Renowned as one of the most scenic train journeys in the world, this coast to coast rail adventure will take you through the Southern Alps, over massive viaducts, river valleys and gorges.
The ‘Tornado 10th Anniversary Tour’ provides a taste of the very best that Britain has to offer from the highest quality local cuisine both on board and at carefully selected destinations en route, to the unsurpassed attention to detail in each cabin. -
Dec 21, 2017 - The BusinessNZ Planning Forecast for the December 2017 quarter shows strength in many parts of the economy although with some risk from business sentiment and future wage pressures.
The manufacturing and services sectors are performing strongly and consumer confidence is high, BusinessNZ Chief Executive Kirk Hope said. "Business confidence took a recent hit, although it has recovered somewhat since the election."Key indicators such as net debt levels are forecast to remain at relatively low levels by international standards.
"On the international scene a general recovery is underway, with accelerating growth in Europe, Japan, China and the US.
"Here at home a healthy GDP growth rate of around 3 per cent is forecast out to December 2019. "In a context of relatively strong economic growth, there are however risks relating to business uncertainty around future wage pressures and proposals for agricultural emissions and water charges."
The BusinessNZ Economic Conditions Index sits at 3 for the December 2017 quarter, up down 1 on the last quarter and down 11 on a year ago.
The Economic Conditions Index tracks 33 economic indicators including GDP, export volumes, commodity prices, inflation, debt and business and consumer confidence.
The BusinessNZ Planning Forecast for the December 2017 quarter is here on www.businessnz.org.nz.
Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 For those looking to embody the true spirit of ‘The Great Race’ weekend, why not camp? We have everything you need to make this a great weekend getaway on the one-and-only Mount Panorama.
The world famous IceHotel constructed to a new design each winter entirely from ice and snow is one of Sweden’s and one of the world’s most extraordinary buildings. Spend two nights in this breathtakingly beautiful hotel while enjoying a range of thrilling winter activities.
Dec 21, 2017 - The Reserve Bank today registered China Construction Bank Corporation to provide banking services in New Zealand. China Construction Bank Corporation is incorporated in the People’s Republic of China and will operate in New Zealand as a branch. A New Zealand subsidiary of the China Construction Bank Corporation has been registered to provide banking services in New Zealand since July 2014. There are now 25 registered banks in New Zealand. More information: Register of banks.
| A RBNZ release || December 21, 2017 |||
Dec 21, 2017 - By AAP | 21.12.2017 08:05 AM | ANZ has had the sale of its New-Zealand finance business UDC Finance to Chinese logistics company HNA Group blocked by a regulatory body. The lender says New Zealand's Overseas Investment Office had declined HNA's application to buy the business for $NZ660 million ($A626 million), and unless HNA can get the decision overturned the sale will not proceed.
ANZ will assess its options for the UDC business but says there is no urgency given the strength of the lender's current capital position following the recent sale of its life insurance arm.
Dec 21, 2017 - Construction is one of New Zealand’s biggest industries and predicted to grow for some time to come. Large and increasingly sophisticated building projects need well trained and qualified staff to run smoothly and efficiently - or risk costly mistakes. Ara Institute of Canterbury has responded to this increasing complexity in the construction sector by launching new qualifications that prepare graduates with the critical thinking skills and initiative to lead the way as construction managers and quantity surveyors. The new Bachelor of Construction, specialising in construction management or quantity surveying, and Graduate Diplomas in Quantity Surveying (QS) and Construction Management (CM) (Level 7) have been approved by NZQA and are awaiting final approval from TEC to commence in 2018. Programme Leader at Ara Keith Power has many years of experience in quantity surveying and in teaching. “The construction industry told us this is what they need,” he said. “Construction is changing very rapidly with new technology and systems. Construction companies are increasing their productivity on increasingly complex jobs. Staff need to be better equipped for the future.” “Most of the construction company employers, and a lot of their staff, have passed through Ara or its predecessor CPIT. We are trusted to train quantity surveyors and construction managers for the realities of the construction industry. Running a building site, or managing the cost of a project, means dealing with the materials, staff, sub-contractors and technology – it is increasingly innovative, and there are new ways of setting projects up from the very start. Our qualifications take graduates a step further to really future proof their work with courses such as advanced contracting and law, cost planning and BIM (Building Information Modelling), property development, plus elective choices that allow students to choose the specialised areas they would like to explore.” The new qualifications are flexible to allow for part time study while working by using a blended delivery approach with online learning and two-day block courses. Full time study is also available using work-integrated industry placements to provide students with experience in an industry setting. Ara will continue to offer the New Zealand Diploma in Construction and Power expects many diploma graduates to upgrade to the degree. Those qualified in other areas, such as civil engineering, can enrol in the graduate diploma to move into specialising in CM or QS. It worth investing in upskilling, he says. “There are excellent employment prospects in QS and CM. The construction industry has moved on from the boom and bust, cyclical nature of the past, to steadier workflows forecast for the future.” For more information go to www.ara.ac.nz or phone 0800 24 24 76.
| An ARA frelease || FDecvember 21, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - For anyone who has marveled at the richly colored layers in a cafe latte, you're not alone. Princeton researchers, likewise intrigued, have now revealed how this tiered structure develops when espresso is poured into hot milk.
