of Upolo, mostly within 30 miles of Apia.

It must be said that some Tama Uli descendants have successfully integrated to now live in Samoan villages, in several cases even bestowed matai (chief) status, while others have acquired small parcels of mostly leasehold land to live on with their families in semi-urban locations around the capital.

Both these sub-groups it could be said have done relatively well integrating into Samoan society.

But the big share of Tama Uli descendants still congregate in strong Melanesian communities, well represented tin the villages of Aele Fou, Sogi, the Samoa Trust Estate Corporation plantation villages (including their sub-communities of Afia, Olo and Sina), Tufulele, and Vaitele Uta.

I first became aware of the well-forgotten plight of Samoas Tama Uli while researching for Unescos Cultural Office in the Pacific the plight of the Banaban people, another displaced Pacific minority which New Zealand has benefited from.

After World War II, they were all tricked to relocate to Rabi Island in northern Fiji by the British Phosphate Company (BPC), simply so the BPC could entirely mine their home island of Banaba in the Central Pacific *now part of Kiribati).

All its guano phosphate was used to promote agricultural production in the British Empires farming countries of Australia and New Zealand. It was a straight steal, and we became prosperous through it, to their detriment today.

Like the Banabans on Rabi, who still wait patiently for redress, let alone any real apology for past wrongs, the displaced Melanesians in Samoa havent exactly been complainers.

According to Unescos 2000 report commissioned by its Pacific Cultural Office in Apia, the Melanesian communities in Western Samoa still have the lowest level of integration into Samoan culture, still suffering subtle discriminations on at a personal level.

Phil Walter/Getty Images

The Melanesian descendants of the original Tama Uli in Western Samoa number with their families around a 1000, most of them still residing around the old plantation district of Upolo, mostly within 30 miles of Apia.

Unable to escape their inferiority complex that binds them psychologically, this could be considered the starting point for the cycle of poverty that still inflicts them. Low self-esteem results in poor achievement in life, resulting in poor education and achievement in children, resulting in low-paying jobs, resulting in an inability to make any serious investment in education and so the cycle continues.

Governments in Samoa, Australia and Fiji have all moved in recent years to make apologies and some amends to their descendants of indentured labour.

Australia made their official public declaration back in 2000, testifying many of its indentured Melanesian labourers were treated like slaves, and noting that their descendants today remain little understood.

But no effort from New Zealand towards the Tama Uli has been forthcoming, almost certainly because of the sensitive nature of the subject in Samoa, with many government officials there denying the existence of an ethnic group which could prove divisive.

Many Melanesian descendants were interviewed for the UN report, but no real names could be used, so sensitive has the subject become in Samoa.

Exploitation is an old issue. Especially in this complicated world where history keeps getting revised, and compensation from countries perceived as profiteering and exploiting less developed countries can become little more than quagmires of blame-fuelled discussion.

The best result we could hope for in todays complex world may be to encourage rich donors and sponsors to take up the cause of the exploited, let the mantle of honour fall upon the givers, and encourage all of us to become better people in a brave new world.

See the original post:

New Zealand's forgotten slaves of the Pacific - Stuff.co.nz

Soccer Football - Premier League - Leeds United v Burnley - Elland Road, Leeds, Britain - January 2, 2022 Burnley's Chris Wood in action with Leeds United's Robin Koch Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith /File Photo

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Jan 13 (Reuters) - Newcastle United have signed New Zealand striker Chris Wood from relegation rivals Burnley on a two-and-a-half-year deal, the two Premier League clubs announced on Thursday.

The clubs did not disclose financial details of the transfer but British media reported that Newcastle paid Burnley 25 million pounds ($34.3 million) for the 30-year-old.

"You've got to look at it and feel what your gut says. It was just one of them feelings you had like it's the right time in my career," Wood, who has scored 27 times for New Zealand, said in his first news conference as a Newcastle player.

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"I'm a firm believer that you have to step out of your comfort zone to achieve greatness or some sort of great footballing talent. There's no illusion that this is going to be a big challenge for me."

Wood had been a key player for Burnley, having scored 49 goals in 144 league matches during his four-and-a-half years at Turf Moor. He joined Burnley from Leeds United in 2017 for a then-club-record fee.

Wood added that there was no ill feeling towards his former club despite Newcastle and Burnley both being in a tussle to stay up.

