Category Archives: New Zealand

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U.S.Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Shermanwill travel to Samoa,Tonga, Solomon Islands, Australia, and New Zealand from August 3-9. The Deputy Secretarys travel to the region reflects the United States commitment to engage meaningfully with fellow Pacific nations in the spirit of partnership and friendship.

In Apia, Samoa,Deputy Secretary Sherman will be the first senior U.S. official and among the first foreign officials to visit the country following the August 1 reopening of Samoas international borders. She will meet with Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa.

In Nukualofa, Tonga, Deputy Secretary Sherman will meet with King Tupou VI and other seniorTongan government officials to commemorate 50 years of bilateral relations between the United States and Tonga. The most senior U.S. official to visit Tonga in the history of our relationship, the Deputy Secretary will discuss bilateral cooperation, including the United States interest in beginning discussions to establish a U.S. embassy in Tongaannounced by Vice President Kamala Harris at the Pacific Islands Forum in Julyas well as ongoing recovery efforts from the volcano eruption and tsunami in January, for which the United States has provided over $2.6 million in assistance. She will also deliver remarks at an event with Tongan students and young people, meet with members of Tongan civil society, and visit U.S. Peace Corps staff. The Peace Corps has been active in Tonga for 55 years and will return volunteers to the field in 2023.

In Honiara, Solomon Islands, Deputy Secretary Sherman will lead an interagency U.S. delegation to participate in the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal. She will deliver remarks at a U.S.-hosted ceremony on Skyline Ridge, the site of the U.S. Guadalcanal Memorial, as well as at a Solomon Islands-hosted ceremony at Bloody Ridge. The Deputy Secretary and the U.S. delegation will additionally attend memorial events hosted by Solomon Islands and Japan that will focus on commemorating the sacrifices and lives of those whofought in the Battle of Guadalcanal from the United States and its allies, the people of Solomon Islands, and the people of Japan. The Deputy Secretary will also meet with Solomon Islands government officials, including Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, to highlight the enduring relationship between the United States and Solomon Islands and the recent announcement of plans to open a U.S. Embassy in Honiara.

Deputy Secretary Sherman will then visit Canberra, Australia, where she will meet with Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Jan Adams, and other senior Australian officials to discuss U.S.-Australia collaboration for a secure and prosperous region, the bilateral trade partnership, and our work to combat the climate crisis. The Deputy Secretary will also meet with young Australians to discuss the importance of further strengthening the U.S.-Australia Alliance.

In Wellington,New Zealand, Deputy Secretary Sherman will meet with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Chris Seed, and other government officials. The Deputy Secretary will discuss the strong bilateral partnership between the United States and New Zealand and ongoing cooperation on a range of regional and global challenges.

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Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to Visit Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Australia, and New Zealand - United States Department of State -...

We are closing on to the group stage of women's T20 cricket at the ongoingCommonwealth Games 2022. In the 12th match of the mega event, New Zealand women and England women will take each other. Expect it to be a high-octane contest. NZ Women beat Sri Lanka by 45 runs to jump to top 2 in points table in Group A. The stars in that game for White Ferns were Hayley Jensen who finished with 3 wickets and batter Suzie Bates who smashed 34, the highest individual score in the game.

England, on the other hand, will be without their captain Heather Knight, who has been ruled out of the CWG as well as The Hundred due to a hip injury she picked up in the 1st match vs South Africa. England are Group B toppers at the moment and are favourites to beat NZ despite their captain missing. They beat SA by 26 runs in their last game. All-rounder Alice Capsey and Amy Jones are in good form and expect them to deliver the goods in this encounter as well.

Match Details

The England Women vs New Zealand Women Group A Commonwealth Games 2022 match will be played on Thursday (August 4).

The England Women vs New Zealand Women Group A Commonwealth Games 2022 match will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham.

The the England Women vs New Zealand Women Group A Commonwealth Games 2022 match will start at 10.30 PM IST.

The the England Women vs New Zealand Women Group A Commonwealth Games 2022 match will be available on Sony Six Network in India.

The the England Women vs New Zealand Women Group A Commonwealth Games 2022 match will be streamed live on SonyLiv website and app.

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ENG-W vs NZ-W Group A Commonwealth Games 2022 LIVE Streaming Details: When and Where to Watch England Women... - Zee News

Jo Palmer,Minister for Primary Industries and Water

While in New Zealand this week promoting Tasmanias world-class produce and building trade opportunities, I prioritised meeting with Stuart Anderson, Deputy-Director General for Biosecurity New Zealandand his key staff, to share and learn what we are both doing to protect our uniquely beautiful islands.

As islands heavily reliant on primary industry, New Zealand, like Tasmania, understands the importance of strong biosecurity.