"The structure formation in a latte is surprising because it evolves from the chaotic, initial pouring and mixing of fluids into a very organized, distinct arrangement of layers," said Nan Xue, lead author of a paper describing the findings in Nature Communications, and a graduate student in the lab of Howard Stone, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton.
Honing techniques for yielding sought-after layers by flowing liquids into each other could reduce costs and complexity in a range of applications.
"From a manufacturing perspective, a single pouring process is much simpler than the traditional sequential stacking of layers in a stratified product," said Stone. "In one application of this study, we are exploring the physics behind making a whole layered structure with one step, rather than one-by-one stacking of the layers."
The inspiration for the research project came from an unsolicited, emailed picture of a layered coffee drink sent to Stone. With Xue looking for a project to take on as he started his graduate work, he initially investigated the concept by preparing lattes in the lab, using store-bought coffee and milk.
After several tries, it became clear to Xue that staying within only certain parameters, such as temperatures and pour rates, allowed for a characteristic café latte. These efforts hinted at the underlying, quantifiable physics that had to be involved in its liquid structure formation.
To control their model of latte layering with more precision, Xue and colleagues opted for a stand-in recipe that would make a barista shudder: dyed water substituting for the hot coffee, and salty, denser water for the warm milk.
A panel of light-emitting diodes and a camera then illuminated and captured the movement of fluids within the concoction. The researchers seeded the mixture with tracer particles, which scattered light from a green laser beam, to further track the faux-latte's internal dynamics, a technique called particle image velocimetry. Finally, numerical simulations were run to compare the collected data with various models of the evolving system of intermixing liquids.
The overall analysis showed that the primary mechanism behind the layering is a phenomenon known as double-diffusive convection. It occurs when stacked-up fluids of different densities, impelled by gravity to mix their contents, exchange heat through the movement of their constituent materials. Within a given mixture, denser, cooler liquids sink, while lighter, hotter liquids rise. This sinking and rising stops, however, when the local density in a region within a latte approaches an equilibrium. As a result, the fluid there has to flow horizontally, rather than vertically, creating distinct bands, or layers.
Through their experiments, the researchers examined how the velocity of the fluid injection of the warm milk matters as well. If poured too slowly, the denser fluid will mix too evenly as it flows into the less-dense fluid. A faster pour rate causes the former to punch through the latter and trigger the rapid movements that culminate in the desired layering when density equilibria are established.
Additional work needs to be done to characterize the layering effect demonstrated in lattes to extend control of it to other leveled liquids and semi-solids. But the preliminary findings from Xue and his colleagues already have shown how the activity within a common beverage could lead to uncommon insights. The same can be said for this engineering project focusing on cheese."This result shows the beauty of fluid mechanics and is very significant," said Detlef Lohse, a professor of fluid mechanics at the University of Twente in the Netherlands who was not involved with the study. "I think it will have bearing on various industrial flows and mixing procedures in so-called process technology, in which mixing of fluids with different densities by the injection of one into the other is omnipresent."
Lohse further pointed out how the Princeton research could help in better explaining heat- and salinity-dependent flows of water in Earth's vast oceans, a phenomenon that has key implications in climatology and ecology. "The most awesome finding may be that there is perfect analogy between the layering in a cafe latte," said Lohse, "and the known and extremely relevant layering of water with different temperatures and salt concentrations in the ocean."
For more coffee-related engineering, check out Adding Up the Perfect Cup.
Source: The Engineer Princeton University || December 14, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - New Zealand’s trade relationship with India has been strong and growing rapidly. As at Year ended June 2017, India was the Seventh largest export destination and 11th largest import source for New Zealand’s total exports and imports of goods and services respectively.
India was the fifth largest destination for New Zealand’s commercial services exports after China, Australia, EU and US, and the Ninth largest import source for its commercial services imports.
Table 1 suggests that, as at year-end June 2017, India was New Zealand’s 11th largest trading partner based on total trade in goods and services, with a two-way total trade valued at $ 2.6 billion, out of which exports were worth $ 1.7 billion.
The Export Sector
New Zealand’s exports to India have been heavily concentrated in a few product categories. The top five goods exported from New Zealand to India as at Year-end June 2017 constituted 78.5% of New Zealand’s total exports to India.
The top commodity item of exports was Logs and Forestry products ($271 million), followed by Confidential items ($154 million), Wood Pulp ($45 million), Wool ($39 million), and Edible Fruit and Nuts ($34 million) (Table 2).
In terms of change in value of exports to India as at year-end March 2016, the largest increases were noted in Confidential Items (up by $70 million from a year ago); followed by Wood Pulp (up by $12 million) and Logs and Sugar & Sugar confectionery (both up by $2 million).
The largest decreases in export values during this period were noted in exports of Machinery Equipment and parts (down by $15 million), followed by Dairy Produce (down by $11 million compared to a year ago) and Metal Scraps including Iron and Steel ingots (down by $ 9 million).
Continue here to read the full article on Indian Newslink || December 17, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242