Category Archives: New Zealand

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30 Jul, 2021 09:34 PM2 minutes to read

PM Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins expressed opposing views on the selection of Laurel Hubbard, a trans woman, to represent New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympics.Video / Mark Mitchell

New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has broken her silence and made her first statement since the announcement of her selection to the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Hubbard will make history when she competes on Monday in the women's +87kg weightlifting class, becoming the first openly transgender athlete to compete in an Olympic Games. Often the subject of controversy, Hubbard has kept quiet over the matter, and kept her first public statement brief.

"I see the Olympic Games as a global celebration of our hopes, ideals and values and I would like to thank the IOC for its commitment to making sport inclusive and accessible," she said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical director Richard Budgett earlier praised Hubbard's bravery and stated that "transwomen are women".

"Laurel Hubbard is a woman, is competing under the rules of her federation and we have to pay tribute to her courage and tenacity in actually competing and qualifying for the Games."

Full Kiwi schedule below. Click on a name to see athlete's bio, upcoming events, past Games performance and medal chance.

Many predictions place Hubbard in the medal positions for Tokyo, which would be New Zealand's first ever Olympic weightlifting medal.

Hubbard competed in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 but had to withdraw from the competition with an elbow injury.

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard breaks silence on selection - New Zealand Herald

July 30 (Reuters) - Races scheduled to be held in New Zealand and Perth in the Supercars Championship have been cancelled while the Bathurst 1000 has been shifted to November as pandemic restrictions forced the series to reconfigure their 2021 calendar.

Bathurst, the series' most high-profile race, had been scheduled to run from Oct. 7 to 10 but will now be held from Nov. 4 to 7 due to COVID-19 restrictions currently in place in New South Wales.

"With the ever-changing COVID landscape, our teams and broadcast partners have agreed it is in all our stakeholders' best interests commercially and competitively to move our premier event to a later date," Supercars Chief Executive Sean Seamer said in a statement.

The recent reintroduction of travel restrictions between New Zealand and Australia mean teams will not be able to move across the Tasman Sea to compete while similar border closures in Western Australia have led to the cancellation of the race in Perth.

"Unfortunately, our event planned for Perth presents significant risk with the ongoing restrictions, so we've made the difficult decision to move it to the 2022 calendar," Seamer said.

"Similarly, our Kiwi fans across the ditch will be undoubtedly disappointed to see New Zealand does not feature on the revised calendar due to the trans-Tasman bubble being suspended.

"These are challenging times for all sporting codes, which is why we have had to remain flexible with our calendar arrangements and make significant changes where required."

Reporting by Michael Church; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

See the article here:

Bathurst race switched as New Zealand and Perth cancelled - Reuters

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Tim Price, and Vitali, produced an excellent showing in their dressage test to have New Zealand in good shape in Tokyo.

Top-ranked New Zealand equestrian, Tim Price, has come up trumps to ensure the New Zealand eventing team sit well-placed at the completion of the dressage phase at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 42-year-old world No 2 produced a superb showing aboard Vitali in Saturdays third and final dressage session, with his score of 25.60 penalty points seeing him in fifth place in the field of 62 (one fewer than the original start list after the withdrawal of an Austrian rider) and having New Zealand in third spot in the team standings.

Price is at his second Olympics, after being an 11th-hour callup from the reserve spot five years ago, and is again riding alongside wife Jonelle Price in an all-England-based Kiwi team which is out for revenge after a disappointing slip to fourth place in Rio.

Julian Finney/Getty Images

Jonelle Price and the Kiwi eventers are out to atone for disappointment in Rio.

New Zealand has a rich eventing history, with all 10 of the countrys Olympic equestrian medals, dating back to 1984, coming in that discipline. However, a first-ever gold is still being hunted in the team event (one silver, three bronze), which is run concurrently with the individual competition.

READ MORE:* Live: Olympics day eight: Black Sticks women out to secure quarterfinal berth* 'Unfinished business': Kiwi equestrians desperate to atone at Tokyo Olympics * Tokyo 2020: Surfers legacy lives on in Kiwi Olympic show jumper Uma ONeill

This is the first time since 2004, and just the second since 1984, that the Kiwis are riding without the legendary Sir Mark Todd, and its the Prices who are now flying the flag, in conjunction with Olympic debutant Jesse Campbell.

