AccorHotels New Zealand announce that Mercure Auckland will rebrand to the Grand Mercure Auckland from June 1, following an extensive NZ$22 million refurbishment, the second Grand Mercure announced this month for the region.
The hotel’s stunning transformation makes it an even more attractive base for exploring the adjacent Britomart precinct and nearby thriving Viaduct Harbour. Boasting 207 guest rooms and suites in total, all room types have been fully refurbished in harmonious textures and botanic shades. A new library, richly decorated with warm gold tones and leather, provides the ideal venue to relax and read from a collection of some of New Zealand’s finest literature. With a variety of indoor and outdoor meeting spaces, the Grand Mercure Auckland offers the largest event space of any hotel in the Britomart area with capacity for 350 cocktail style.
On street level, a new alfresco social eatery has been added, Custom Lane, which transforms from café to bar as day shifts to night, capturing a sense of the lively Britomart through eclectic street art and creative design elements. Take the lift to the hotel’s rooftop Vue Restaurant & Attica Bar, which boasts unobstructed views of Auckland’s skyline and harbour, matched by fine cuisine showcasing New Zealand’s outstanding produce and wines.
AccorHotels’ Senior Vice President Operations, New Zealand, Fiji and French Polynesia, Gillian Millar said: “Following an extensive transformation and the exciting addition of Custom Lane to tap into Britomart’s social scene, Grand Mercure Auckland redefines the upscale brand in Australasia.”
“Grand Mercure is an internationally recognisable brand name in the upscale hotel space, and we saw an opportunity to further leverage the brand’s presence in New Zealand while elevating our guests’ experience.” Grand Mercure Auckland is located at 8 Customs Street, Auckland CBD, New Zealand and joins a network of over 40 Grand Mercure hotels in the Asia-Pacific Region.
Experience the newly rebranded Grand Mercure Auckland from just $204 including breakfast. Read more at http://www.etbtravelnews.global
The wine industry has become the fourteenth industry sector to join the Government Industry Agreement (GIA) biosecurity partnership, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has announced today.
“It’s very good news to have New Zealand Winegrowers working with the Ministry for Primary Industries and other industry partners on biosecurity,” says Mr Guy.
“It means we can work together on preventing, managing and responding to the most important risks like Pierce’s Disease and Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.
“This shows the wine industry takes biosecurity seriously and wants to work collaboratively with MPI on preparedness and responses.
“As the recent Biosecurity 2025 Direction Statement outlines, biosecurity is a shared responsibility. We need everyone working together sharing their expertise and experience.
“Last week I was proud to announce an $18 million boost to biosecurity in Budget 2017, meaning the total biosecurity budget is now just under a quarter of a billion – the highest ever.”
The signing of the agreement was attended by Mr Guy at a ceremony in Parliament tonight.
New Zealand’s wine exports are worth around $1.6 billion a year.
Other signatories to the GIA include:
| A Beehive release || May 30, 2017 |||
New Zealand’s financial system remains sound and the risks facing the system have reduced in the past six months, Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said today when releasing the Bank’s May Financial Stability Report.
“The outlook for the global economy has been improving but global political and policy uncertainty remains elevated and debt burdens are high in a number of countries. A sharp reversal in risk sentiment could lead to higher funding costs for New Zealand banks and an increase in domestic borrowing costs. New Zealand’s banks are vulnerable to these risks because of their increasing reliance on offshore funding for credit growth,” Mr Wheeler said.
“House price growth has slowed in the past eight months, in response to tighter loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions, and a more general tightening in credit and affordability pressures in parts of the country. While residential building activity has continued to increase, the rate of house building remains insufficient to meet rapid population growth and the existing housing shortage. House prices remain elevated relative to incomes and rents, and any resurgence would be of concern.
“Dairy prices have recovered significantly in the past 12 months, and the majority of dairy farms are likely to have returned to profitability in the 2016/17 season. However, parts of the dairy sector are carrying excessive debt burdens, and remain vulnerable to a fall in income or an increase in costs. Banks should continue to closely monitor and maintain full provisioning against lending to high risk farms,” he said.
Deputy Governor Grant Spencer said “The banking system maintains strong capital and funding buffers, and profitability remains robust. The banking system appears to be operating efficiently when compared with other OECD countries, based on metrics such as cost-to-income ratios, non-performing loans and interest rate spreads.