Although New Zealand Parliament was sitting, I was very pleased that Damien OConnor, New Zealand Minister for Biosecurity, Agriculture and Trade and Export Growth, was also able to take time out from his busy schedule to join our meeting.

Foot and Mouth Disease was front and centre of discussions including current monitoring and surveillance operations, industry engagement and stakeholder management.

It was very pleasing to note the activities being implemented by New Zealand are aligned with Tasmania and I am confident we are doing our utmost to protect the industry.

Other issues discussed in our comprehensive meeting included Fruit Fly, Blueberry Rust and National Animal Identification systems, and community and stakeholder engagement around the shared responsibility of biosecurity.

With existing direct air and sea links, and more promising trade opportunities being realised, it is important we have strong collaboration with Biosecurity New Zealand.

With Tasmanias borders once again open to the world, the Tasmanian Liberal Government is taking action to grow and diversify our economic opportunities across the globe.

New Zealand is already one of our most important trading partners, with annual exports valued at over $100 million.

This trade mission is further identifying opportunities across key areas for our future economic growth including advanced manufacturing, defence, food, agribusiness, energy, tourism, and, of course, our world-class primary industries.

Trade missions are one of the best ways to boost sales for businesses, and there was a very strong response from businesses eager to be involved and showcase their products.

The trade mission is an initiative of our New Zealand Integrated Trade Strategy, which is a key part of meeting our overall international trade target of $15 billion by 2050.

More Media Releases from Jo Palmer

More Media Releases from the Minister for Primary Industries and Water

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Meeting with Biosecurity New Zealand to help further protect Tasmania - Premier of Tasmania

A 1912 report in the Rodney & Otamatea Times is being shared everywhere. Is it real, where did it come from, and why is it proving so popular?

On Wednesday August 14, in the winter of 1912, a reader of the Warkworth-based Rodney & Otamatea Times (incorporating the Waitemat & Kaipara Gazette) who had shelled out the thruppence for the newspaper and made it as far as the seventh of its eight pages, might have scanned their eye across to the third column and arrived at Science Notes and News, a collection of short items from around the world. Beneath snippets on a very deep hole in Germany, on nickel kitchen utensils, and on a new machine for skipping that not only turns the rope but records the number of skips, came a paragraph-long report that more than a century later has achieved a status the very description of which would have baffled its reader and writer alike. It has gone viral.

COAL CONSUMPTION AFFECTING CLIMATE, was the headline. The furnaces of the world are now burning about 2,000,000,000 tons of coal a year, it began. When this is burned, uniting with oxygen, it adds about 7,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly. This tends to make the air a more effective blanket for the earth and to raise its temperature. The effect may be considerable in a few centuries.

And that was it. Science Notes and News proceeded without pause to other matters of the day, such as a new tunnel in Russia and the qualities of asparagus in light of the awful odor which the use of this article of food causes in one of the bodily excretions.

But it was the succinct, matter-of-fact 1912 nugget on carbon and climate that survived, or was reborn, in the leadup to its 110th birthday, shared by tens of thousands and viewed by millions on social media in response to this:

British Conservative MP Chris Skidmore, who recently opposed a plan to open a new coal mine in Cumbria, joined the party.

They were not the first, however, to disinter the August 14, 1912 edition of the Rodney & Otamatea Times (incorporating the Waitemat & Kaipara Gazette). The same 67-word report circled the digital world in 2016, in 2018 and again in 2021.

The report is authentic, certainly, and has passed every fact-check examiner it has faced. You can read it yourself on New Zealands best website, Papers Past. But, sadly, it was not the work of an industrious Warkworth journalist. It had earlier appeared in both British and Australian titles. The entire page, in fact, was published four weeks earlier by the Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal in New South Wales: holes, tunnels, skipping machine, coal consumption, everything. Even the layout and typography is identical, suggesting the plate may have been shipped over the Tasman after they were done with it.

That version of the story has had its viral moments, too, albeit not on the scale of the Rodney & Otamatea Times. A 2016 Facebook post on the Dispatch and Journal report by the Braidwood Museum reached over 180,000 people, according to the Braidwood Times (the Dispatch folded in 1958). The most common comment has been Wow, a Braidwood Historical Society committee member told the paper.

Whether Braidwood, Rodney or wherever, the words of the item have since been traced by science writer Alex Kasprak back to Popular Mechanics magazine, then published out of Chicago, and its March 1912 edition, where they can be found in the caption to an image illustrating an article on the Remarkable weather of 1911.

Even by the remarkable-weather year of 1911, the central tenets of the climate science that endures today had been around for some while. In 1824, French mathematician Joseph Fourier crunched numbers that suggested our planet, given its distance from the sun, should be cooler, and posited the existence of a blanket-like layer in the atmosphere. In 1856, the American scientist Eunice Foote published a paperthat identified the predominant ingredient of that heat-absorbent blanket: carbon dioxide.