With Jonelle Price the world No 7 and competing in her third Games, its 31-year-old newbie Campbell who looms as very much the key member, if New Zealand are to taste success as a unit in Tokyo.

They're amazing. I think everyone knows what a fantastic team they are. And it's a real honour to be here with them, sort of being taken under the wing by them, Campbell said following an encouraging first-up effort during the second dressage session on Friday night.

The world No 97, and horse Diachello, showed no signs of big-stage nerves, putting on a composed performance as the rain tumbled, in what is a new and shorter Olympic dressage test, of just under four minutes per rider.

Campbell cut a quite chuffed figure at the end of his test, though his face quickly turned to dismay when looking at the scoreboard. Turns out there were still scores coming in from the three judges.

In the end, his 30.10 was good enough to leave him in 15th place, which even slightly upstaged the 30.70 of Jonelle Price (on Grovine De Reve) in the first session, which has her in 17th.

I was on the whole really pleased, Campbell said. He's a horse who I think is going to just get better and better over the next few years.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Jesse Campbell, riding Diachello, produced an encouraging Olympic debut.

He's got a huge walk. And I know it's very difficult to get a medium walk out of him, and to keep them sort of really connected. So I think I dropped a mark there, and definitely on my last change, got a little rush of blood to the head. I thought, 'I'm nearly home.'

It's a very, very difficult test in terms of, if you make a little mistake, to then try and get those scores back. It just comes at you so fast, and you've got no time to rebuild your score if you make a mistake. And I made a few little boo-boos, but on the whole [Im pleased].

Great Britain lead the team standings, on 78.30, after world No 1 Oliver Townend, the second rider up, led almost the entire way, with his 23.60.

That was only knocked off by the penultimate rider in the field, with two-time reigning Olympic champion Michael Jung producing a sublime 21.10, which, with the help of fourth-placed team-mate Julia Krajewski (25.20), has Germany the Rio silver medallists in second place on 80.40.

New Zealand are exactly six points back, on 86.40, but still with a handy buffer over fourth-placed Japan (90.10).

The cross-country round follows on Sunday, before the jumping (team final and individual qualifier, then individual final) on Monday.

Link:

Tokyo Olympics: New Zealand eventers well-placed at completion of dressage phase - Stuff.co.nz

Kiwis have an edge when it comes to surviving total societal collapse, according to a new study.

Why it matters: Civilization is "in a perilous state," according to the researchers behind the study, and New Zealand's mix of geographical isolation and ability to grow its own food and maintain electricity and manufacturing makes it particularly well-suited to see it through the end times.

What's happening: In a recent study published in the journal Sustainability, researchers identified what factors would make a country most able to withstand civilizational collapse, whether because of a major financial crisis, out of control climate change, or worse.

The winners (or not losers) are: New Zealand, followed by Iceland, Tasmania, the U.K. and Ireland.

Thought bubble from Axios' Rebecca Falconer, a New Zealand resident: The study findings are unsurprising, when you look at how the NZ economy has rebounded since entering a recession last September following a hard lockdown early in the pandemic.

Yes, but: Relying on New Zealand as a "collapse lifeboat" features one large downside it has severe seismic activity and happens to be the site of the Earth's last supervolcano eruption, some 26,500 years ago.

The bottom line: So watch out for that.

Read more here:

Study: New Zealand is the best place to wait out the apocalypse - Axios

You are lying asleep in your bedin the home you own. It should be the most comfortable placebut, before the sun is up, police are knocking on your door and you will have to convince them you deserve to stay.

They're shining a torch into your face, holding back a German shepherd "frothing at the mouth".

It's 1974 and this is a dawn raid.If you can't prove who you are, you will likely be locked up and eventually deported.

New Zealand has achieved cult status as a progressive haven at the bottom of the world, but talk to Pacific Islander people and many will tell you about the 1970s and the "state-sanctioned racism" that ripped them from their homes.

