Category Archives: New Zealand

OneRoof: The most expensive places to live in New Zealand revealed. Video / OneRoof

Auckland's Cremorne St may as well be paved in gold.

The coastal road in Herne Bay has been revealed as New Zealand's most expensive street with its mega-mansions worth an average $13 million each.

That's according to the latest Auckland Council capital value valuations released this month.

It means that while Cremorne St is tiny - just 150m or a two-minute stroll long its 13 luxury homes have a combined council valuation of $182m, analysts Valocity found.

The Rise in St Heliers in Auckland's inner-east, meanwhile, is the nation's second most expensive street, when ranked by the average CV of each of its houses.

Its mega-mansions many of which boast gorgeous clifftop views towards Rangitoto are worth an average $9.2m.

The combined CV of all homes on the street is $119m.

Incredibly, the nation's most expensive home is worth almost half the value of all those homes on The Rise combined.

The rkei home of China-born meat exporter Deyi Shi, known to his friends as Stone, has a new Auckland Council CV of $58m.

That is $20m more than the $38.5m Shi paid to buy the mansion in 2013.

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James Wilson, from valuation and property analysts Valocity, said Auckland's most expensive streets had earned their exclusive reputations over decades.

"So I'm not entirely surprised to see which streets are rating the highest," he said.

What was more surprising in the recent Auckland Council valuations was the significant jump in value of some streets outside of the city's traditionally exclusive enclaves, he said.

That was due to recently land rezoning.

It meant some streets with homes on large blocks of land in locations previously not as exclusive were now among the city's more expensive addresses because of their potential to be redeveloped, Wilson said.

CVs involve Auckland Council estimating the value of every residential and commercial property in the region every three years.

They give Kiwis a chance to get rough estimates of the value of property around Auckland and the rest of the nation when combined with data from other councils.

Cremorne St's status as the nation's most expensive street by average CV is partly due to the stunning mega-mansion owned by Simon and Paula Herbert.

In 2018, the couple were involved in what was described as a residential property record for New Zealand in which they bought and sold homes worth nearly $60m.

That involved investor and specialist marina developer Herbert and his wife selling one of Auckland's most stately mansions on Remuera Rd for $25m and then buying their Cremorne house for close to $30m.

Their three-storey modernist Cremorne house sits on the waterfront and boasts a rare residential helipad and was recently valued at $30m by Auckland Council.

The Herberts' home, along with other mega-mansions valued between $14m and $18m along Cremorne St, helped drag up its average house price.

But not every home is quite so expensive.

The Cremorne St house with the cheapest CV is valued at just $5m a steal for any millionaire hoping to buy on the street.

After Cremorne and The Rise in St Heliers, Garden Rd in Remuera is the nation's third most expensive street by average CV.

Luxury homes on Garden Rd have an average CV of $8.6m, while the combined value of all homes on the street is $112m.

In terms of the New Zealand street with the highest combined value of homes, data by property experts OneRoof and Valocity last year found the title went to Remuera Rd in Remuera.

Just on that road alone is $2 billion worth of luxury homes, the data found.

While Stone Shi's rkei home on Huriaro Pl is the nation's most expensive at $58m, it is classified by Auckland Council as being a home and a place of income.

The most expensive home classified as purely a place of residence is the Riddell Rd mega-mansion in Glendowie owned by New Zealand's richest man and billionaire Graeme Hart and his wife, Robyn.

Their home now has a $41m CV.

However, as recently reported by the Herald, the couple have gradually bought up surrounding properties to make an extended family compound with several driveway entrances.

Collectively the properties are now valued at more than $102m.

Queenstown's Pinnacle Pl is the most expensive street outside of Auckland.

Its luxury homes have an average CV of $7.2m and feature a number of ultra-modern properties boasting stunning views over Queenstown's mountains and Lake Wakatipu.

The combined value of homes along the street is $36m.

Butavas St in Wellington's Khandallah was the next most expensive, with homes having an average $4.9m CV and a combined value of $44m.

