Posts Tagged ‘Wellington’
Written by admin on 27 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 27 (IANS) Record high values for New Zealand dairy products and increased exports, particularly to Australia and China, maintained New Zealand’s trade surplus for a third straight quarter during October-December last year.
Figures from the government statistics agency Friday showed exports of milk powder, butter and cheese led a 4.3 percent increase in the value of exports in the fourth quarter, reported Xinhua.
“The seasonally adjusted trade balance for the December 2011 quarter was a surplus of NZ $698 million ($573.12 million), equivalent to 5.7 percent of exports,” Statistics New Zealand industry and labour statistics manager Neil Kelly said.
“Of the last eight quarters, only the March 2011 quarter recorded a seasonally adjusted trade deficit,” said Kelly in a statement.
For the month of December, export values rose by NZ $491 million, or 13 percent, compared with December 2010, led by milk powder, butter and cheese.
December 2011 was a record month for milk powder, butter and cheese exports, with quantities and values both reaching new highs, said the statement.
December saw a trade surplus of NZ $338 million or 7.8 percent of exports, which compared with an average deficit of 5.2 percent of exports for the previous five December months.
China took the second largest increase in exports, up by NZ $67 million, or 12 percent, led by milk powder, butter and cheese, which were up NZ $89 million, and preparations of cereals, flour, and starch, but falling values of logs, wood, and wood articles and wool partly offset the increase.
The value of imports from some countries dropped significantly last month with the biggest fall in imports from the US, which was down NZ $249 million, or 39 percent, mainly due to a drop of NZ $230 million in the value of aircraft imports.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 23 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 23 (IANS) A pod of about 90 pilot whales has grounded itself on a beach in New Zealand’s South Island in the latest of a series of whale strandings around the country this month, Xinhua reported Monday.
Conservation officials were hoping the whales could refloat themselves from the area in the Golden Bay during high tide.
However, it was too dangerous to try to help the animals refloat in the dark, manager of the conservation department of the Golden Bay area John Mason told the Fairfax NZ News.
They planned to keep the whales cool during the afternoon and to prevent them getting sunburned, he said.
If the whales remained on the beach overnight, they would try to refloat them at high tide Tuesday at around 11.15 a.m., he said.
The whales were in the same area where 25 cetaceans were stranded earlier this month, 18 of which were refloated.
Four Gray’s beaked whales, two lactating females and two juveniles died after being stranded on the Papamoa beach, on the east coast of the North Island over the weekend.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 19 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 19 (IANS) A sharp drop in the price of vegetables caused a dip in prices for New Zealand consumers in the last quarter, according to figures from the government statistics agency Thursday.
The consumers price index (CPI) fell 0.3 percent for the December quarter as the country emerged from a supply shortage caused by severe floods in the Australian state of Queensland last year, Statistics New Zealand said.
“The main reason for the fall was lower vegetable prices,” Statistics New Zealand prices manager Chris Pike said in a statement.
Vegetable prices fell 25 percent in the December quarter, causing a 2.2-percent fall in overall food prices, said Xinhua.
“The larger-than-usual fall for vegetables reflects a supply shortage in the three months to September,” Pike said.
“Basically, vegetable prices were higher than normal last winter, then fell to normal levels towards the end of the year. If vegetable prices had remained constant in the December 2011 quarter, the CPI would have risen 0.1 percent.”
Vegetable prices fell strongly from their winter peak in July, which was higher than usual due to a supply shortage following the Queensland floods earlier in 2011, said the CPI commentary.
Prices for telecommunication services, furniture, kitchenware and appliances were also down, but were partly countered by rises in international air fares and petrol.
Telecommunication services were the second biggest contributor to the fall in the CPI, dropping 3.6 percent with higher data caps and lower prices for broadband plans, and lower international calling rates from landline phones.
Prices for household contents and services were down 1.5 percent.
“This reflected lower prices for furniture, kitchenware and appliances. There was more discounting in the December 2011 quarter than in the previous three months or in the final quarter of 2010,” Pike said.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 07 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 7 (IANS) Eleven people were killed in New Zealand when the hot air balloon they were enjoying a ride in went up in flames early Saturday, Xinhua reported.
According to New Zealand police, the accident was reported at 7.25 a.m. at Clareville, a small town and a ballooning hub in the lower North Island.
As the balloon was preparing to land, it hit a power line, causing sparking in the basket, said an official Brent Register.
Family members of the balloon’s passengers watched in utter shock as the balloon plummeted on to the field, New Zealand media reported.
The New Zealand government offered its condolences to the families of those killed in New Zealand’s worst air disaster in more than three decades.
The crash was New Zealand’s worst air disaster since an Air New Zealand passenger jet crashed into Mount Erebus in the Antarctic with the loss of 257 lives in 1979.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 07 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 7 (IANS) A hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in New Zealand Saturday morning, killing all 11 people on board, a media report said.
The balloon came down in flames near the small town of Clareville, north of Wellington on the North Island, about 7.30 a.m., the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported.
TVNZ said there were 10 passengers and a pilot on board the balloon.
A cyclist who witnessed the crash told Radio New Zealand that he saw flames licking up the side of the basket below the balloon. He said he saw 10 metres of flames trailing from the descending balloon.
‘It came down like a bloody rocket and then there was a big bang,’ the New Zealand Herald website quoted a local resident named David McKinlay as saying.
The area is a popular hot air ballooning destination.
A ballooning website said the hot air balloon took off after sunrise and lasted for an hour.
The crash site was cordoned off and only emergency workers and the families of those in the balloon were being allowed through, said Radio New Zealand.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 05 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 5 (IANS) A New Zealander who was extradited from Hong Kong last month in connection with one of the country’s most high-profile theft cases was denied bail and remanded in custody Thursday, reports Xinhua.
Hui Gao, 30, a Chinese-New Zealander, also known as Leo Gao, has been facing 16 charges of theft and two of money laundering since his return to New Zealand Dec 21.
Radio New Zealand reported that Gao appeared in the Rotorua district court Thursday for a bail hearing.
He did not enter a plea and he was remanded in custody to reappear Jan 23, said the report.
Gao is accused of stealing about 6.7 million NZ dollars (about $5 million) from the Westpac Bank in 2009 after an overdraft of 10 million NZ dollars was mistakenly added to his bank account.
Police allege he transferred the money into other accounts before he and his then-partner Kara Hurring left New Zealand.
Gao was arrested in Hong Kong in September last year and was kept in custody there during extradition proceedings.
His return followed a two-and-half years of police investigations.
Hurring, 32, was arrested on related charges when she re-entered New Zealand earlier last year. She is due to stand trial this year.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