“Banks have generally tightened credit conditions in light of funding constraints and the increasing risks around housing. Banks are seeking to reduce their reliance on offshore funding and have raised deposit rates. The Reserve Bank supports a cautious approach to managing foreign debt, in light of lessons learned in the GFC.
“While the LVR restrictions have increased the banks’ resilience to any fall in house prices, a significant share of housing loans are being made at high debt-to-income (DTI) ratios. Such borrowers tend to be more vulnerable to any increase in interest rates or declines in income. The Reserve Bank will soon release a consultation paper proposing the addition of DTI restrictions to our macro-prudential toolkit.
“The Reserve Bank is making progress on a number of other initiatives. A review of bank capital requirements is underway and we recently released an issues paper on the intended scope of the review. We recently concluded a review of the outsourcing policy for registered banks, and the Bank and other agencies are assessing the recommendations from the International Monetary Fund’s recent (FSAP) review of New Zealand’s financial system.”
More information: Financial Stability Report
| A RBNZ release || May 31, 2017
This year's top carpentry apprentice slogged through four years of university before he realised he was never going to get the job he wanted, where he wanted it writes Alexia Russell in Newsroom today.
Chris McLean took up the tools instead and couldn't be happier about his future in construction. Now he is trying to get school leavers to take a step back before applying for their student loan, asking them to spend 10 minutes on the Government's job website researching their future.
| Read the full story on Newsroom || May 31, 2017 |||
UK Women in Engineering Day goes international
Full PACER Plus details released show benefits to NZ and Pacific
NZ business confidence rises in May, along with expectations for profit, pricing and inflation
Auckland University gets share of $215m investment deal for commercialisation
Global GPS tracker latest venture from social entrepreneur Derek Handley
New Zealand Energy Corp announces Q1 2017 Results and details of AGM
To quote 'Sailing Prof' Mark Orams from is article in the NZHerald today, "Team NZ will likely be holding back some "kit" - but all teams are limited in new equipment. They are only permitted a total of four foils (and two matching spares). The main wing, hulls and the jibs (small triangular front sail) are identical on all boats.
Rudders, fairings and the "aero-package" offer potential for change. Aerodynamic and hydrodynamic drag is a big deal, so additional fairings or configurations to reduce drag could be an option, he wrote."
So what is aerodynamic and hydrodynamic drag? Thats not a question that this writer can answer so a quick Google search came up with:
The aerodynamic or hydrodynamic lift is a force perpendicular to the movement of the fluid. It is created by the suction in a negative pressure zone, formed on top of the profile designed for this purpose. It depends on the displaced mass of fluid. - http://www.mecaflux.com/en/portance.htm - for the full article
and/or
Aerodynamic/Hydrodynamic Drag - A Unit: Dynamics (Forces) & GravitationUnderstand and correctly use the term “drag” when it refers to an object that is slowed down by a fluid.
Visit http://www.mrbigler.com/moodle/pluginfile.php/10258/mod_resource/content/1/269_page_Notes-AP-Physics-1-2016-17.pdf to view the complete unit
By the way the Google search threw up 317,000 results so within there should be enough tinformation to answer most questions on how the present lot of America Cup AC50's work. Or just ask any sailor that you sppot hanging around the Team New Zealand shed on the waterfront; there must be some left on home duties.
Email followed on heels of major international flap
A scam email today is the latest in a concerted fakes sent out to Xtra users. The current one (see below) is filled with grammatical and spelling mistakes that reveal it as a fake. It follows a similar email drop last week (see below) inviting recipients to access a fake Westpac site.
The barrage pin points the need for a central bank 0800 query pool on suspect emails. The email followed on the tail of the global WannaCry cyber attack and at a time when New Zealand households still remain plagued by phone-ins from bogus Microsoft “certified” technicians now seeking to take advantage of the enhanced fear of cyber implant disruptions.
The first bogus Westpac email reads:-________________________________
Dear Westpac Customer,
New Successful Payment.For more information about this payment please follow the link below:https://westpac.co.nz/transaction
If you received this message in your SPAM/BULK folder, it is because of the restrictions imposed by your Mail/Internet Service Provider.