A stunning lodge in Helena Bay near Whangrei valued at $38.5m and a Queenstown escape on Buchanan rise in Glendhu Bay valued at $21.8m are the two most expensive homes outside Auckland.

Both homes are listed as lifestyle properties by the respective councils, however.

That means the most expensive home outside Auckland that is listed as purely a residential dwelling is a $16m mansion on Tauranga's Marine Pde, according to Valocity.

Excerpt from:

Streets of Gold: New Zealand's most expensive streets - New Zealand Herald

Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images

Dillon Boucher became the new chief executive of Basketball New Zealand last year.

Dillon Boucher has been a standout figure in New Zealand basketball for almost three decades.

The Taranaki-born 46-year-old was a founder player with the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian NBL, played for Perth and Brisbane before returning to the Auckland-based franchise to be part of their three-peat title-winning teams.

No one has played more NZ NBL games than the small forward, who made his living via his defensive skills and court smarts and was part of the Tall Blacks team which finished fourth at the 2002 world champs.

Te Kea

More than 20 basketball hoops have been donated to schools in South Auckland in a move to increase participation in the sport.Basketball New Zealand officially opened the first of these hoops, at Hmai School in Manurewa, in May 2018.

He spent three years as the Breakers general manager and became Basketball New Zealands chief executive last September.

Lets bounce some Back Chat at him.

Whats tougher being a player or an administrator?:

When youre on the court you can be fully controlling of your own abilities. Now its about being able to get everyone together and on the same page is the challenge. Off-the-court is more of a challenge, but I really love it it gives me an opportunity to grow the sport in NZ, to help the sport really flourish.

There were big expectations of the NZ Breakers when they first began, but the franchise struggled for years:

It was a real punch in the face.

We had a good team, all the things on paper looked like we could be successful in that league. But probably only half the team had been professional before we got a real fast lesson of how professional basketball in Australia was.

Stuff

Dillon Boucher, right, with Pero Cameron during the debut season of the NZ Breakers.

It took the Breakers quite a few years to work that out and how to develop a winning culture. It was really tough.

The biggest thing to remember was every failure gave the club an opportunity to see a reason why they failed. That was really important to get to the winning years.

What was the major problem?:

Back in those days, we really struggled to win away games.

We would often talk about how hard the travel was, and the more you talk about how hard it is, the more its planted in your head. So psychologically, before you even go into a game, youre not beaten already but youre already thinking that its hard.

In those years that we were successful, we made a vow as a group we would never talk about how hard it was if it was a trip to Perth, or multiple locations in Aus and double-headers, we wouldn't talk about how fatiguing travel was.

Jason Oxenham/Stuff

Dillon Boucher, far right, celebrates another Breakers win during the franchise's glory years.

That mental shift was a huge factor in us becoming successful.

There were some dire times, and the club was really searching for answers on and off the court.

How did things turn around?:

When the Blackwells [Paul and Liz] became owners, the built a family culture, but also every year they tried to build another piece to the puzzle.

They werent trying to win it straight away. Every year they werent buying a team that could win it, they were building pieces.

If you got a chance to have your playing career again, would you have become a player who could shoot threes?:

My kids at the moment are deciding whether to go to college [in the US] or not.

When I came out of high school, I chose not to go to the States and I dont regret not going, but I always asked myself what player would I become had I gone.

If I was a better shooter, would all the other things I brought to the table be as good as what they were? Its probably a bad analogy but if someones blind, their other senses are heightened.

Its funny because the advice I give every kid is to be a good shooter. Its really hard to survive in todays game without being able to knock a shot down.

See the rest here:

Back Chat: New Zealand basketball star Dillon Boucher on Breakers and business - Stuff

Genesis is replacing thermal baseload at Huntly with new renewable generation - a mix of wind and solar. Photo / File

OPINION:

The results of Genesis' annual Energy Survey make sobering reading. New Zealanders are less optimistic about reaching the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050, less sure how to get there, and less certain about the timeframe for a move to totally renewable electricity generation.