The immense shame of the dawn raids lingers on both sides of politics and on the Pacific families that woke to that knock at the door.

Tomorrow, the New Zealand government will apologisebut, for onegroup of social justice revolutionaries, saying sorry is just the beginning.

Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers came together in Auckland for the inaugural meeting of the Polynesian Panthers.

The date was June 16, 1971 and the first generation of New Zealand-born Pacific people had decided to organise.

Supplied: John Miller

They were reading Bobby Seale, listening to Bob Dylan's "songs of protest"andwatching asthe Black Panthers forced the United States to reckon with its racist history.

Melani Anae was at that first meeting of the Polynesian Panthers. To become a member, she had to read Seize the Time the story of the Black Panther Party.

"When I read that book, I couldn't get over how much it mirrored what we as Pacific communitieswere living through," she said.

"Problems with housing, problems with education and problems with adjusting to a new life. And we really resonated with that and so we were totally in solidarity with the Black Panthers."

Now an associate professor of pacific studies at the University of Auckland, Dr Anae said she didn't realise it at the timebut becoming a Panther as a teenager would define her life.

"The Panthers were the first of the first. The first New Zealand-born Pacific generation," she said.

"We had no role models. Our parents who came to New Zealand were very respectful of authority. They wanted to be good citizens, but us New Zealand-borns knew something was wrong.

"So, as 17-year-olds we took it upon ourselves to form the Panthers to fight that racial injustice."

Maori people are indigenous to New Zealand, while people from island nations such as Samoa, Tonga and Fiji immigrated to the country.

Both Maori and Pacific people facedisadvantages and discrimination, but the Polynesian Panthers stand for the Pacific community.

Supplied: Stuff Limited

After World War II, the New Zealand government called for people from the Pacific Islands to come and fill the labour shortages, to do "the jobs ordinary New Zealanders didn't want to do".

"They invited us, so we came in droves," Dr Anae said.

"My parents came because they wanted a better life, but when the economic recession hit in the early 1970s the immigration policy suddenly changed and they didn't want us anymore."

Archives New Zealand:Gregory Riethmaier Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence

Dr Anae said Pacific people then became the "scapegoats for successive governments, both Labor and National".

The political messagesfocussed"on the immigration of these brown people from the islands and that they were taking ordinary New Zealanders' jobs, and that they were criminalsand rapists and murderers", she said.

The government of the day was cracking down on "overstayers" people who were living in New Zealand illegally after their visas or work permits had expired.

Butimmigration officials were only targeting overstayers from Pacific island nations,when the bulk of people who were living in the country illegally were from Europe and North America. And the police enforcing the immigration warrants were terrorising Pacific communities.

Supplied: John Miller

The Panthers fought back. At a higher level, they fought against the narrative the government and media of the time had spunabout them. And at a grassroots level, they fought to genuinely improve the lives of those in their community.

"The crucible years, I believe, were 1971 to 1974,was when the Panthers were the strongest and fiercest, in terms of our membership, which had reached 500 people. That's when we put our community survival programs in place," Dr Anae said.

"We had homework centres, we had food co-ops, we had the PIG patrol the Police Investigation Group which stopped the police from harassing our communities just for being who we were."

Supplied: John Miller

The Panthers assigned portfolios to their members.

There were ministers for finance, cultural affairs and information. There was also a Tenants Aide Brigade.The Panthers' platform has always been "educate to liberate" and as Pacific people became targets for random police checks, the group made sure everyone knew their rights.

Supplied: John Miller

One of the lasting legacies of the 1970s-era Panthers is the group's contributionto legal aid in New Zealand.

A prominent lawyer helped produce the Polynesian Panthers' legal aid booklet, which was widely distributed among Auckland's Pacific community.

It was a revolution. For people who had been targeted by police to learn not just that they had legal rights, but specifically what they were, was powerful.

The lawyer who penned the legal advice wasDavid Lange. It would be another decade, but Lange became the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand.

People soon learned thatif a police officer didn't have his badge or hat on, he was not in full uniform and technically he could not make an arrest.