Given all that, why did the Rodney & Otamatea Times clipping catch the social media tide? It has the advantage of concision and clarity, sheeting crisply home just how long our species has known about global heating since long before the denialism and inaction became a talking point in keeping with the observation by Benjamin Franklin on the failures to address the dangers of lead despite six decades of evidence: You will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known and exist, before it is generally received and practised on. As for the Rodney masthead, the fact it emanates from a country largely isolated at the bottom of the world just emphasises that. And even when its not wholly true, the idea of New Zealand as a progressive pioneer prevails.

More prosaically, it may just be a matter of right time, right place and it seems it was a New Zealand group, the Sustainable Business Network, that first shared the report on social media, in 2016. Whether something goes viral on social media typically depends on factors like timing, novelty, irreverence or use of humour, the ease to share, public understanding of the message, etcetera, said Alex Beattie, a specialist in media and climate change based at the Centre for Science in Society, Victoria University of Wellington. But theres no exact science or proven formula.

If you look through news archives and scientific journals there are many of these warnings dating back to the 1800s, said Rebecca Priestley, a historian of climate change and associate professor at Victoria University of Wellington.

She joins the dots between one example from the Christchurch Press in 1957, headlined Threat From Melting Of Polar Ice Caps, and this weeks policy announcements in New Zealand. The Press report warns of global warming leading to sea level rise, said Priesley, but its only now, in 2022 when we can see and measure the effects of sea level rise, and make projections about what the next few decades will bring that were really starting to take sea level rise seriously and start planning for it with measures outlined in the just published National Adaptation Plan.

Priestley continued: When we see old news reports like this, its important that we dont just beat ourselves up for not responding to climate change sooner. These early warnings and hypotheses led to decades of scientific research that has provided us with evidence of why and how and how fast our global climate is changing. And that evidence is now clear. The first IPCC report was published in 1990, and the evidence for climate change has been getting stronger with every report.

The latest report, in April this year, came with a press release that read, The evidence is clear: the time for action is now. We can halve emissions by 2030, noted Priestley. But those of us encouraging change, and trying to enact change, are really aware that there are businesses, governments and individuals with such vested interests in the status quo that they are working against action on climate change.

Priestley, whose PhD is in the history of science, admitted to finding old news reports on climate change fascinating, but urged us to face the right way. The only thing we can change is the future. The climate is changing, the oceans are warming, the ice sheets are melting, but what happens next is not inevitable, its up to us, collectively, she said. We need to do everything we can to meet our Paris Agreement targets, because two degrees warming is not as bad as 3 degrees warming, and three degrees warming is not as bad as four degrees warming. And so on. As the Extinction Rebellion call says, the science is clear, our future is not.

As for the Rodney & Otamatea Times (incorporating the Waitemat & Kaipara Gazette), it was bought up by Fairfax in 2005 and today continues, as the abbreviated Rodney Times, published weekly on a Thursday. It noted its own moment in the social media spotlight back in 2016, remarking, half a tongue in cheek: The Rodney Times has always provided insightful content to readers. In fact, we even predicted climate change more than 100 years ago!

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The New Zealand news nugget circling the globe 110 years after publication - The Spinoff

Sport

3 Aug, 2022 07:40 PM4 minutes to read

Cheree Kinnear catches up with Newstalk ZB Sports reporter Kate Wells on the latest at the Commonwealth Games. Video / NZ Herald / Photosport

All the action from day six of the Commonwealth Games.

For the full schedule and results for all the New Zealand teams and athletes, click here.

For Android users click on this link.

A superb day for the New Zealand judo team with Kody Andrews leading a three medal haul with a silver in the men's 100kg event. He was pinned by Canada's Marc Deschenes early in the gold medal bout to lose by Ippon.

Moira De Villiers claimed bronze in the women's -78kg after defeating Ayuk Otay Arrey Sophina of Cameroon by Ippon with 28 seconds left. It's her second medal after winning silver in Glasgow eight years ago. She defeated fellow Kiwi Hayley Mackey in the quarter-finals, one of her students at the judo club she runs with husband Jason Koster in Christchurch. She was then defeated by England's Emma Reid in the semifinals. The bronze bout was a close thing but de Villiers kept her calm and got the win just at the end.

"Super special. It wasn't what I wanted but I'm still glad I was able to represent New Zealand and get us another medal. I just knew she would gas after a minute I just had to keep going and be a little bit of a dogfight. I'm ruthless on the ground so I knew I was going to get it," she told Sky Sport.

Gisborne's Sydnee Andrews also claimed bronze with the 19-year-old promising gold in four years' time after defeating Sarah Hawkes of Northern Ireland in their women's +78kg bronze bout.

