Category Archives: New Zealand

Pedestrians walk near the main entrance to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand located in central Wellington, New Zealand, July 3, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

WELLINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - New Zealand's central bank hiked interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in seven years and signalled further tightening to come, as it looks to get on top of inflationary pressures and cool a red-hot housing market.

The 25 basis point rate hike marks the start of a tightening cycle that had been expected to begin in August, but was delayed after an outbreak of the coronavirus Delta variant and a lockdown that is continuing in its biggest city Auckland.

The increase in the cash rate to 0.50% by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) had been forecast by all 20 economists polled by Reuters.

The New Zealand dollar briefly rose after the announcement but fell back to $0.6930, in line with broader market moves.

"It was pretty much in line with what everyone was picking," said Jason Wong, senior market strategist at BNZ in Wellington. "We're on a path towards a series of rate hikes and the market is well priced for that."

Announcing its decision, the RBNZ said further removal of monetary policy stimulus was expected, with future moves depending on the medium-term outlook for inflation and employment.

The rate hike puts New Zealand ahead of most other developed economy nations as central banks look to wind back emergency-level borrowing costs, although countries including Norway, the Czech Republic and South Korea have already raised rates.

In neighbouring Australia, the central bank held interest rates at a record low 0.1% for an 11th straight month on Tuesday.

Economists expect the benchmark rate to reach 1.50% by the end of next year and 1.75% by the end of 2023, the Reuters poll showed.

CAPACITY STRAINS

The South Pacific nation has enjoyed a rapid economic recovery since a COVID-driven recession last year, partly because it eliminated coronavirus and reopened its economy before others.

But with its borders still shut, labour and goods shortages are pushing up inflation, as well as contributing to a surging property market, which has been driven by ultra-low interest rates.

"Demand shortfalls are less of an issue than the economy hitting capacity constraints...," the RBNZ Committee noted in the minutes of the meeting.

The central bank said headline CPI inflation is expected to increase above 4% in the near-term but return towards its 2% midpoint over the medium term.

Recent COVID-19 restrictions have not materially changed the medium-term outlook for inflation and employment, and economic activity will recover quickly when the measures are eased, it added.

But economists said the RBNZ may not race ahead with its hiking cycle in view of the current global uncertainty and the Delta variant outbreak dragging on in Auckland.

"(We) remain of the view that further rate hikes will be in 25 basis point increments rather than 50 basis point moves," said Citibank economist Josh Williamson.

New Zealand abandoned its strategy of eliminating COVID-19 this week, with the government saying it will have to live with the virus and step up vaccination rates to control it. read more

In August, a central bank official confirmed it had also considered a 50-basis-point move that month, before taking a rate hike off the table altogether due to the lockdown.

Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Richard Pullin

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New Zealand raises rates for first time in seven years, more to come - Reuters

A tiny candy-stick coloured pygmy pipehorse, discovered in a small area off New Zealands north coast has been given a Mori name by the local iwi (tribe) in what is believed to be the first time an indigenous group has formally named a new species of animal.

The 6cm long fish is closely related to the seahorse, and inhabits the rocky reefs off the north-east coast. It is the first pygmy pipehorse discovered in the country.

The Ngtiwai tribe worked with biodiversity scientists Dr Thomas Trnski from Tmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum and Graham Short of the California Academy of Scientists to name the pipehorse Cylix tupareomanaia.

Cylix is a new genus name and is derived from the Greek and Latin word for a cup or chalice; it refers to the cup-like crest on the top of the head of the new species.

The second prong of the name tupareomanaia refers to the garland of the manaia manaia is the Mori name for a seahorse and also means ancestor, or tupuna.

The common name for Cylix tupareomanaia is manaia pygmy pipehorse.

The Ngtiwai tribe said it was pleased to have gifted the new species a name.

The naming of this taonga [treasure] is significant to Ngtiwai as we know there are stories from our tupuna about this species, but the original name has been lost as a result of the negative impacts of colonisation, a Ngtiwai tribe kaumtua (elder) Hori Parata said.

Dr Trnski from the Auckland Museum said it was a privilege to be able to incorporate mtauranga Mori (knowledge) into the naming process.

As far as we know, this is the first animal in the world to have the naming authority include a tribal name. It is overdue recognition of traditional knowledge that can contribute to the discovery of new species.