This lack of belief in the county's ability to meet its goals is perhaps reflective of the mood of uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and its effect on energy supplies and prices.

Perhaps most worrying in our survey of 1000 people, fewer believe climate change will have an impact on the way they live and work over the next 10 years. The 58 per cent who do was down 10 per cent on last year; the 32 per cent who think climate change will have almost no impact on their lives was up 3 per cent.

Are people giving up? Burying their heads in the sand? I hope not, because the electricity industry is doing a great deal to address climate change. It may be up to us, in partnership with Government, to restore New Zealanders' faith in the country's progress to a low-carbon future.

The Ukraine war's effect on energy supplies and prices has focused many countries on the need for energy independence. Renewable energy enables more energy independence, so rather than the war causing a reversal of the climate change agenda as some commentators are suggesting, I believe we'll see an increasing alignment of geopolitical energy dynamics with the climate change agenda as more nations seek energy independence.

New Zealand is better placed than most to not only be energy independent, but for nearly all our electricity to be renewable. Our analysis of future market scenarios show that by 2030, the existing pipeline of projects will lift New Zealand from about 85 per cent renewable electricity generation to the lofty heights of 96-98 per cent a remarkable achievement of investment, risk, planning, logistics and flexibility.

Genesis is contributing to this transition by replacing thermal baseload at Huntly with new renewable generation a mix of wind and solar. This Future-gen strategy, as we call it, will result in the removal of 1.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year by 2030.

Coal burn is declining rapidly as new renewable generation comes online, and soon we'll run a biomass trial at Huntly to see if we could one day replace coal entirely as a back up to weather-dependant renewable generation. We're challenging ourselves to think about other changes we can make to our business as the country aims to be net zero by 2050.

This includes diversifying our generation portfolio with investment in grid scale solar and innovating to provide our customers with insights and information to tackle their business and household emissions.

Our county's highly renewable electricity system gives us the unique opportunity to use it to decarbonise the rest of NZ Inc to help other industries switch from coal and gas to clean electricity for process heat, and support the move away from petrol and diesel-powered vehicles to EVs.

When 26 per cent of New Zealand's emissions come from industrial process heat, and 21 per cent from transport, compared to only 5 per cent from electricity generation, it makes sense to spread our resource where it's most useful, while maintaining its reliability.

Although it's highly likely we'll get to 98 per cent renewable electricity, getting higher than that with existing technologies will be hard and expensive. At a certain point, the new wind and solar generation starts displacing hydro, the lakes spill more often, and our relatively low lake storage means we still need back-up for the system to ensure it remains reliable and low cost as well as low carbon what we call the energy trilemma.

Reliability is increasingly important, as highlighted by our survey respondents; 49 per cent of those surveyed (up 5 per cent from last year) named reliability their second most important consideration after price. A further 35 per cent said reliability was the most important factor in their electricity supply, with price second.

Perhaps this is in response to the uncertain times brought on by Covid-19 and the Ukraine conflict, the number of people working from home, and the unexpected power outage last August.

People's need for reliability reinforced for us the importance of back-up generation in New Zealand's highly renewable electricity system. Huntly will continue to play a key role in providing crucial back-up through the renewable transition, whether by burning biomass or coal, though in far smaller quantities than today.

Like our navigation through Covid-19, the road to carbon zero will be a marathon, not a sprint, and it will take all of us to deliver that outcome for New Zealand. In the past year, confidence that we'll reach that goal has dropped from 68 per cent to 46 per cent.

Those who think reaching that goal "not likely at all" increased by 8 per cent, and those unsure also increased by the same amount. That uncertainty presents an opportunity for industries like ours, in partnership with Government, to reassure New Zealanders that yes, we can reduce the country's emissions, and provide tools to help.

We look forward to the Government's release of the Emissions Reduction Plan in May and the sector working together on a National Energy Strategy to create the momentum the country needs.