Lewis Clareburt's quest for a third gold medal fell just short as he picked up a bronze to end his campaign.

The Kiwi finished third in the 200m individual medley final with Scotland's Duncan Scott taking the gold ahead of Tom Dean of England.

New Zealand will have another medal chance in the pool in Erika Fairweather, with the 18 year old qualifying fastest for the 400m freestyle final.

Fairweather hunted down Canadian Summer McIntosh in the final 50 metres of her heat, beating the 15-year-old silver medallist at this year's world championships by 0.09 seconds.

Fairweather finished sixth at the world champs earlier this year, and while she is proven to be a medal hopeful, McIntosh may have plenty in the tank for the final after a relatively slow heat.

The heat won was in 4.07.27, and while Fairweather's personal best of 4.02.28 suggests she has much more to give, McIntosh is one of two in the field who have gone under the four-minute mark.

The other is Australia's Ariarne Titmus, who swam a stunning world record time of 3.56.40 earlier this year, and cruised to victory in her heat in a comparatively glacial 4.08.25.

While Fairweather will likely need to set a personal best to oust Titmus and McIntosh in the final at 7.48am, a bronze medal is a realistic possibility if she performs near her best.

There will be two Kiwis in the final, with Eve Thomas' time of 4.11.50 good enough to qualify seventh.

New Zealand will win at least one judo medal after a productive morning at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Kody Andrews has qualified for the gold medal bout in the men's +100kg competition, where he will take on Marc Deschenes of Canada.

Andrews beat Dominic Dugasse of Seychelles in his quarter-final after receiving a bye in the round of 16, and then beat Sebastien Perrinne of Mauritius in the semifinal.

There are also chances for bronze medals from Moira de Villiers and Sydnee Andrews.

de Villiers beat fellow New Zealander Hayley Mackey in the quarter-finals in the women's 78kg category, of which there were only eight competitors entered.

She then was defeated in the semifinals but will be favoured to win bronze against Cameroonian repechage recipient Ayuk Otay Arrey Sophina.

Andrews earned a bye into the quarter-finals of the women's +78kg competition, where she was victorious before, like Koster, losing her semifinal.

She goes up against Northern Ireland's Sarah Hawkes in the bronze medal match.

Continue reading here:

Commonwealth Games 2022: All the New Zealand teams and athletes on day six - as it happened - New Zealand Herald

A New Zealand bar has been subject to backlash after posting a job advert which required any female candidates to have DD breasts.

The advert, stuck on to a window at Stumpers Bar & Cafe in the small West Coast town of Hokitika, has been dubbed sexist and disgusting by locals and social media users alike.

The sign read: Wanted: Part-time bar staff. Apply within. Must have double D breasts, a great smile and good attitude, the sign read, adding that men were also welcome to apply.

The shocking advert spread rapidly on social media and its contents split opinion, with some people trying to defend it as humourous, while others called it out as being sexist.

One man wrote on Twitter: Its clearly a joke to get attention. People need to chill.

While a woman quipped: See, if it said must have double D breasts, a great smile and a good attitude, but women can also apply that could almost be funny. This is just gross.

Another woman tweeted: Im only a single D, and also Id rather gouge my own eyes out with a rusty spoon than work anywhere that has an ad like that.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment told the NZ Herald that the ad was in breach of The Human Rights Act 1993, which prohibits publishing a job advertisement that could reasonably be understood as indicating an intention to discriminate.

Stumpers told the NZ Herald that they did not wish to comment. The Independent has approached Stumpers for comment.

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Must have double D breasts: New Zealand bar faces backlash for its sexist job advert - The Independent