The "PIG Patrol" would be there to watch police, keeping an eye on their tactics and whether or not their uniform met standards as they tried to pull young Pacific Islander people off the street.

The Panthers were getting smarterand stronger. They were making a difference in their communities, but theywere agitating too.They came together to push back against racist policies and sometimes that got physical.

The Polynesian Panthers had a military wing. There were clashes with police and landlords, and a determination to be a force on the ground. Members of this faction were prepared to break the law and several of them did, serving time for rioting, illegal assembly and fighting police.

Founding memberWill Ilolahia has been quoted as saying: "Thething about the Panther it never attacks.

"But if it's attacked itself and it's caught in a situation that calls for self-defence, it will respond."

The most insidious of actions by the police, Dr Anae says, were the raids the New Zealand government will now apologise for.

"In 1974 to 1976 there was the horrendous state-sanctioned racism called the dawn raids," she said.

"The dawn raids targeted Pacific families. The theory was these families were likely to have overstayed visas and so police targeted them in the street, knocked on their doors in the early hours of the morning."

When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the apology, Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito Sio stood beside her at the press conference.

"We were dawn raided," he said.

"The memories are of my father being helpless.We bought the home about two years prior to that and to have somebody knocking at the door in the early hours of the morning, with a flashlight in your face, disrespecting the owner of the home, with an Alsatian dog frothing at the mouth wanting to come in.

"It's quite traumatising."

For some Pacific families, their loved ones were picked up off the street and sent away without notice. For others, they were raided in the night and never told another soul.

It's only now that the government has announced it will apologise for the practice that the community has really started to open up.

Supplied: John Miller

Christine Nurminen was born in 1975 to Tongan parents who had come to Auckland to work.

Her childhood memories are underwritten by the fear her family lived through every day.She remembers being confused about her parents' anxiety and why they were always worried about dogs.

"We would be like 'why are we driving the long way around? Or why are these people on the property? Or why is everyone so anxious about the dogs?'" Ms Nurminen said.

"There was this constant language around the dogs. 'Don't let the girls play outside with the dogs, we've got to be worried about the dogs' but I knew we didn't own dogs and I was petrified."

Ms Nurminen said it was only as an adult that she came to learn about the dawn raids and how police used dogs to find anyone who might be hiding in the property.

"Every Tongan person I know always talks about the dogs," she said.

Her family had a strategy.

"All the women lived in one part of the house and all the men lived in one part of the house and they'd just take turns watching the door and watching for police," Ms Nurminen said.

"The thinking was, if we're going to be raided, at least the women feel safe together and there's no random male [police officer] coming through where they're sleeping."

Supplied: John Miller

Polynesian Panther member and Samoan New Zealander Alec Toleafoaremembers being targeted on the street the "blanket random checking on all people who were brown".

"We were required to carry proof we were entitled to be here lawfully," he said.

"In my case, and my siblings', we're only 13, 14, 15 at that time. We're all New Zealand-born, we've never travelled anywhere, why would we have a passport? I would be hoping like hell Iwould not be stopped and questioned because I had no evidence I was here legally.

"So when we saw police we knew there was a high likelihood we would not be going home that day."

MrToleafoa said it was the "brutal arm" of the police that pulled him towards the Panthers.

"[We would be] just walking along the street and then a patrol car pulls up, asks us a certain set of questions," he said.

"As soon as we reply we find ourselves in restraints and thrown in the car, taken away from our neighbourhood and given the beat down and then dropped back as if nothing had happened.

"That happened to me."

Ms Nurminen will be at the apology with her parents and her daughter.

She wants the next generation to know about the dawn raids, but "also that the story goes on" that the next chapter can be one where thisdark detailof New Zealand's history is spoken about openly and with a commitment "it won't ever happen again".

"It's an evening when we will hear some really hard truths, but she will be fortunate to hear that truth in a setting where we have the Prime Minister," she said.

Minister Sio agreed, saying the apology was about acknowledging the past for the sake of the future.

"I do not want my nieces and nephews to be shackled by that pain and to be angry about it. I need them to move forward and look to the future as peoples of Aotearoa," he said.