Cylix tupareomanaia had been observed by divers at the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve in 2011, when it was initially thought to be the rare seahorse species Hippocampus jugumus.

But when a photo was posted on Facebook in 2017, Short recognised it as possibly new, and Trnski joined him in the effort to confirm that it was a new species.

The authors of the new name, Short, Trnski and Ngtiwai, will be permanently linked to the species name, as required under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature the rulebook for naming new species.

Read the original here:

Pygmy pipehorse discovered in New Zealand given Mori name in world first - The Guardian

New Zealanders are grieving for the end of the countrys Covid elimination strategy and anxious about what the future holds, a day after prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced the country would switch to a suppression approach.

Its kind of a grieving for what we are losing, microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles, one of the pandemic responses most prominent science communicators, said. We are very clearly losing alert level one, and the freedoms and privileges that come with [it].

The country has held fast to a Covid-zero strategy for the past 18 months. That has been rewarded with some of the worlds best outcomes through the pandemic: extremely low hospitalisations and deaths, little in the way of day to day restrictions, low unemployment and robust economic survival. But on Monday, almost two months into a Delta outbreak, the country stepped into the unknown, pivoting for the first time away from strict elimination despite vaccination rates that remain low.

The shift was introduced by Ardern with a three-step plan to let people gather outdoors and reopen early childhood education, before reopening retail and hospitality. It comes at a time when just 40% of the full population and 47% of the eligible population (those aged 12 and over) are fully vaccinated, while 65% of the full population and 77% of the eligible population have had at least one dose.

Vaccination rates are particularly low among Mori, who are around two thirds behind the wider population. Health experts agree it will probably result in a further rise in cases a proposition journalist Marc Daalder termed level three: now with picnics and hospitalisations. For a country that has never had to reckon with widespread transmission or illness from Covid-19, any excitement over loosened restrictions has been tempered with apprehension and, in some cases, anger at the toll that could lie ahead.

We have actually had an incredible pandemic so far, Wiles said, with open schools and businesses, and the continuation of relatively normal life. Most of the rest of the world havent had that. Or if theyve had it, its been really dangerous and people have gotten sick and some people have died. Its not clear to me whether people have really got their head around that.

Part of the sadness, Wiles said, was that elimination had proven to be a highly equitable strategy it protected almost all New Zealanders. As the country shifted gears to allow an outbreak to spread through the community, outcomes would take the same course as it had across the rest of the world skewed against poor people, those with disabilities, or ethnicities experiencing other forms of disadvantage.

Our change in strategy is not going to be felt the same by every New Zealander. Those who are wealthy and privileged are going to still live a wealthy and privileged life, where they may not be touched compared to other communities that may well end up being devastated by it. And thats the hardest bit for me to get my head around, Wiles said. Here was a chance where we could have made things different. And we havent.

Announcing the changes, Ardern said, the activities that are being allowed are not considered high risk in our current situation. But, they will make a material difference in Aucklanders ability to maintain the restrictions that do make a difference. Many Aucklanders will no doubt be relieved to once again see friends and family, and send young children to childcare although with a week of rain forecast, picnics may not be imminent.

But on social media, others expressed frustration and sadness. Psychologist Dr Sarb Johal said People are apprehensive and grieving for the security that the old alert level system brought us for so long. Make no mistake, it is hard to let go.

Some criticised the latest announcement as confusing a departure from the countrys extremely clear pandemic communications. Communications consultant Neale Jones, an ex-Labour staffer, called the announcement a long and confusing surrender note and both a policy and a political failure. Strategy and communications professional Asher Wilson-Goldman said: Todays announcement is messy, complex and wont keep people safe. This feels like capitulation at a time when weve still got plenty of vaccinating left to do.

The Green party typically the Labour governments closest partner broke with Ardern on Monday to say they opposed the policy, which would have too high a cost for vulnerable New Zealanders. Elimination has protected thousands of lives in Aotearoa. We have to stay the course to keep everyone safe. Now is not the right time to change our approach, particularly when so many of our vulnerable communities are still at risk, Green co-leader Marama Davidson said.