Friday, 5 August 2022, 5:54 amPress Release: Federated Farmers

04 August

Many would say yes to a warming singlemalt whisky on one of these cold winter evenings - how aboutone made from purple wheat, black oats, or even blackbarley? Thats the offer from Southlands Auld FarmDistillery, awarded the Innovation title at tonights NewZealand Arable Awards sponsored by Rabobank in Christchurch.Rob and Toni Aulds enterprise - the couple also make arange of three gins from a base alcohol of oat, wheat, andbarley - is typical of the diversity, entrepreneurship andcommitment to quality being displayed so often in thenations arable sector. Auld Farm Distillery has achievedseveral world firsts with their products, and thats notuncommon from an arable sector that leads the world inseveral categories of the international seed market and hasset world records in wheat and barley yields. FederatedFarmers arable executive member David Birkett, who farms atLeeston, Canterbury, was named Arable Farmer of the Year.Davids citation noted he was a recognised leader inenvironmental/sustainable farming, with a focus on improvingsoil quality. He is open to trialling any approach to reducesynthetic inputs, such as biological products, cover crops,retaining straw etc, and is always willing to share hisknowledge and resultsgood or bad. The immediate pastnational Vice-President of Federated Farmers Karen Williams,and husband Mick, won the Environment & SustainabilityAward. The 2022 Food Champion is Angela Clifford, apassionate advocate for the arable industry. She formed theorganisation EatNZ, and through this, she promotes NZgrown/produced food. Angela set up the EatNZ grain food hui,where NZ grain growers have been able to talk about thegrain-based food products they produce and showcase them infront of an audience of chefs and food critics. FederatedFarmers twice had to expand plans and venue arrangements forthe awards as ticket demand grew and eventually had to becapped just shy of 400. Feds and other arable groups haveheld awards before, but this was the inaugural combinedevent backed by Federated Farmers, the Foundation for ArableResearch, United Wheatgrowers and the Grain & Seed TradeAssociation. Feds Arable Chair Colin Hurst said he wasabsolutely delighted with the high calibre of the 80nominations, and by the keenness of growers, food processorsand industry players to celebrate the best of their sector.The full list of 2022 Arable Award winners, with awardsponsors in brackets, is: Agronomist of the Year RogerLasham, Ashburton ( TheNew Zealand Grain & Seed Trade Association (NZGSTA)) Grower of the Year - Grain David & Anna Irving fromLanark Downs, South Canterbury. ( Bayer) Grower of theYear - Small Seed Hamish Marr, Methven. ( PGG WrightsonSeeds) Grower of the Year - Maize Chris Pellow PellowProduce, Waikato. ( Pioneer)Emerging Talent Award, Lauren Beattie, Rakaia, SouthCanterbury (BallanceAgri-Nutrients) Environment & Sustainability Karen &Mick Williams Ahiaruhe Farm, Wairarapa. ( MPI, Ministry for PrimaryIndustries) Arable Farmer of the Year David Birkett fromBirkett Farming, Leeston. ( FederatedFarmers ) Innovation Rob and Toni Auld from AuldDistillery, Southland. ( FAR(Foundation of Arable Research)) Arable Food ChampionAngela Clifford Eat New Zealand. ( Countdown) Notes forjournalists Fullmedia release with photographs here The Total productionfrom the arable sector in 2021 was 2.3 million tonnes. Thiswas a 31 per cent increase from 2018 when total arableproduction was 1.8 million tonnes. Total grain and pulseproduction of 2.2 million tonnes was a 30 per cent increasefrom 2018. Meanwhile, seeds for sowing production grew by 40percent from 58,268 tonnes in 2018 to 81,470 tonnes in 2021.In 2021 the arable sector directly produced crops worth $1billion. These sales went upstream of the arable sector andcreated total sales of all goods and services of $2.2billion. These total sales were equivalent to a contributionof $932 million to New Zealands gross domestic product(GDP). This has seen the arable sector increase itscontribution to GDP from 0.3 percent of national GDP to 0.34percent. The contribution to GDP is sufficient to support7,687 full-time equivalent employees(FTEs).

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Whisky In The Jar At New Zealand's Arable Awards | Scoop News - Scoop

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Global risk sentiment continues to recover and this is aiding the New Zealand Dollar, say analysts.

Those bellwethers of global investor sentiment, the S&P500 and Nasdaq equity indices, registered strong gains overnight rising by 1.6% and 2.6% respectively.

"The Australian and New Zealand dollars are benefitting from the ongoing rebound in global equity markets that extended further overnight," says Lee Hardman, Currency Analyst at MUFG.

The New Zealand Dollar is a pro-cyclical and 'risk on' currency that tends to advance when investor optimism is improving and global equity markets are rising.

This is particularly the case when there is a Chinese element to the drivers behind that improved sentiment, given New Zealand and Australia's close ties to the world second largest economy.

That China's bellicose response to Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit has culminated in 'war games' around Taiwan is offering some relief, with investors fretting earlier in the week that the response could have been more severe.

"The top performing G10 currencies have been the high beta commodity currencies of the Australian and New Zealand dollars as they continue to reverse losses from earlier in the week that were driven by the flare up in geopolitical tensions between the US and China over Taiwan," says Hardman.

Above: GBP/NZD (top) and USD/NZD (bottom) at daily intervals.

The New Zealand Dollar rose two-thirds of a percent against the U.S. Dollar Thursday, taking NZD/USD to 0.63 at the time of writing.

The Pound to New Zealand Dollar exchange rate (GBP/NZD) fell 0.45% Wednesday and is lower a further 0.15% Thursday at 1.9316. This takes rates on bank accounts to ~1.8770 for Kiwi payments and ~1.9253 at independent payment specialists.

Further improvements in investor sentiment came from U.S. data that confirmed the U.S. economy is growing, despite a wall of worries that include rising local interest rates.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Services PMI confounded market expectations by rising for the month of July in contrast to the alternative barometer compiled by S&P Global.