New Zealand can lead the world in showing how a highly renewable electricity sector can help decarbonise the country's energy system as a whole, remain secure, and provide energy independence.

Marc England is the chief executive of Genesis Energy.

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Energy independence within New Zealand's grasp - Genesis CEO - New Zealand Herald

Monday, 28 March 2022, 10:39 amPress Release: Meat Industry Association

Current strong export returns for New Zealand red meatface pressure in the coming months due to labour shortagesand supply chain disruption, says the Meat IndustryAssociation (MIA).

The industry exported productsworth $1.1 billion during February 2022, with increases invalue to all major markets.

Sirma Karapeeva, chiefexecutive of MIA, said current strong meat prices werecompensating for a drop in the volume of exports, withsheepmeat volumes down 11 per cent and beef down seven percent compared to February 2021.

Absenteeism inprocessing plants due to staff having to isolate during theCOVID-19 pandemic is adding to the pressure on our industry,which is already dealing with a significant labour shortageand ongoing global logistics challenges.

While theimpact of labour shortages in the industry is not yetshowing up in the headline export data, they are starting toaffect exports of specific products.

For example,while offal prices are still high, the volume of offalexported in February was down around 35 per cent compared toFebruary exports in the previous six years, indicating thatthere arent the staff available to process every part ofthe carcass and companies are not able to maximise the valueof each carcass that is processed.

The supply chainissues are reflected in the drop in volumes of chilledsheepmeat, with more exporters opting to send frozen productto markets. Chilled sheepmeat exports were down 18 per centcompared to last February, with the largest drop to the UK,which was down 52 per cent.

This drop in chilledmeat exports impacts our ability to capture greater marketvalue from our products. Chilled meat is a sophisticatedvalue-add product backed by sophisticated processing andinnovation. However, the supply chain disruption means thatwe cant extract the maximum value because frozen productsoften attract a lower price point.

The overallvalue of exports to China increased by four per cent to$406m during February, the United States was up 34 per centto $238m and the UK 28 per cent to $66m.

The value ofsheepmeat exports was up by 13 per cent to $475m and beef by34 per cent to $460m. Co-products continued to perform well,with exports worth $172m, an increase of 16 percent.

Chilled beef exports held up better thansheepmeat, with the volume exported lifting slightly, by oneper cent. There was a 10 per cent drop in the volume ofoverall beef exports to China, to 17,938 tonnes, butFebruary 2021 was a record month and the overall volumeswere still historically veryhigh.

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New Zealand Red Meat Exports Top $1 Billion In February But Pressure Mounting On Sector - Scoop

Seeing the things I do on a daily basis, its dismaying to be told New Zealand isnt experiencing a healthcare crisis, writes emergency medicine specialist Dr Scott Orman.

I know Im not the only frontline health worker to be utterly baffled and disheartened by the denials from officials, including the director general of health, that there is a crisis in our healthcare system.

The fact is, we are in the middle of an utterly unprecedented healthcare workforce crisis in New Zealand, and while the current government focus is mainly on Covid, the emergency situation we are facing predates the pandemic by some years.

Covid-19 is simply the latest boot in the ribs.

For many years demand on the healthcare system has been increasing. The population is getting larger, living longer, and has greater complexity of illness. Demand on acute systems is increasing out of proportion to population growth. Many medical treatments are becoming better, but they are also becoming more expensive. Meanwhile, healthcare funding has increased with time but it has not been adequate to keep up with increasing demand. These issues have been occurring for years, and cannot be attributed to a single political party or government.

On the clinical frontline, long-term deficiencies in funding, investment and planning have led to ever-increasing deficits in necessary staffing levels, and healthcare being delivered in facilities that are frequently no longer fit for purpose.