The governments planned roadmap out of Covid-19 has serious risks for our vulnerable communities including Mori and Pasifika, she said. Elimination is still possible if we work together to stop the spread. Our public health system has held up so far, but we worry that easing restrictions too early could overwhelm the hard-working nurses, doctors and all health system workers who we rely on to keep us safe.

Other political parties were also harsh on the decision. Libertarian Act party leader David Seymour said: Being told we could afford a slow vaccine rollout because we didnt have Covid in the community is one of the most reckless things any government in New Zealand has ever done and we are now paying the price.

A previous version of this story switched the number of eligible New Zealanders that had had one or more doses of the vaccine with those fully vaccinated. As of Monday, 47% were fully vaccinated and 77% had had one dose.

See more here:

Anger and grief: New Zealanders fearful as Covid elimination strategy ends - The Guardian

Our names are a critical part of our identity. They are a personal and social anchor tying us to our families, our culture, our history and place in the world.

For Mori, a name is intrinsic to, and linked by, our whakapapa (genealogy), often reflecting the elements observed, such as a river (awa), at the time of birth before entering Te Ao Mrama, the world of life and light.

In law, names matter too. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Aotearoa New Zealand accepted in 1993, states that every child has the right to a name. The law governs the naming of individuals as well as the changing of names.

But no such laws exist for countries. Nations can and do change their own names (such as when they gain independence), or have them changed by others (such as after a war). What worked for an earlier generation may not for later ones, as national values and identities evolve.

This is the challenge presented in a petition organised by Te Pti Mori (Mori Party). As well as calling for Aotearoa to become the countrys official name, the party also wants to restore all original Mori place names by 2026.

As these and other lands were colonised, so too were their original place names, with the colonisers seeking to assert their authority and versions of history.

Power, the politics of language and the naming of places are all closely related. As the old saying goes, the namer of names is the father of all things.

Many European explorers preferred to name what they discovered after something they were familiar with. New York was named by the British after they defeated the Dutch, who had named their settlement New Amsterdam, part of the region they called New Netherland.

Read more: Removing monuments to an imperial past is not the same for former colonies as it is for former empires

Before the arrival of the Dutch and British, the wider area was called manahhtaan, from the Indigenous Munsee language of the Lenape people, which lives on in the name Manhattan.

Closer to home, the Dutch name New Holland was slowly phased out in the early 19th century by the colonial authorities in favour of Australia, from the Latin Terra Australis (Southern Land), a reference to the mythical great unknown southern land terra australis incognita.

Over the years there have been various petitions and attempts to change the name of New Zealand, including in 1895 a call to officially adopt Moriland, already a common unofficial name for the country.

When Abel Tasman sighted these well-populated shores in 1642, he called the place Staten Land in the belief it was somehow connected to an Isla de los Estados (Staten Island) in what is now modern Argentina.

Read more: Bilingual road signs in Aotearoa New Zealand would tell us where we are as a nation

Later, however, a Dutch East India Company cartographer conferred the name Nieuw Zeeland (or Nova Zeelandia in Latin).

Zee in Dutch translates as sea, and its English etymology is complicated. It seems to be of Gothic origin, emerging from Germany, and was adopted into the languages of Northern Europe where, for example, Sjlland (sea-land) described a place closely connected to the sea.

Our country was not named directly after the link between land and sea, but rather after the Dutch place that already had this name specifically, Zeeland in the south-west of the Netherlands. Forts in modern-day Taiwan and Guyana were also called Zeelandia by early Dutch explorers.

When James Cook arrived in 1769, Nieuw Zeeland was anglicised to New Zealand, as can be seen in his famous 1770 map. Cook renamed Te Moana-o-Raukawa as Cook Strait, and imposed dozens more English place names.

He did, however, attempt to retain Mori names for both main islands: his map records Eaheinomauwe (possibly He-mea-h-n-Mui, or the things Mui fished up) for the North Island and T Avai Poonamoo (Te Wai Pounamu, or greenstone waters) for the South Island.

The first reference in legislation to New Zealand was in the Murders Abroad Act of 1817, passed by parliament in England in response to increasing lawlessness in the South Pacific including the maltreatment of Indigenous sailors aboard European ships.

Paradoxically, perhaps, the act demonstrated a British view that New Zealand was not truly part of the British realm.

Read more: Matariki: reintroducing the tradition of Mori New Year celebrations

By 1835, a number of iwi (tribes) engaged in international trade and politics were using the name Nu Tireni to describe New Zealand in their correspondence with Britain.