The headline rose from 55.3 to 56.7, aided by sharp increases in new orders and overall business activity within the U.S. economy's largest and most important sector.

"The tentative improvement in global investor risk sentiment was supported by the release yesterday of the ISM services survey for July," says Hardman.

Looking ahead, should investor sentiment continue its modest improvement the New Zealand Dollar and its Australian cousin would also be expected to see further gains.

The outlook remains challenging however, not least because the U.S. Federal Reserve is showing little inclination to end its interest rate hiking cycle.

The Fed will continue to force a slowdown in the U.S. economy until it is convinced it has turned the tide on inflation.

The reduction in global liquidity resulting from higher interest rates would in turn be expected to weigh on global economic activity.

Therefore bouts of weakness in markets and downturns in sentiment remain possible, which could pressure the high beta New Zealand Dollar.

Domestically, economists remain concerned the New Zealand economy could slowdown sharply over coming months.

"A dismal growth outlook as hard landing risks rise adds to the challenging external backdrop facing New Zealand," says HSBC, the international investment bank and lender.

The latest assessment of the outlook for the New Zealand economy leads HSBC's foreign exchange research team to lower their New Zealand Dollar forecasts and maintain a cautious stance on the currency.

"We have been bearish on the NZD for some time as persistent geopolitical tensions, global supply disruptions, a slowing Chinese economy, and a hawkish Fed painted a challenging backdrop for the risk sensitive currency," says Paul Mackel, Head of FX Research at HSBC.

In a mid-year currency market assessment Mackel adds "Domestic growth concerns are now becoming more prevalent at a time when the RBNZ is hiking further and faster to re-anchor inflation expectations."

Further interest rate hikes are meanwhile expected from the RBNZ as HSBC economists say inflation is still yet to show any signs of easing and inflation expectations continuing to climb higher.

However, this dynamic is no longer anticipated by HSBC's currency analysts to provide outright support for the NZ Dollar.

"Further RBNZ hikes will struggle to lift the NZD given how much is already priced in and the dominance of risk over relative rates".

HSBC remains bearish on the NZ Dollar and lower their NZD/USD forecasts to 0.58 by the end of the fourth quarter of 2022 and 0.57 by the end of the second quarter of 2023.

HSBC's forecasts for the GBP/USD exchange rate for these points are 1.17 and 1.16, this implies a Pound to New Zealand Dollar forecast of 2.0172 and 2.030.

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New Zealand Dollar and Aussie Outperform on Improved Sentiment - Pound Sterling Live

Brook Sabin/Stuff

The reaction after my form shut down and I had to follow the two-step process to get back in.

Brook Sabin is a travel reporter for Stuff.

OPINION: "Please allow 40 minutes to complete this form." I'm sitting in Australia trying to get permission to enter my own country through a process that feels like formageddon.

Before boarding a flight to Aotearoa, you must have a New Zealand Traveller Pass which is obtained through filling in a multi-step Covid form known as the New Zealand Traveller Declaration.

I'm warned at the start that I need to provide accurate information or I could be unable to board.

Many countries introduced such measures as borders first opened up, primarily to keep track of pre-departure tests and vaccination status.

READ MORE:* The new rules for travel to Australia: What Kiwis can expect * Travelling to New Zealand? Here's what you need to do before you arrive* Overseas travel: How to visit popular destinations open to Kiwi travellers

1 NEWS

As international travel is back on the cards for many, Kiwi travellers are reporting different pre-departure test experiences.

However, you no longer require a pre-departure test to enter New Zealand. And Kiwis can enter their own country without needing a vaccination pass. So, requiring New Zealanders to fill out this form is bureaucratic nonsense.

After making a couple of trips to Australia, everyone I spoke to seemed annoyed by the process. Even the check-in agent said, "I'm surprised they make you do this to get into your own country." The most significant problem people raised, aside from it being a waste of time, was the elderly who struggle with things like connecting their phone to wi-fi, let alone filling out online declarations.

Screenshot

The New Zealand Traveller Declaration must be filled in by everyone entering New Zealand by air.

The first time I filled out the form, it took about 25 minutes because I skim-read everything. The second time I skipped all the text, and it took 14. But for someone reading it all, and collecting all the documents, I can see why they warn about 40 minutes.

I twice managed to accidentally exit my form, only to be told that I had a seven-digit reference number waiting for me in my emails to help me get back in. Once I'd entered that, another email was sent to me with a temporary code.

Some older people struggle with phones and apps. I can only imagine the difficulty of copying codes in the email app, and then heading back to the internet browser to put them in.

The form requires passport details, "proof of vaccination, if required", a 14-day travel history, flight details, emergency contact details, your contact details, and an email address.