In my practice setting in emergency medicine the crisis takes many forms, and Im aware that the problems are the same nationwide. Patients marooned in ambulances for hours because they are unable to access a staffed clinical space in the hospital. Patients lying on beds in corridors with untreated pain and no staff available to assist them. Delays in assessment by medical staff and nursing staff that grossly exceed expected standards. Patients stuck in the emergency department because there are no staffed beds available on the hospital wards. Mental health patients waiting up to three days in the emergency department for staffed inpatient beds to become available.

The risk to patients is extreme.

I am sure every other acute service in the healthcare system has its own equivalent markers of chronic system failure. Many team members in the healthcare sector feel burnt out, mistrustful, disillusioned, undervalued, and are struggling to deal with the moral injury of being unable to deliver safe care to their patients. This is clearly shown in the rolling wave of healthcare strikes that have occurred in recent years.

The problems described above are not new. They developed well before Covid-19 arrived in New Zealand.

The pandemic has placed further strain on an already struggling system. Delivering healthcare with Covid-19 has become even harder, more stressful, and more complex. Many staff have decided enough is enough and have resigned, with the result being further stress on those who remain. Nursing staffing shortfalls in particular are extreme. New Zealand has traditionally had a huge reliance on overseas-trained healthcare workers, and the inexplicable and inexcusable failure to prioritise and maintain the inflow of overseas healthcare workers when the borders closed in 2020 has hit the health sector hard.

The system is currently staying afloat through the desperate triage manoeuvre of cancelling a huge amount of planned care. This is absolutely necessary, but is not sustainable. Even with reductions in planned care the healthcare workforce is currently struggling to manage the combination of Covid-19 and business as usual.

While there will no doubt be a lot of well-deserved congratulatory back-patting when the omicron surge passes, the hardest times may yet be still to come. Covid-19 is not going to go away. We will have to live with it, and find ways to deliver healthcare with the threat of further surges still lurking around every corner. It is hard to see how the system will be able to safely reinstate the cancelled elements of healthcare with the current workforce limitations. Frontline staff are acutely aware of this, and there is a widespread perception that there is not a lot of light at the end of the tunnel.

Contrary to Ministry of Health messaging that suggests ICU beds are the only measure of capacity that matters, disruption to general healthcare is likely to be where the biggest risk to the New Zealand public lies going forward. For every person who dies of Covid-19 because they cant access an ICU bed how many more will die (from non-Covid causes) a preventable death in the back of an ambulance, or in a corridor, because they cant access normal care in an appropriate timeframe? How many people will die a preventable death due to delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment? How many will quietly deteriorate unnoticed in a corner of a hospital ward because nurse staffing numbers are inadequate to safely monitor them?

While access to staffed ICU beds is critically important and very concerning given our ICU bed numbers per head of population are among the lowest in the OECD problems in this area are dwarfed by the deficiencies across the rest of New Zealands healthcare system, and for two years now this has been largely ignored in the Ministry of Healths daily information releases.

To have the director general of health and at least one government minister now declare the healthcare system is not in crisis raises extreme concerns about the accuracy of the governments information, and its situational awareness. The current workforce deficiencies in our healthcare system represent a unprecedented crisis. It will take us years to recover from this, if we recover at all. There is a huge risk of normalisation of deviance, where we simply grow to accept that a decompensated, unsafe, understaffed healthcare system is normal and acceptable.

As always in healthcare, the next step is to recognise and declare an emergency. We cant fix problems unless we acknowledge them for what they are, and this requires our leaders to tell it like it is.

Visit link:

If this isn't a healthcare crisis, what is? - The Spinoff

NEW ZEALAND frontman Alex Greive discusses his low body fat percentage and his dislike of golf.

He tells SunSport about his journeys from the Southern Hemisphere to Paisley via Kentucky and Tahiti and about bosses Jim Goodwin and Stephen Robinson as well as his fear of snakes and his ambitions of making a big impact after signing for St Mirren earlier in the season.