Nu Tirene then appeared in the 1835 Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand, and then Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.

The Mori Legal Corpus, a digitised collection of thousands of pages of legal texts in te reo Mori spanning 1829 to 2009, contains around 4,800 references to Nu Tirene, Niu Tirani and Niu Tirene.

The translation into te reo Mori of the Maori Language Act 1987 refers to Niu Tireni, as does the Mori Language Act 2016.

Read more: Let's choose our words more carefully when discussing mtauranga Mori and science

The precise origin of the composite term Aotearoa is not known. But if we translate Ao as world, tea as bright or white, and roa as long, we have the common translation of long bright world or long white cloud.

Sir George Grey used Aotearoa in his 1855 Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, and in his 1857 Mori proverbs work, Ko nga whakapepeha me nga whakaahuareka a nga tipuna o Aotea-roa.

The Mori Legal Corpus mentions Aotearoa 2,748 times, with one of the earliest written references being Wiremu Tamehanas hui invitation to other chiefs in October 1862.

The popularity of Aotearoa can be gauged from William Pember Reeves 1898 history of New Zealand: The Long White Cloud Ao Tea Roa.

Today, government departments commonly use Aotearoa, and it appears on the national currency. One of the commonest expressions of personal and national identity is the Uruwhenua Aotearoa New Zealand passport.

Whether enough New Zealanders want a formal change isnt clear. A recent poll showed a majority wanting to retain New Zealand, but a significant number interested in a combined Aotearoa New Zealand.

Nor is there consensus on Aotearoa being the best alternative, with some debate about whether the name originally referred only to the North Island and Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu being used in the south.

At the same time, there is a growing awareness of te reo Mori (as an official language, including among Pkeh) and understanding of our national names and their significance. This allows us to better understand where we have come from and where we want to go.

By also acknowledging Mori names, we give substance to our distinctness as a nation. In time, perhaps, it will lead to us embracing a name that better reflects our history, our place in the world and our shared future.

Originally posted here:

Putting Aotearoa on the map: New Zealand has changed its name before, why not again? - The Conversation AU

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja has hinted at "good news" in the coming week, saying the New Zealand cricket board was working on a new schedule to tour Pakistan after it abandoned the series last month citing "security threats".

The New Zealand cricket team had arrived in Pakistan on September 11 for the first time in 18 years to play three ODIs and five Twenty20 Internationals.

The Kiwis had, however, devastated Pakistan's cricket fraternity on Sep 17 by opting out of their tour of Pakistan minutes before the first ODI was to be played. They had cited a 'security threat' as the reason without divulging any further information. The tour cancellation was followed by England also deferring their tour.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination on Thursday, Raja said the New Zealand cricket board was "now rescheduling the tour" after being pressured by Pakistan.

However, committee chairman Raza Rabbani suggested the PCB chief to turn down New Zealand's tour of Pakistan.

"What if we do not allow the New Zealand tour?" asked Rabbani.

He advised the PCB not to accept the tour as a sign of protest.

Raja, however, replied with a slight discord, saying, "We have to live with them. But we can tell them that Pakistan can find a time window for the tour at some point in 2022."

He added that if New Zealand were ready to play according to Pakistan's conditions, "then we should have no problem".

He also informed the committee that Pakistan's cricket affairs were managed through 50 per cent funding from the International Cricket Council (ICC), while 90pc of the ICC funding was provided by India.

The PCB chairman also said he would unveil the blueprint for cricket by next week.

Asked about the tour cancellation, the PCB chief informed the committee that the Kiwi officials didn't inform him about the nature of the threats, adding that "it's not our fault".

He lamented that no one from the cricket fraternity helped Pakistan at its time of need, while recalling that the national team had toured different countries even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Raja said the PCB had also written a "strong letter" to the ICC on the matter, while quoting experts as saying that a lot of politics was underway at the ICC.

During the briefing, the PCB chief said that the board could collapse if the Indian government wanted.

He explained that the PCB receives 50pc of its funding from the ICC. "ICC funding means that the body conducts tournaments and distributes the money among member boards," he said.

"Ninety per cent of ICC's funding comes from Indian markets," he said. The PCB chairman said that in a way, Indian business houses were keeping Pakistan cricket going.