Supplied: John Miller

There is hope that the"intergenerational secrets" many Pacific families have kept for 50 years can start to be told and that as those painful memories are prised open, they are released. That these families can reckon with their stories.

"Now they understand, and will understand as time goes on as the apology and its significance unfolds, that itwas not their fault," Mr Toleafoasaid.

"They were encouraged by the government, and employers and the churches to stay beyond their permits the government turned a blind eye until the recession, then that nerve, that racist thread that runs through New Zealand history emerged and then all the dreams we had turned into nightmares."

Supplied: John Miller

Polynesian Panther members often say "once a Panther, always a Panther" and after 50 years they still have the same message: "Educate to liberate."

The Panthers pushed for the national apology and they want it to come with lessons about racism in New Zealand schools, scholarships for Pacific students and a commitment to truth-telling about what happened on their streets and in their homes in the 1970s.

"The expectation for us is that every person who goes to school, learns these stories and perhaps in the learning even just the hearing of these stories they might understand diversity.They might understand how better to relate to difference to cultural difference," Mr Toleafoa said.

"And perhaps with that understanding [they'll] be able to form better opinions than the ones that have been responsible for things like the dawn raids.

"We're hoping that this is going to, not just enhance, but transform race relations in New Zealand."

Other groups are pushing for different things. Some want reparations or compensation, others want amnesty for those who are still living in New Zealand illegally.

The Polynesian Panthers have fought for the rights of Pacific people for 50 years and the apology helps cement their legacy. They have had young people ask to join, but this is now a closed group.

They came together in a time and place that needed brave people to take big risks and, as the story of the Panthers is told and retold, it will become a legend that inspires the next generation.

"In my family, I'm still seen as that 'radical person'," Dr Anae said.

"We took that risk on, though, because we knew we had to change the world."

Special thanks to photographer John Miller, who has documentedNew Zealand's social justice movements for 50 years and gave the ABC access to his archive for this story.

Read this article:

New Zealand to make dawn raids apology, but the Polynesian Panthers want more than words - ABC News

The cheapest and most expensive regions to rent in the country at the moment have been revealed in a new report. Photo / 123RF

The cheapest and most expensive regions to rent in the country at the moment have been revealed in a new report.

Figures released by Massey University for the December to March quarter show the average weekly rent on the West Coast is $251, making it the cheapest spot in the country.

While rent in a number of regions is increasing, it has decreased on the West Coast by 6.7 per cent since the last quarter and 4.2 per cent since last year.

That compares to the most expensive region, Auckland, which has a weekly average rent of $564 - a 5 per cent increase from the same time last year.

Despite Southland being one of the most affordable places, the region has had the largest yearly increase in rent prices up 15.7 per cent to an average rent of $331 a week.

Rent has increased by 15.4 per cent in the Manawat-Whanganui region over the past year to $367.

The report also shows renters are paying more than the national average, which is set at 100 per cent, in six out of the 16 regions.

These include Marlborough (116.1 per cent), Bay of Plenty (109.6 per cent), Auckland (106.6 per cent), Hawke's Bay (105.2 per cent), Tasman (103.1 per cent), and Northland (102.8 per cent).

The remaining 10 regions are all relatively more rent affordable than the national average, but two regions stand out as being the most affordable for renters: Southland (77.1 per cent) and West Coast (58.7 per cent).

Report authors Dr Arshad Javed and Professor Graham Squires, from the Massey University Real Estate Analysis Unit, say there are several varied factors affecting rental prices across New Zealand.

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"These include interest deductibility on residential property income, the extension of the bright-line test, rent control and the end of the Covid-19 rent freeze," Squires said.

Nationally, rent increased by 4.8 per cent over the year (March 2020-March 2021).

Auckland - $564 (up 5 per cent).Wellington - $524 (down 1.3 per cent).Bay of Plenty - $473 (up 4.9 per cent).Hawke's Bay - $441 (up 10.5 per cent).Marlborough - $434 (11.3 per cent).Northland - $425 (up 9.3 per cent).Waikato - $421 (up 5.8 per cent).Nelson $416 (up 4.5 per cent).Tasman - $411 (down 2.1 per cent).Otago - $409 (5.1 per cent).Canterbury - $389 (up 0.3 per cent).Taranaki - $386 (up 8.1 per cent).Gisborne - $376 (down 2.6 per cent).Manawatu-Whanganui - $367 (up 15.4 per cent).Southland - $331 (up 15.7 per cent).West Coast - $251 (down 4.2 per cent).