1

ALL BLACKS. You grew up in New Zealand you must have played rugby as a kid? Actually, when I was about seven or eight years of age I wanted to stop playing football to play rugby but my parents wouldnt let me. I was always pretty small so I dont think my mum was too keen on the idea of me playing rugby. My dad was president of a local grassroots football club hes always been a West Ham fan so my brother and I were born into football. I like rugby and all my mates play, but not me.

BODY FAT. Is it true your body fat was only three per cent when you signed for St Mirren? I dont know the actual number but it was pretty low. We were in lockdown in New Zealand before I came over to Scotland and I was living in a flat with six other boys and all we did was work out in a gym downstairs. I worked out twice a day, as hard as I possibly could. I knew I was coming over to St Mirren and wanted to get into the best shape possible.

COLLEGE. Tell us about going to America and your experience in the States. It was unreal. I loved my time in the States at Northern Kentucky University, studying communications. When I finished school at 17 I was still very small and wasnt ready to go pro. So going to college was the next best thing. I was able to train full-time and it was a great experience. The football was good and it was fun off the field too.

DAY OFF. How do you spend your time away from football? Id like to go for a surf but havent had the chance to do that in Scotland yet. I also like to chill out and maybe go shopping.

ENTERTAINMENT. Whats your party trick? I dont think I have anything up my sleeve. I can juggle, if that counts.

FRIGHTENING. Tell us what scares you. Snakes, 100 per cent snakes. When I was in America I saw a few and didnt like them at all. We dont have them in New Zealand. They freak me out.

GOODWIN. Were you gutted when Jim Goodwin quit St Mirren for Aberdeen? It was pretty disappointing as he was the coach who gave me my first chance to play pro football. He stuck his neck out for me so I have a lot to thank him for. He had the backing of everyone in the changing room and had everyones respect.

HOME. What do you miss most? The weather, mostly. I know the climate in New Zealand is quite similar but we dont get it as cold as over here, certainly not compared to where Im from anyway.

IRRITATING. What annoys you? I like watching movies and hate it when the person Im with wants to talk and ask loads of questions when the film is on. I cant stand loud and obnoxious people either.

JORDAN. Tell us about your first international cap for New Zealand. It was something I had been dreaming about since I was a kid. It was just a surreal experience. As soon as I pulled the shirt on it was amazing. I went on as a substitute and did well enough to earn a start in the next game. But the match got cancelled because of Covid. We have some World Cup qualifiers coming up so hopefully Ill be involved.

KLEENEX. When was the last time you cried? The last time I left home, when my mum dropped me off at the airport. Its always a bit emotional when you leave.

LEGEND. Who was your hero growing up? The All Blacks captain Richie McCaw. Hes a machine. He once played with a broken foot for an entire World Cup.

MAGNIFICENT. Whats been the best moment of your career so far? Playing for New Zealand. It was just a dream come true for me and all my family.

NETFLIX. What have you been watching? Ive watched everything. Like everyone else, watching movies and TV series and documentaries got me through lockdowns.

OFF HIS HEAD. Who is the craziest team-mate youve had? Ive had a few but over here Ethan Erhahon is always up to something. Hes forever joking around and ripping into people. He was brilliant towards me when I first came over and just talks to everyone. I just think theres always something suspicious going on with him.

PAISLEY. What do you make of the place? When I first came over, I started in an AirBnB close to the training ground. I like the town the people are really friendly.

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QUARANTINE. How has Covid-19 affected you personally? We had two main lockdowns in New Zealand and the first one was actually a really, really fun experience. Id come back from America with a few other boys and I stayed in my parents beach house for a couple of months. In the second lockdown I just hit the gym and got as fit as possible. I just wanted to make the most of the time.

ROBBO. Tell us about new manager Stephen Robinson. Hes been really good. He has definitely raised the intensity. You can tell that hes football mad and obsessed with the finer details, which I find really good.

SOCIAL MEDIA. You on it? Im on everything, I think. I probably spend most time on Instagram as its a nice way to keep in touch with people through photographs. I get to see what people are up to back home and they can check in with me too.