"There was no bad blood at all. I really enjoyed my time at Burnley... the highs that we had playing in the Europa League, finishing 10th in the league..." he told reporters.

Wood is Burnley's all-time top scorer in the Premier League, with his 49 goals accounting for nearly a third of the Clarets' total in the competition since he made his debut in August 2017.

Newcastle were in need of attacking reinforcements after top striker Callum Wilson had been ruled out for eight weeks due to a calf injury.

"He is a very dangerous attacking threat, has a physicality and character that I really like, and he has vast experience in the Premier League. He will be a great fit for us," said manager Eddie Howe.

Wood becomes Newcastle's second signing since the club's takeover by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund in October and more are expected to follow in the January window.

Newcastle, who are second-bottom in the league on 11 points after 19 matches, signed England fullback Kieran Trippier from LaLiga champions Atletico Madrid last week.

They are due to host Watford in the league on Saturday.

($1 = 0.7282 pounds)

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Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in Gdansk and Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Dhruv Munjal; Editing by Toby Chopra and Toby Davis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

See the article here:

Newcastle sign New Zealand striker Wood from relegation rivals Burnley - Reuters

Twitter is being flooded with coloured emojis following the rise in popularity of the word game Wordle. New Zealand is to blame and now, rightfully, we should apologise, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund.

Its obvious: New Zealand simply has to apologise to Twitter users around the globe after it was revealed we were responsible for the ability to share Wordle results directly to social media.

Once again, our small island nation has punched above its weight and made it onto the world stage. But unlike the time when Peter Jackson made Lord of the Rings, this is more like when he made The Hobbit and now its time to ask for forgiveness.

Since the end of 2021, the rise in Wordles popularity has seen Twitter ablaze with mysterious green, yellow and grey boxes, often followed by numbers and the name Wordle. Its now been revealed that New Zealand is to blame for the mildly irritating social media trend, prompting the need for an urgent apology to the world for clogging up everybodys feeds.

Wordle, for those uninitiated, is a pleasingly simple and addictive daily word game that originated in the United States. Players get six attempts to guess a five-letter word and each day theres a new word to guess. It was created late last year by Brooklyn-based software designer Josh Wardle (yes, he named Wordle after himself), who originally made the game for his partner. Initially played by fewer than 100 people, it has since boomed and, in under three months, has developed a devoted fanbase of more than two million users many of whom are in New Zealand.

Wardle this week described New Zealand as being really into Wordle and said its astounding how many of us play the game given the size of our population.

Along with being early adopters and very vocal advocates for the game, its been revealed that New Zealanders were also responsible for the decision to allow easy sharing of results on Twitter with the use of coloured emoji squares. The trend first started after New Zealand users of the game decided to manually enter their Wordle results onto Twitter using the coloured box emojis. Its both embarrassing and, I guess, slightly admirable that New Zealanders chose to manually input those little coloured boxes to their Twitter. But it was definitely a boon for the creators of the coloured box emoji because nobody had ever used those before Wordle came along.

The efforts of those early New Zealand players were all it took for the games creator to notice us down here and decide to make it easier for Twitter to become one long advert for Wordle, introducing the share function that automatically generates the emoji boxes in an at-first-subtly-pleasing-but-later-subtly-infuriating coloured grid.

The emoji grid just leaves the colours and its a way for you to share how you did without ruining the game for others, which has really led to this communal aspect specifically on Twitter, Wardle explained to RNZ.

Instead of expressing any regret over the decision to allow easy sharing to Twitter, Wardle appears to still be in support of the move. Others have become, if not infuriated, at least mildly agitated by the arrival of the coloured squares.

I shall probably never play Wordle because games that market themselves by encouraging users to spam Twitter annoy the piss out of me, said one person.

Another simply said: Nobody cares about your Wordle performance.

One anonymous source even admitted to The Spinoff that despite sharing their own Wordle result a handful of times, they now felt angered by the proliferation of the emojis on their Twitter feed. I wish there was a simple way I could hide the emojis, perhaps a mute function, they mused.

While an apology for the social media trend is unlikely to see Wordle score-sharing come to an end, it will be a step in the right direction, encouraging international Twitter to forgive New Zealand for the casual annoyance so they can return to aimlessly dreaming of one day being able to visit us instead.

Link:

Those coloured boxes on Twitter are New Zealand's fault - The Spinoff

"Unlike the most popular first names for babies which tend to retain popularity across the country, data for family names differs, painting a beautiful picture of the cultural history of each region of Aotearoa," Registrar-General Jeff Montgomery said on Friday.