2017 Westpac New Zealand Limited.
________________________
The second and most recent fake email is rather more convincing being centred on account verification procedures. Its message:-
Dear Customer,
Account Update
Due to the recent upgrade of our servers, we have urged all our online banking users for possible verfication.
Kindly use our website below to verify your profile to avoid account termination.
http://www.westpac.co.nz
Thank you for choosing us
Westpac Bank New Zealand.______________________________A problem recipients encountered with these email mass-drops, is that they feature the inference when it landed in a Westpac customer in-box that it was specially targeted at them.
In the instance of the first email inquirers had to compete with phone-ins in the regular course of bank business, as well as those now alerted by the bogus email.
MSC Newswire has lodged an enquiry with Westpac seeking to discover the source of the bogus email as well as more details on its modus operandi.
The arrival of the second such bogus email points up the problem that the Australian trading banks have in coping with this problem.
The incidents point up the need for a cooperative banking rapid response enquiry centre for customers to obtain information about all doubtful emails.
Banks of course do not contact customers with emails. Only by traditional post. Or via a customer-prompted and subsequently verified phone call.
Aware of this the international email fraudsters seek nonetheless to entice a response, in this case by conjuring up the notion of an inward payment.
The banks are no strangers to cooperative efforts.
They have profited greatly by keeping their customers at an economic distance by electronic banking, thus reducing their premises overheads.
A small proportion of these savings should now be re-invested in a quick-response shared call centre dealing with bogus emails which are now demonstrably on the increase.
When a litre of water cost more than a litre of petrol, the value of every day commodities is really concerning when water is the alexia of all life.
When we are constantly being told that the wars of the future will not be about oil, but water, we as New Zealanders need to get out Act together to protect one of our most assets.
In HB we have, a self-generating water bonanza laying under our very feet and all we are doing is arguing about the rights and wrongs of its ownership and management.
To the people of HB, we have a future opportunity, but if only we can take the affirmative and positive action to do something about it.
It is often claimed that there is lack of water or is this a myth? Do we really have a water problem in HB or do we have a management problem?
As a citizen and rate payer of Hawkes Bay for many years, I believe the main reason for the assumed water quality, storage problems of Hasting’s is not because we have a shortage, not because we have so called young water but due to mismanagement of this resource. This has been proven from the recent report of the Havelock North debacle. The over allocation of resource consents to take water from the sub and confined aquafer is a real concern but why is there no water shortage in Napier?
To solve this problem or as it is now being promoted, that there is a lack of understanding about our water. We were to have a hui, now it’s a symposium. My question is why, when we have the information, the skills and the professional expertise in the HB Regional Council.
For years, the qualified and professional staff of the HBRC have researched and documented and tested of our water resource, and produced the reports like the “Groundwater level changes in the Heretaunga and Ruataniwha Basins from 1994-2014” in 2015 (HBRC Report No. RM15-01-4738.) as is required of them with the mandate under the Resource Management Act.
I suggest you go to the HBRC web site and read this and a one page summary called “Understanding our Aquifer” Both publications are factual, informative and interesting and will perhaps dispel the myth of the so-called water quality and shortage misunderstanding.
The chairman of the HBRC, Rex Graham, is a member of the trio who called for this hui/symposium. When all the above information is freely available, why did he get the facts instead of becoming one on the three musketeers. His involvement is tantamount to nothing more than a vote of no confidence in the very people he has been elected to and paid to lead, the employees of the HBRC? Does he not have the confidence in their abilities to provide the answers instead of out of town experts at a symposium? What a waste of rate payer’s money and time. If this being the case should he not resign as the chairman?
There has been a lot of comment about the Chinese bottling plant at the Tomoana site. What is not so well known is that this is also 50% owned by a HB family but very little has said about the fact that Heinz Watties is owned by Americans, the Pan Pac Mill by the Japanese, many of the grape growing companies are owned by off shore interests or that the Russian multi-millionaire now owns the Waiwera springs and exports this water resource.
Add to this the plans that are in place by corporate investors to take water from the George river on fringe of Fiordland, to pipe it 12 kilometres and to then load it onto ships in bulk, off shore for export. This is commercially reality and while our NZ laws allow it to happen, it will continue to happen.