TARGET. Whats your biggest ambition? To be the best player I can be and have a good, long career in football. I also dream of getting to the World Cup with New Zealand. Thats something I would really love to do. Its still possible we could qualify for Qatar and hopefully its achievable.

UNBELIEVABLE. Tell is something we dont know about you. I think of myself as an open book, to be fair. Maybe the fact I used to be really into photography when I was younger. I still like taking photos.

VACATION. Where is your favourite holiday destination? I went to Tahiti with my family when I was younger and that was amazing, so Id say there. Its a beautiful place. Its not too difficult to get there from New Zealand but quite far from here.

WISECRACK. Whats the best prank youve seen? I have a terrible memory for things like that but when I was in America I knew someone who kidnapped someone as a prank. It was maybe taking things a bit too far and probably sounds worse than it was. The guy who did it was Scottish as well.

X-RAY. Have you ever been in the hospital? Nothing serious. I have broken my nose and my wrist playing football but thats about it.

YOU are on a desert island and can take three things with you. What are they? My iPhone, music speaker and a football. I think that would be enough to keep myself occupied.

Zzzz. What bores you? Golf. I have tried to play it but I just cant get into it. Maybe living in Scotland will change that as I know there are plenty of courses, but right now I think its a sport thats boring.

Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page

Link:

St Mirren frontman Alex Greive on growing up in New Zealand, life in Paisley and his dislike for golf... - The Scottish Sun

In happy news for the Scotland cricket team fans, New Zealand is scheduled to tour the country in July 2022 for two T20Is and a one-off ODI match, Cricket Scotland confirmed on March 26. All the matches will be played at Grange in Edinburgh on July 27, 29, and 31.

New Zealand and Scotland last met each other in the T20 World Cup in the UAE, when the Kane Williamson-led side won despite a spirited show from Scotland. New Zealand was scheduled to travel to Scotland in June 2020 for their first tour since 2008, however, the tour was postponed due to the COVID pandemic.

We are excited to welcome the BLACKCAPS to our shores this summer. We want to keep challenging ourselves versus ICC Full Members and New Zealand are up there as one of the best.

Having reached both of the most recent T20 and 50 over ICC world cup finals, they have proven to be the most consistent team across all formats of the game in recent years.

We have 12 international ODIs to be played prior to the New Zealand series and so the squad are training well and looking forward to a busy 2022, Scotland Mens Head Coach Shane Burger said.

During the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Scotland performed admirably well against New Zealand. Martin Guptill had scored 93, while Glenn Philips made 33 as Kiwi posted 172/5 in 20 overs. Brad Wheal and Safyaan Sharif picked two wickets each.

In reply, Michael Leask made 42* in 20 balls, while George Munsey (22), Matthew Cross (27) and Richie Berrington (20) contributed to the chase as well but Scotland fell 16 runs short, finishing on 156/5 in 20 overs, with Trent Boult and Ish Sodhi picking two wickets.

Meanwhile, New Zealand coach Gary Stead was excited at the prospect of facing Scotland in their own backyard.

He said: Its going to be a great occasion for the BLACKCAPS to visit Scotland. Over the past decade weve seen Scotland improve as a cricketing nation and develop into a force in international cricket.

Having played there personally myself at Brechin Cricket Club, I know how passionate the people are about the game and I have no doubt they will be eagerly looking forward to this tour. Playing against associate teams as a major nation is a really important part of helping them grow and that growth can only benefit the world game long term.

All the matches will be played at Grange in Edinburgh on July 27, 29 and 31.

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New Zealand To Tour Scotland In July 2022 For Limited-Overs Series - Cricket Addictor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Brebner previously used the pseudonym Brett

More:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supplied

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DAVID WHITE/STUFF

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supplied

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

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

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

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

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

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

123RF

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUPPLIED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the gap is getting wider and wider and wider.

SUPPLIED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chris McKeen/Stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KEVIN STENT/Stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

More:

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

Sport

24 Mar, 2022 04:48 PM2 minutes to read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original post:

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