Read more:

The cheapest and most expensive places to rent in New Zealand - Massey University report - New Zealand Herald

Winston Reid's New Zealand suffered a late 3-2 defeat to Honduras in their second group stage game at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Sunday.

The Oly Whites captain and West Ham United defender was forced out of the action early in the first half due to injury, and had to watch on as his teamlooked on course to take a major step towards the quarter-finals when they twice led thanks to goals from Liberato Cacace and Burnley's Chris Wood, only to be thwarted by Honduras.

Goals in the final twelve minutes byJuan Carlos Obregn Jr and Rigoberto Rivas were enough to overcome the deficit and hand their side a dramatic 3-2 victory.

The defeat leaves New Zealand with three points from their opening two Group B games, but they know progression is still in their own hands.

Should they defeat Romania in their final match, in Sapporo on Wednesday, they will make the tournament's last eight for the first time at an Olympics.

Meanwhile, Reid was sent for a scan on the knee problemand will now face await to see if he will be able to return to help his team's bid for Olympics glory.

More here:

Winston Reid's New Zealand edged out by Honduras in Olympics - West Ham United F.C.

Air New Zealands cookie-and-chip combo is an institution, but itll be no sure thing on future flights and neither will the tea and coffee service.

After tests involving more than 7000 passengers across 100 flights, the airline has settled on a new range of in-flight snacks. Well be offered popcorn, crisps, muesli bars and chocolate in addition to the traditional cookie.

ALAN GRANVILLE/Stuff

Corn chips face an uncertain future on Air New Zealand flights.

Not all at once though. The new, New Zealand-made snacks will be rotated on a monthly basis, which general manager customer Leeanne Langridge reckons should satisfy customers craving for variety.

One of the things we got out of the trials was that customers want choice and change. So not just the corn chips or the cookie actually give us choice and we want to see more change. So dont wait five years to change your product.

READ MORE:* Air New Zealand unveils new inflight snacks* Air New Zealand is changing up its inflight snacks: Here's our wishlist* Air New Zealand to trial Eat My Lunch snacks on domestic flights; hints at signature chocolates

If youre a fan of the corn chips, the other half of the cookie-and-chips combo traditionally offered on domestic flights, there could be cause for concern. While the airline said the cookie and lollies would remain fixtures on domestic flights, it made no such promises as far as the corn chips were concerned.

Ryan Anderson/Stuff

Air New Zealand has trialled apple crumble-flavoured ice cream, popcorn, paprika-flavoured Proper Crisps, and mandarins on recent domestic flights.

If youre disappointed the ice cream and mandarins trialled didnt make the cut or that popular passenger suggestions such as wine and cheese, and croissants werent taken up dont despair. The airline will offer surprise snacks about two or three times a month.

Langridge said surprise and delight options could include champagne, ice cream, danishes, bliss balls, seasonal fruit, or snacks from social enterprises such as Eat My Lunch. Cookie Times Lolly Cake cookie is expected to make an appearance on board shortly.

Surprise snacks went down a treat on the few occasions they had been offered in the past, she said particularly the pain au chocolate offered one Mothers Day.

The airline will offer at least one gluten-free snack on every domestic flight, she said.

If you like a cup of coffee or tea in the early evening, prepare to be disappointed though. They will be removed from Koru Hour flights under 50 minutes following feedback that the food and beverage service felt rushed. Passengers will still be offered wine, beer, cider, L&P and Coca-Cola No Sugar along with cheese and crackers or a savoury snack.

The airline plans to offer different kinds of popcorn, crisps, muesli bars and chocolate, with a focus on New Zealand products.

Matty McLean/Twitter

Cookies will continue to be offered on domestic flights.