He said that if the Indian prime minister decides to stop funding at any point, the cricket board could "collapse".

During the briefing, the PCB chairman stressed the need for fixing the system, adding that the salaries of domestic cricketers had been raised and they will now earn Rs40 million annually.

"No cricketer will have to drive a rickshaw anymore," he said.

He said he had held "positive meetings" with various investors, adding that they were willing to offer money for the betterment of national cricket.

Raja said work at the schools level would soon begin with an aim to overhaul the cricket structure.

The PCB chairman also said those cricketers who had tarnished the country's image by being involved in match fixing should not be included in the team, adding that unfortunately, "our society sides with such cricketers".

Excerpt from:

'Good news in the offing': New Zealand rescheduling Pakistan tour, Ramiz Raja tells Senate body - DAWN.com

New Zealand will send a special representative to the Middle East to help extract more than 1000 New Zealanders and visa holders stranded in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced on Thursday the representative would lead discussions with countries that neighbour Afghanistan and help other New Zealand staff verify people who have crossed borders out of the country.

We are focused on the second phase of our response in Afghanistan. This means working through the financial, legal, health and security challenges that Afghan nationals who try to travel will face, as well as the practical realities of travelling to New Zealand in a global pandemic, Mahuta said, in a statement.

The representative has not yet been appointed. National Party foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee said the Government needed to move with haste.

Bernat Armangue/AP

Taliban fighters escort women's march in support of the Taliban government outside Kabul University, Afghanistan, in September.

READ MORE:* Route out of Afghanistan remains uncertain as allied countries meet without NZ * Afghanistan: 375 New Zealanders, visa holders stranded as Government considers 'second phase' of evacuation effort* Former Kiwi soldier says Taliban already hunting down Afghan allies

We need to move fairly quickly. We dont have any diplomatic presence in the region at the moment. Weve got no-one in Pakistan, weve got limited representation in other Middle Eastern jurisdictions, he said.

The statement issued by Mahutas office did not name a country in which they would be based, or when the representative would leave for the region. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) last week confirmed it had sent more staff into the region to help with the ongoing response.

The detail of the second phase of the effort to evacuate New Zealand citizens, residents and visa holders from Afghanistan came after weeks of deliberations within the Government.

The Defence Force managed to airlift 393 people out of Afghanistans capital, Kabul, during an initial evacuation that was launched in the days after the Taliban took control in August.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has appointed a diplomat to oversee ongoing extraction of New Zealanders and visa holders from Afghanistan.

Mahuta, in the statement, said a further 35 people had made it to New Zealand since then.

The Government had, since the initial evacuation, granted hundreds of visas for Afghans who are close family members of New Zealanders, or helped New Zealands military, police, aid work, or the Operation Burnham inquiry, during the two decades of conflict in the country.

At the latest tally, there were 1253 visas granted, and more than 970 were in Afghanistan. MFAT had also estimated, in late-August, that more than 100 New Zealand citizens and permanent residents remained in the country.

Among visas granted were nearly 500 for Afghans who had supported the Defence Force in Afghanistan, and their family members. However, not one of these visa holders had been evacuated during the airlift in August.

While we cant go into specifics of individual visas granted given privacy and security considerations, I can note that while granting visas ministers supported members of the judiciary, human rights workers and prominent women who required assistance, and we have supported visas like this in a number of cases, Mahuta said, in the statement.

I am appointing a Special Representative for Afghanistan to support our efforts on the ground and work closely with our partners to secure onward travel out of the region and on to New Zealand.

This operation is highly dependent on multilateral cooperation with like-minded partners and countries neighbouring Afghanistan who have borne the brunt of those fleeing the Taliban.

The Government continued to consider using its refugee quota to bring Afghans to New Zealand on humanitarian grounds.

Brownlee said it was important to have a go-to person in the region to re-build connections in the effort.

"It's clearly not going to be a diplomatic niceties deal. We don't have formal recognition of the Taliban government, and so any communications that we might have that might facilitate these people moving out safely is going to have to be done through parties that do have those connections.

Or through some kind of private security arrangement and that's got its risks, and so we need to have someone who's right over the top of all that stuff.

Brownlee said he hoped the Government had a plan beyond appointing a representative.