The fresh water supplies of England are now not owned by the English, but by the German and the French conglomerates who sub lease and the right to fish in the rivers.Could this happen to NZ? Have we as NZers missed the boat? We will, if action is not taken sooner than later. If we don’t get this sorted quickly, we are in danger of going the same way as England, we will lose control of one of our most valuable resources, water, something that most of us take for granted.
Over the last 20 years I have watched and observed the water debate, so here is a lay man’s take on this issue.
It’s been interesting to watch and read about the Dam issue, the sorrow and multimillion dollar debacle in Havelock north, the sprinkler bans and then to read about the shortage of water in Tikokino and Onga Onga.
To answer this question of water shortage and its quality, let’s start with the end in mind in Hawke Bay and then take a journey from the ranges back to Hawke Bay. There are approximately 43 fresh water springs releasing millions of litres of fresh water into Hawk Bay every day.
This is caused as is a direct result of the hydrostatic pressure (caused by the pressure of the millions of litres of water the lay directly beneath the Ruahine ranges and under the Heretaunga plains in the confined aquifer.
If we journey to the Ruataniwha plains along highway 50 to the Tikokino area, then up the Wakarara road towards the site where the controversial storage dam was to be build, you will see numerous large boom irrigators and wells to feed them.
If there is such a water shortage in this area, why are dairy farmers sinking large bores to run these beasts. Why was an application made to allow 10-12 additional bores to be sunk when there was controversy raging over the need for the dam to store water? Beats me
A number of years ago the HBRC drilled three large bores on the plains to test the age, volume and quality of water. One of these was in the Tikokino, Onga Onga area. The volume of water from this well was so great that it formed its own stream. The Central Hawkes Bay district council (CHGDC) was offered this water this was rejected and the bore was capped. Why then is there a shortage of water in the Tikokino Onga Onga town ships when this bore is available, again, the logic beats me.
During the early 1970s oil exploration and testing was being carried out on the Heretaunga plains. A drilling rig was set up just north of Kereru in the small Poporangi basin. The following was described to me by a neighbour who visited the drilling operation and was told this information by the drilling supervisor.
He explained that data from the seismic tests they had carried out, had identified that there were enormous caverns or cisterns holding trillions of litres of water under the Ruahine ranges. To further verify this that while drilling they had gone down through hundreds of feet of fresh water.
This was further verified by another independent operator who was engaged by a local grape growing company on highway 50 area to identify the best location for a fresh water bore for their business.
Fact or fiction, I don’t think so.
Is this the reason that the Heretaunga plains are full of fresh water springs in places like, the Swamp road area, Ohiti, Ferhill, Raukawa, Waiohiki and the huge rouge bore in Twyford plus others that are running 24/7 and pouring out millions of litres of water that runs into our local rivers.If you venture up into the Laurence road at the foot of the Kaweka ranges, on the side of the road there is 200 millimetre hole in the side of a bank that runs water 24/7 to feed a small lake.
An Esk valley farmer now generates power from his natural spring and feeds the surplus power into the national grid.
I lived in Meeanee for many years and I had a 50 millimetre (2 inch) on the back lawn. When this was fully turned on, it had and still can shoot a horizontal jet of solid water over 3 meters. This was under its own hydrostatic pressure with no assistance from a pump. Do we have a water shortage problem?
In 1973, I worked at the old Tomoana meat plant. William Nelson did not establish the plant there because it was close to the railway line, it was because of the availability of water.
In January/ February 1973/4, the Hasting City council installed a new sewer pipe from the city to East Clive. When working alongside the Tomoana site the contractors had to sink dozens of 100 mm (4 inch) pipes at 2 meter intervals just to draw off the water to get the pipe into the trench because of the high-water table. Remember, this was February, in the middle of the hottest and driest month of the year in Hawkes Bay. Watties, Birdseye, Fropax peas, Tomoana and Whakatu works, Tuckers Wool scour the Fertilizer works and other wet industries were in full production as well as Clive drawing water for its domestic use. Many of the companies above, don’t exist today.
So, what’s changed? Apart from Progressive Meats and tanneries near the old Tomoana and Whakatu, works there are few wet industries. Add to this the controversial water bottling plant that only takes 0.12% of the total Heretaunga aquifer resource, the question has to be asked, where is all surplus the water going?