At the moment we have [Nelson made] Proper Crisps, which are amazing and Serious Popcorn personally I love the sweet-and-salty flavour. But we're going to see change there as well because we heard that was really important to people. Were not wedded to any one product or company.

Langridge acknowledged a Stuff poll that found a high percentage of people wanted Whittakers chocolate on flights. The airline has worked with the Kiwi chocolate company in the past and recently had a helpful conversation with Matt Whittaker, she said.

I cant say it'll all be Whittakers, but certainly they've been great to work with and were excited about opportunities in the future.

The airline would like to talk to any food company keen to showcase its products on board, she said.

It announced in June that it would introduce alternative snacks on domestic flights as part of a broader shake-up of its food and beverage service.

On a trial flight on June 10, the alternative snack choice apple crumble-flavoured Kapiti ice cream got mixed reactions.

Passenger Tony Zhang said he was pleased the airline was trialling ice cream on the new menu, although he thought spicy apple crumble-flavour was an odd choice.

Jeremy Tasker, by contrast, found the spicy apple crumble ice cream refreshing. Asked for his thoughts on the airline shaking up the snacks menu, he said: I think its about time. Getting sick of the old cookies and crisps, and the ice cream just adds a little bit of spice. It came as a surprise.

Ryan Anderson/Stuff

The ice cream trialled didnt make the cut, but Air NZs Leeanne Langride said surprises would pop up from time to time.

An Air New Zealand Facebook post asking people what snacks theyd like to see on board generated more than 1400 responses. Wine and cheese was a popular choice, while many said theyd like the airline to better cater for those with food allergies and intolerances. Others had quite specific requests.

Kumara wedges with sour cream drizzled with sweet chilli sauce, and dont forget the melted cheese, one person said.

Mini cheese board with nuts, crackers and maybe some dried fruits and grapes, another wrote.

A warm scone with butter to go with the cuppa. Or something like a hot mini savoury pie or mini sausage roll, a third suggested.

Should be getting Bluff oysters and caviar with champagne given the monopolistic pricing of some of the fares, another said.

Whittakers chocolate, Kpiti dark chocolate and berry sorbet, gluten-free potato chips, kmara chips, chips and dips, pineapple lumps, lamingtons, muffins and mini sliders filled with the likes of locally sourced lamb and smoked salmon were among the many other suggestions.

However, some said they didnt think snacks should be served at all on domestic flights, particularly while passengers are required to wear face masks.

Read this article:

Air New Zealand settles on new in-flight snacks: Corn chips face uncertain future, while tea and coffee to be axed from some flights - Stuff.co.nz

Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler of New Zealand celebrate winning the gold medal in the women's pair at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler have won New Zealands first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics.

On Friday, they'll seek to win a second.

The New Zealand women's pair rowers claimed gold in their A final at the Sea Forest Waterway on Thursday, heading home the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and Canada.

Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Kerri Gowler, left, and Grace Prendergast hug after winning the gold medal for New Zealand in rowing's women's pair at Sea Forest Waterway.

It was New Zealand's fourth medal of the Games to date after triathlete Hayden Wilde captured bronze on Monday, and women's double scullers Brooke Donoghue and Hannah Osborne and the men's rugby sevens team gained silver on Wednesday.

READ MORE:* NZ's rowers line up medal charge as pair, eight make Tokyo Olympic finals* New Zealand pair win both races to be on track for rowing golds at Tokyo Olympics* Women's boats set to grab the New Zealand rowing spotlight at Tokyo Olympics* New Zealand's top medal prospects at the Tokyo Olympics: Our countdown concludes

The New Zealanders trailed Canada for the first half of the 2000m race before moving to the front in the third quarter. They staved off a surprise challenge from the ROC duo of Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia by 1.26 seconds, winning in a time of 6min 50.19sec.

Asked for her initial reaction, Prendergast told Sky TV: Honestly, I don't really know at the moment.

It's such a whirlwind, such a dream, but I'm just so stoked I'm just so happy.

RICKY WILSON/STUFF

Sally Prendergast went through every emotion under the sun as she nervously watched her daughter race for Olympic gold.