But, hang on. New Zealanders dont need a vaccine certificate or pre-departure test to enter, so the only helpful information is a 14-day travel history.

However, the three-page customs form you fill out on the plane collects precisely that. In fact, it asks for a 30-day travel history.

The form is arguably justified for overseas tourists if we want to continue asking them to provide a vaccine certificate to enter the country. (Or perhaps, like Australia, we should lift all Covid entry restrictions.)

After arriving in New Zealand, you must take a RAT test on day zero and day five or six. If any of these are positive, you then need to get a PCR test. Surely, if the point of the form is to track new variants of Covid, this is the time we collect all the information at the point of being positive.

When Aucklanders were finally released from their Delta lockdown of late 2021, they didn't need a form to travel to the South Island. Of course not; they're Kiwis.

But, we're making Kiwis fill one out to get home. It's time we followed Australia, and much of the world, and put that in the Covid-19 bin.

It was so liberating flying to Australia without Covid bureaucracy. I cant say the same for coming home.

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Is it time to ditch the New Zealand Traveller Declaration? - Stuff

The moon makes the tide go in and out at every beach in New Zealand, bar one. But to understand Oteranga Bay, you have to understand the rest of the tides too. Chris Hyde reports.

Fun fact: On a stretch of the southwest coast of Norway there are no tides. The locals build properties right down to the shoreline, and even over it, because the sea doesn't move in and out. It's what's known as an amphidromic point.

A second fun fact for the day: Some say there is another amphidromic point on the other side of the globe. That point is known as New Zealand.

I was confused as well because I was pretty certain we have tides so I asked around. Few knew what I was going on about.

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But those who did were able to help connect the puzzle pieces of what is surely one of nature's most intriguing pieces of water the moana around Aotearoa.

In te ao Mori, the incoming and outgoing tides are the inhale and exhale of a taniwha by the name of Te Parata.

The taniwha, who was encountered in Moana-nui--Kiwa by some of the first voyagers from Hawaiki, is not to be angered, for obvious reasons.

Bill Kearns/Stuff

A high tide at Haumoana in Hawkes Bay in 2006.

Te Parata's powers represent the gravitational pull of the moon, which plays a huge part in our tides and all tides. So too, to a lesser extent, does the pull of the sun and the curvature of the Earth.

But our oceans are far more complicated than just a bunch of liquid being pulled one way or another by the gravity fields of rocks and balls of gas in the sky.

You can thank the coriolis effect that drives our weather for the extra confusion.

Think of the oceans not as if they're giant ponds of water in the traditional sense, but instead as a collection of really deep glasses of water.

These glasses of water aren't sitting on the surface of the earth like it's a table.

Uncredited/AP

The coriolis effect, which causes hurricanes and tropical cyclones to swirl, also makes our oceans slowly turn and creates amphidromic points with no tides, the equivalent of a hurricanes eye.

Because of the coriolis effect - read more on that here if you like - it's as if the glasses are being swirled and sloshed around like giant calm hurricanes, or a tropical cyclone if you're in the Southern Hemisphere.

At the edge of these glasses the water level changes from high, and then back low, as it's spun around.

These are places with large tides.

But in the middle of the glasses, the water level stays stable, even as other all points around it rise and fall. These are amphidromic points, where there are no tides.

Simon Williams/Unsplash

In parts of the southwestern coast of Norway, builders know the tide won't come in much, if at all.

I'm guessing that before you clicked on this article you hadn't heard of many places that had no tides, right? So amphidromic points must be rare too?

Not really.

They exist in every ocean on the planet, and it's possible to have several in a single ocean. Roughly five exist in the Pacific alone.

But to have one that actually intersects with land is rarer.

And one of those landforms, like Norway, that keeps getting name-dropped in science books, in reports, and even in viral Tik Toks about places with no tide, is little ol' New Zealand.

Clearly Aotearoa does have tides, and some rather large ones on a world scale, especially on its western coastlines.

Unlike Norway, the exact middle of New Zealand's amphidromic point, if it even was a true one, would be somewhere inland, not right on the shoreline.

So instead of our beaches being in the middle of the glass of water, theyre actually sitting somewhere between the middle and the edge of the glass, hence, tides.

Which leaves the question of where on land the amphidromic point would be located. The answer is that it is impossible to pinpoint. It would change.

That's because, as Niwa tidal scientist Glen Reeve notes, despite the literature that keeps including us in the amphidromic point conversation, we're not actually one in the truest sense of the science.

R Ray/NASA

A map of the world's amphidromic points. They are shown as the points where the white lines meet. Most are surrounded by dark blue, indicating low or no tides.

Its a shame, but you cannot say for certain that either Ashburton or Levin is the metaphorical plughole of New Zealand.