"It's a joy each year to get a feel for how the communities in each region are growing and thriving through looking at something as simple as the most common baby family names."

For example, common Chinese surnames Wang and Li take fifth and sixth place respectively in Auckland/Tmaki Makaurau's top 10, but neither appear in the 10 most common surnames nationwide.

Similarly, Anderson and Thomas - which appear in sixth and eighth place for the South Island's top 10 - do not make the overall list for New Zealand.

Aotearoa's most popular names, from forenames to family names to pet names, are gathered each year from SmartStart data. The site is a useful tool for new parents, making IRD numbers, benefits and BestStart payments simple for mums and dads. Through SmartStart birth registrations, baby name data is tracked each year to help foster a sense of belonging and inclusivity in Aotearoa.

The Department of Internal Affairs also this week released the most popular baby names of 2021, as well as the list of 78 baby names declined by the Registrar-General.

View post:

New Zealand's most common surnames for babies born in 2021 revealed - Newshub

You really cant beat basalt columns. They are so stunningly tall, geometrical, neat and regular, yet are totally natural and result from natures most violent and least controlled event: a volcanic eruption.

Always attracting attention for their strikingly unusual appearance, they occur in a number of places around the world, including just outside Dunedin.

DunedinNZ

Contrasting with the surrounding bush, the Organ Pipes deserve a closer look.

Our Organ Pipes, officially called columnar jointing, were formed when molten basalt cooled at just the right speed to shrink and crack into perfect hexagonal columns, neatly fitted together like a bundle of pencils.

Rising high out of the surrounding bush, the pillars are surrounded by a scattering of broken pieces at their base. You can climb the track right to the top of them for wonderful views and posing opportunities: a very worthy reward for a decent amount of effort.

READ MORE:* New Zealand's most scenic walks * Dunedin: A secret side of the city you've never seen before* Dunedin: New Zealand's city of hidden gems* Dunedin: The place where you can travel the world without leaving New Zealand

DunedinNZ

At the top of the Organ Pipes you're breathless in both senses.

Because its a long way to the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, or Reynisfjara in Iceland, but only a short drive from Dunedins centre to Mount Cargill Road and the start of the Organ Pipes track.

Admittedly on a somewhat smaller scale than those international Instagram favourites, New Zealands version still towers impressively high and its well worth following the two-kilometre track that takes you from the car park to their summit.

En route youll pass through podocarp forest, and get a dizzying view up the Organ Pipes from near their base. Any breath you have left at the top will be taken by both the scenery, and being able to now look straight down onto the tops of the columns, fascinated by how precisely they fit together.

Though do-able for the reasonably active, the track is moderately challenging. It starts steeply, then involves some scrambling over fallen rocks, and finishes with an even steeper climb to the top, so come prepared, mentally, physically and wearing suitable shoes.

DunedinNZ

The climb to the top is challenging, but worth it.

For more long views of the harbour, Otago Peninsula and the city, you can continue along the main Mount Cargill Walk track to its summit, 676m above sea level. There are lots of native birds to hear and see along the way, overflowing from the nearby Orokonui Ecosanctuary, which is also well worth visiting.

Mount Cargill, which is also accessible by car along Cowan Road on the other side, is topped by a towering transmission tower; theres a good view of it from the Buttars Peak side-track.

DunedinNZ

Unnaturally geometrical, basalt columns are always impressive.

After all that exertion, youll need refuelling, so head back down into cute and historic Port Chalmers for a caf stop. Theres a lot to see here too. Besides arty galleries, its Maritime Museum is full of interesting, and unexpected, stories and exhibits like Ernest Shackletons typewriter and a fragment of a Japanese bomb dropped on Darwin in 1942.

Youll need just time, energy and an adventurous spirit.

DunedinNZ

The Organ Pipes are a gift to any photographer.

The extensive views are as much a reward as the rocks themselves, so save this one for a clear day. Avoid going soon after rain.

Staying safe: New Zealand is currently under Covid-19 restrictions. Face coverings are mandatory on all flights and public transport. Proof of vaccination and vaccine exemption may be required in some venues under the traffic light system. Follow the instructions at covid19.govt.nz.

See the article here:

World Famous in New Zealand: Dunedin's towering Organ Pipes are always impressive - Stuff.co.nz