Gowler said: Same I can't believe it. I feel like we crossed the line and I just started yelling, Have we done it? But it's amazing. I'm so glad we've done it.

We crossed and I was like, 'Was someone ahead of us? I don't know, I was so focused on us ... I was like, 'Did we do it?' Honestly, I can't believe it.

Ricky Wilson/Stuff

Sally Prendergast, left, reacts to her daughter's gold medal win in Thursday afternoon's double sculls final.

Prendergast added: I'm just so stoked; it's been such a good season. Regardless of the result today, I was stoked with how our season went, but it's always a cherry on the top when you finish on top.

Gowler saluted their supporters, saying: It's been a long five years, and I'm really gutted that everyone can't be here with us. But, yeah, I'm just really glad you're there to support us, and we hope we did you proud.

It was New Zealand's first Olympic gold medal in the women's pair. It completed a full set after Lynley Hannen and Nikki Payne took bronze in 1988 in Seoul, Juliette Haigh and Rebeca Scown took bronze in 2012 in London, and Genevieve Behrent and Scown claimed silver in 2016 in Rio.

Prendergast and Gowler, who were dual world champions in 2019, are also part of the New Zealand women's eight who will contest their final on Friday afternoon (NZ time) as the duo seek a rare rowing double-gold return in Tokyo.

New Zealand women's single sculler Emma Twigg will contest her semifinal at 1:50pm on Thursday as she continues her quest for a first Olympic medal at her fourth Games.

more to come

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Tokyo Olympics: Women's pair rowers win New Zealand's first gold medal of the Games - Stuff.co.nz

A group of youngsters produce their own theatrical play. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

Declassified government documents show officials were struggling to debunk TV1 footage of the Kaikura lights UFO sightings in December 1978.

In a report submitted to the United Nations in January 1979, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) classified the objects as "UFOs until identified", but said the "prospect of extra terrestrial intervention being proved is regarded as extremely remote".

The document is one of a large group of declassified documents regarding "Unidentified Flying Objects" at Archives New Zealand, which came from New Zealand's post at the UN between 1977 and 1982.

In the briefing, DSIR debunks one film of the famous event, but has trouble in doing the same with TV1's footage.

"Both Crockett's and TV1's films are highly distorted," the briefing reads.

"Crockett's film now considered unmeritous because of visual discrepancies produced by filming through an argosy window. DSIR have actually duplicated Crockett's results by shining a torch light onto the plane's window.

"TV1's film proving more interesting as it was a straight shot free of any distortion produced by filming through glass and plastic.

"However, aberrations are apparent in the film which is making it difficult to analyse. DSIR are now converting the film to computer readout and are hopeful that distortions can be erased."

DSIR said atmospheric conditions could explain false radar readings at the time of the sightings, where both Christchurch and Wellington air traffic control registered signals.

They said the readings weren't consistent with the sightings of pilots, or ground sightings.

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"DSIR are not willing to make definite statements yet but their conjecture is that the objects filmed will turn out to be no more than general illumination (possibly produced by Jupiter or Venus) on the horizon.

"The objects remain classified as UFOs until identified. Prospect of extra terrestrial intervention being proved is regarded as extremely remote."

Other documents show the lobbying New Zealand received from the nation of Grenada, which wanted the United Nations to "initiate, conduct and coordinate research into the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects and related phenomena".

New Zealand was chairing the Western European and Other States Group in November, 1978, when Grenada wanted to table their suggestion, and was not pleased at the suggestion.

"We are disenchanted with Granada resolution and would hope that the item can be disposed of without vote," one document reads.

"If put to the vote our inclination would be to vote against."

Another document said: "A number of countries who were members of the Outer Space Committee (particularly Austria) were unhappy at the proposal. They felt it would damage the Committee's credibility and divert resources from more important work."

New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it shared the opinion of the committee.

"The matter is not appropriate for discussion in a United Nations context.

"We would hope, therefore, that the matter would be disposed of without vote."

Grenada eventually pulled its pursuit of UFO investigations in the UN, at the urging of the United Kingdom.

See the rest here:

UFO sightings over Kaikoura baffled NZ Government - New Zealand Herald