What is true though is that our tidal pattern makes us look like an amphidromic point because it propagates or swirls around the country very close to every 12 hours.

Bizarrely it does so anticlockwise, completely contradicting the coriolis effect. That's right, our tides are as weird as a tropical cyclone hitting New Orleans.

It's actually offshore amphidromic points that are to blame for this. There's two of them around us in the Pacific Ocean, one to the northwest of us and one to the southeast, that pull the sea in such a way that it has no choice but to go against its natural instincts and travel anticlockwise around us.

When you combine that with a country that's far from immune to being shaken and stirred by severe weather, it's no wonder we get some strange happenings out there in the blue.

As well as being head-scratchingly fun science, our odd tides translate into some fascinating real-world effects.

Auckland is one example. Manukau Harbour and Waitemat Harbour are no more than three or four kilometres apart in some places, yet have tides that are almost 180 degree opposites.

Abigail Dougherty/Stuff

When its high tide in Waitemata Harbour, its low tide in Manukau.

The tide literally has to travel from Auckland around Cape Reinga to reach Manukau Harbour a journey that takes it hours.

Travel further south and there's an even more dramatic tidal effect in the gap between the North and South Islands.

In the infamous Cook Strait, when one side of it is at high tide, the other is at low tide.

It means there's a bunch of water in the middle that needs to rush to fill a void that is up to 2 metres lower on one side.

This happens every time things change a smidgeon, and if there's one thing tides are always doing, it's changing.

It's why the currents in the strait are so strong and so complex.

Just ask anyone who's tried to swim it one minute they're speeding towards the shore, the next the tide has changed, and they're moving backwards.

These currents are then amplified further in parts of the Marlborough Sounds.

The channel separating D'Urbanville Island from the South Island, known as Te Aumiti/French Pass is the finest example.

It's the strongest tidal current in New Zealand, water moving an astonishing four metres per second at its fastest point.

Lloyd Homer/GNS Science

The tide at French Pass is the strongest in New Zealand.

Craig Aston, who's lived beside it and fished it his whole life, says the tidal currents are so strong because of the narrow width of it, and the shallow and uneven depth of the pass.

When the tide changes, the power of it can effectively kill a fish.

Aston says their death is a ruthless one that the tides themselves don't carry out, but do facilitate by rendering fish unable to swim.

What happens is fish get caught in one of the updrafts and their air bladders blow, Aston said.

That's a point of no return for them because they'll sit at the top of the tidal updraft, and they can't get down again because their bladder's blown. Then the seagulls come and peck their eyes out.

Aston says it's a particularly common demise for John Dory, and their carcasses commonly wash up on the surrounding coast.

With the massive tidal power comes powerful eddies, fatal to a group of divers just over 20 years ago.

Aston found out their true power first-hand several years ago when he tied a rope to a bloated cow carcass that had washed up on the beach, aiming to drag it in his boat to a more palatable place to dispose it.

"A whirlpool just grabbed hold of it and pulled it under, snapped the rope, and that was the last of that."

ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff

Kaikura has smaller tides because the sun only barely has an effect on it.

The reality is that there is no dream beach that will always have its sand uncovered waiting for you to sunbathe on it.

But there are parts of New Zealand that are degenerated or virtual amphidromes because they don't experience certain types of tides.

Near the Chatham Islands, there is a solar amphidrome - a place where the sun's gravitational pull has no effect on the tide.

This then impacts entire east coast of New Zealand - and probably in a good way too given the potential worries ahead with climate change - reducing neap or spring tides and making the east's overall tidal changes generally lower than the west.

Kaikura's the best example of this on the mainland. Its spring tides are an almost non-existent two to three centimetres.

Tides influenced by the moon are what affect New Zealands coast the most.

But at Oteranga Bay, on the southwest coast of Wellington facing Cook Strait, Niwa has measured the lunar tide as zero.

Reeve says Oteranga Bay is a "degenerated" or "virtual" lunar amphidrome that is unique to Aotearoa, generated by the collision course that is Cook Strait rather than the swirling coriolis effect of most amphidromes.

Because lunar tides are so influential, this is also the place in New Zealand that has been measured as having the smallest overall tide in the country.

But if you take a trip out to the isolated spot, which entirely coincidentally is the landing point of the Cook Strait cable, you will still find yourself at a beach where the tide goes in and out.

The other tides take over.

Transpower general manager of grid delivery Mark Ryall says crews in charge of maintaining the cable still have to take the tides into consideration when deciding the best time to send a boat out.

Though it can be sheltered on a good day, it's a place far removed from the calm and tideless fjords of Norway.

Perhaps the main lesson of all of this is actually really simple: Don't go chasing amphidromes.

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Explained: The New Zealand beach where the moon doesn't move the sea - Stuff