- For supporting MFAT in Afghanistan: 272 (arrived in New Zealand, 50)

- For supporting the Defence Force in Afghanistan: 495 (arrived in New Zealand, 0)

- For supporting the Operation Burnham inquiry: 54 (arrived in New Zealand, 6)

- For supporting the New Zealand police in Afghanistan: 13 (arrived in New Zealand, 0)

- Visas granted by the associate minister of immigration: 105 (arrived in New Zealand, 11)

- Critical purpose visas granted to close family members of New Zealanders, or visas issued on evacuation: 314 (arrived in New Zealand, 213)

More here:

New Zealand to send Afghanistan 'special representative' to the Middle East - Stuff.co.nz

Anyone looking to cruise to New Zealand this season is out of luck there are no plans to resume cruising into New Zealand until late next year at the earliest.

Cruising will not resume into New Zealand until the nation has achieved its 90 per cent vaccination rate, which is well above Australias target of 80 per cent before international borders re-open.

The New Zealand Cruise Association Chief Executive Officer Kevin OSullivan told Cruise Passenger that cruising will not return to New Zealand until 90 per cent of New Zealanders have rolled up their sleeves and had their vaccination.

90 per cent of cruises are cancelled. The cruise lines are still booking but the cruises are being cancelled, he said.

Mr OSullivan said that the New Zealand cruise industry had not yet spoken to the Health Minister Chris Hipkins, and that talks were unlikely until the governments desired vaccination rate was achieved a mirror of the treatment being metered our to the industry body in Australia.

Well have to discuss a phased re-entry. That could be smaller ships. Its hard to say. NZ will follow what Australia does, said Mr OSullivan. Fifty per cent of those cruising into New Zealand are Australian.

He said that before Delta there was talk of a cruise bubble. We looked at cruising New Zealand only, or Australia and New Zealand cruising.

We were looking at 60 per cent capacity but at the moment its hard to say. There are some countries with a higher vaccination rate and there are pre-travel COVID tests so theres no reason we wouldnt accept vaccinated passengers.

At the moment we cant discuss cruising. It will depend on other countries.

The impact of no cruising in New Zealand has been widely felt and the ripples will hit Australia.

Lines like Princess relied on trips to Milford Sound as a draw card. Without visits to New Zealand and with Pacific nations still to reach vaccination targets, itinerary planning is difficult.

The New Zealand economy has also taken a hit.

It was worth $600 million and it was on its way to $1 billion, said Mr OSullivan. All international tourism has ground to a halt.

An attempt by Ponant to restart cruising in New Zealand in January was rebuffed at the last minute when the Immigration Department tried to insist some crew members should be replaced by New Zealanders.

The Le Laperouse was turned away at enormous cost to the line a full season had been booked by New Zealander passengers because of the 11th hour intervention.

More here:

No cruising in New Zealand before October 2022, association reveals - Cruise Passenger

View the overall vaccine rate for every suburb in the country. Built by the Spinoffs head of data, Harkanwal Singh.

The Spinoffs coverage of the Covid story depends on support from Members. Keep us going by joining today. Read the latest news, including rolling updates of breaking Covid news, here.

The Ministry of Health has released data showing the vaccination uptake in some detail across the country. In the map below, the first and second dose uptake rate is shown as a percentage of that areas population. This data uses eligible population for proportion, and so excludes children in the 0 to 11 age group. The population denominator we use is based on Health Service User numbers provided by the Ministry of Health.

This map will be updated with every vaccine data release going forward and included in our main Covid tracker page. All of these visualisations are made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members; join here so we can continue this work.

In areas with particularly low populations, the results are suppressed for privacy reasons (displayed on the maps below as null). In a few areas, you might get a vaccination count over 100%, owing to population movements. You can zoom into specific areas and hover or click to see vaccination proportion for all population groups. See all the details for an area by hovering, or clicking on it.

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The vaccination rate for every suburb in New Zealand on one interactive map - The Spinoff

A United Nations worker from Fiji who was medically evacuated to New Zealand with Covid-19 in July is now in a stable condition, but remains in hospital 70 days later.

A request for the woman, a worker with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to be transferred and treated in New Zealand was initially declined for capacity reasons, but the medivac flight went ahead on July 29.

The patient arrived in Auckland in a Skyline Aviation jet and was transported to Middlemore Hospital by an ambulance.