This can be partly answered by walking the Ngaroaroa river from the cable at Whana Whana to Maraekakaho on highway 50. If you look carefully you will see all the consented large bores tucked away on river flats that are drawing water for the corporate dairy farms, cropping, sheep farms, grapes etc. It must also be remembered that a large % of the Ngaroaroa water still disappears underground between Maraekakaho and Fernhill.
So how is our water replenished? According to the HBRC information, (available on line) 19.7 billion cubic meters of rain falls in HB each year. Half of this goes straight out to sea and the rest moves through the HB aquifers, that’s nearly 10 billion cubic meters of water that is available for our use. So, do we have a shortage of clean fresh water? We don’t. What we do have is the over allocation and questionable management practices of this precious resource, Hawkes Bays liquid gold?
So, what can or should we do about it?
1. All councils to undertake a complete review of the water issue and the HBRC be endorsed to manage the resource as they are mandated to do so.
2 . If you can’t beat em, join em. Let’s pick up on the comment by Napier MP Stuart Nash on the 23rd of April last year when he said that over the next 11 years, private businesses can extract more than 40 million cubic litres of water. He floated the idea of charging a premium of 2c a litre. If this happened, Hawke's Bay could make more than $800 million over that time. With this income potential is mind blowing for the future of Hawkes Bay. Why don’t all HB councils combine and form their own water exporting business, this will allow the people of HB to capitalise on its liquid gold for the prosperity of the Bay. We don’t want to become like the UK or wake one morning and find it’s too late.
Locate the plant on the old Hill Country Meat plant site at Awatoto where wells already in place. Why this site, because it’s at the end of the Heretaunga confined aquifer flow and as I said earlier, there are 43 plus fresh water springs that are running freely out at sea.This would have a negative environmental impact but the huge direct and indirect rewards for the prosperity and future for all the people of Hawkes Bay.
Texas has oil, we have water that now costs more per litre than petrol, think about it.
Gordon AndersonNapier 26 May 2017
NewsMedia releasesReleases from the MinisterWarnings and alertsReports and papersSpeeches and presentationsIMF 2016 review of NZFMA UpdateRegulation updatesCases before the courtsInvestigationsEnforcement actionsCourt decisions
Major disruptions in world events over the last year have not dented New Zealanders’ confidence in financial markets. The FMA today released its annual survey into the public’s attitude to financial markets. The survey shows that confidence has risen significantly to 65% among all respondents, from 56% in 2016.
Investor confidence in the markets has reached its highest level (69%) since the FMA started the survey in 2013, when the score was 58%. Confidence in the effective regulation of the markets has improved to 69% from 63% last year.
Rob Everett, FMA Chief Executive, said: “Since the survey started 5 years ago the portion of investors who said they were not confident has shrunk from 32% to 20%. All these scores show we are starting to see a shift in the public’s historic mistrust about markets and financial services. Investors seem to have started paying attention to the presence of regulators, as well as ripples from world events, when expressing confidence.”
Confidence rose most sharply among people with investments. Investors with a superannuation scheme (81%) managed funds (80%) and shares (78%) were the most confident.
Mr Everett said that sentiment had typically been a big ingredient in these confidence scores. “Prior to 2015 confidence built quite steadily and then, with market ructions last year, it dipped. While market performance has been broadly positive this year, there’s been plenty of upheaval and uncertainty from Brexit and other international events.
“Despite these issues, confidence seems to have been more resilient. One of the factors influencing perceptions is likely to be the transformation of the regulation of financial service providers, completed in December 2016.
“We hope to see a continuing trend of investors retaining confidence in the conduct within, and integrity of the markets, even if the performance of their investments goes up and down.”
Over half of investors find the investment materials they receive helpful in making informed decisions. The scores are much higher for people investing in shares (67%) or managed funds (65%) than they are for investors in bonds (51%) or KiwiSaver (51%).
“Considering managed funds and KiwiSaver have similar characteristics and both are licensed managed investment schemes, there’s clearly some improvements that could help make KiwiSaver communication materials more useful for investors. Good conduct includes ensuring your customers are fully-informed about the risks and benefits of a product and they understand how market performance and costs impact the final outcome,” said Mr Everett.
One of the FMA’s statutory objectives is to promote the confident participation in NZ’s markets. The FMA commissions and publishes this survey every year as part of its efforts to measure levels of confidence in financial markets. The survey also tests the levels of confidence in the effective regulation of the markets.
| A FMA release || may 29, 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