More than two months later, the woman remains in hospital, but is out of intensive care, no longer has Covid-19 and is in a stable condition, Stuff understands.

READ MORE:* Defence Force medevac Niuean MP in critical condition to Auckland City Hospital* Dr Ashley Bloomfield exchanged text messages with Foreign Affairs Secretary over Covid-positive UN worker's evacuation from Fiji* Covid-19: Fiji patient medically evacuated to New Zealand in 'critical state', now in ICU

The UNs resident co-ordinator for Fiji, Sanaka Samarasinha, told Stuff on Thursday he wanted to express his deep gratitude to the doctors and staff at Middlemore Hospital.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

The UN worker has been at Middlemore since July 29.

He also wanted to thank the New Zealand Government and all those who made this small miracle happen.

He previously told Stuff the woman was in quite a critical stage when she was flown to New Zealand. She was not given preferential treatment, he said.

Since the pandemic began, the UN has medically evacuated about 300 staff around the world as part of its duty of care to staff who are deployed to work in high-risk situations, he said.

However, the woman was the first to be evacuated from Fiji into New Zealand during the Covid-19 pandemic, Samarasinha said.

Requests for medical treatment in New Zealand from overseas jurisdictions, particularly the Pacific, are common, the Ministry of Health said.

According to the Fiji Ministry of Health, there are 2864 active cases of Covid-19 in the country.

There have been 645 deaths in total since Fijis April outbreak.

Ninety-three per cent of the eligible population of Fiji have now had their first dose of the vaccine, and 65 per cent are fully vaccinated.

View original post here:

Covid-19: UN worker medivaced to NZ is stable, but still in hospital 70 days on - Stuff.co.nz

OPINION: Blessed are the cheesemakers, to quote Life of Brian.

This week marks the start of New Zealand Cheese Month, a month-long campaign to promote Kiwi cheese.

On one level, its not difficult to find, buy and consume our cheeses. Most of the big brands you know from the supermarket are, on some level at least, Kiwi products, in that they use milk from our farms and, in some cases, are made in our factories.

Stuff

The face of a committed eater of cheese.

Almost all of those household name brands are massive, Fonterra-owned companies such as Anchor, Mainland, Chesdale, and Kapiti, or those by offshore companies such as Tararua and Ornelle (both Goodman Fielder), or Rolling Meadow (Dairyworks).

READ MORE:* From boutique to big brands, NZ cheesemakers celebrated in annual awards* Cheese epiphany allows Kiwi to follow her passion around the world and back again* Goat's cheese makers churning out the medals

Theres nothing wrong with any of these brands. They are, for the most part, those that are able to produce a consistent product on a scale large enough to service dairies and supermarkets, even if family-sized blocks of your standard tasty and colby are becoming prohibitively expensive for some.

But the market dominance of these cheeses masks a brisk industry of truly local Kiwi cheesemaking.

Artisanal cheesemaking has been happening in New Zealand in some form or another since the 1970s or 1980s, but has really taken off in the past 20 years. From Mhoe in Kerikeri through Over the Moon in Ptruru, via Martinboroughs Drunken Nanny and Barrys Bay on Banks Peninsula down to Dunedins Evansdale, no matter where you live or where you are in the country, you are bound to find a cheese local to you.

Ross Giblin

A range of cheeses from The Drunken Nanny in the Wairarapa.

To a large degree, these cheesemakers are also farmers, grazing the cows, sheep, goats, even buffalo, whose milk goes into the product on the same property on which its made. Their cheeses reflect the local environment - the grasses and weather conditions. Animals grazed close to the sea will reflect that in their milk, likewise those grazed in a valley. Freed of the need to produce a predictable cheese that tastes the same every time, they can allow the changes in different seasons, year to year, to come through. They can also avoid pesticides and become organic, as an increasing number are.

As good, is the fact that you can buy many of these artisan cheeses directly from the people who make them or, if not, from a cheesemonger who knows them and their story.

Cheese should, of course, be delicious. But like many products that are, at their heart, agricultural, cheese can tell us a story: about the place it comes from, the people who make it and, in turn, about ourselves and our place.

Blessed are the cheesemakers, indeed.

Read more from the original source:

Everybody's Talking About... New Zealand cheese - Stuff.co.nz