Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
oreign Minister Gerry Brownlee today announced the appointment of career diplomat Jonathan Curr as High Commissioner to Fiji.
“The Fiji – New Zealand relationship has warmed since 2014, with the reciprocal visits of former Prime Minister John Key and Prime Minister Bainimarama in 2016 a significant milestone,” Mr Brownlee says.
“New Zealand’s bilateral engagement with Fiji continues to grow in terms of two way trade, tourism, defence and development.
“New Zealanders travel to Fiji in ever increasing numbers to enjoy the sun and sea, and Fiji is our largest trade relationship in the Pacific.
“We also have close defence links in the Pacific and in international deployments,” Mr Brownlee says.
In 2018 Fiji will be focused on national elections, for which New Zealand is providing technical assistance to the Fiji Electoral Office.
Mr Curr is currently Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey, cross-accredited to the State of Israel, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Georgia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
He has also served at the New Zealand Embassy in Cairo and the New Zealand High Commission in Nuku’alofa.
| A Beehive release || August 25, 2017 |||
Air New Zealand is to further grow its operations to Samoa with a move to fly up to six Dreamliner services a week to Apia during the peak season.
The airline will operate between four and six weekly services using its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner between April and October 2018.
Between November 2017 and March 2018 Dreamliner aircraft will operate three services a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Other services will be operated by the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft.
Air New Zealand’s Senior Manager Pacific Islands Brent Roxburgh says the move to operate more widebody services comes in response to growing customer demand for travel to and from Apia.
“The move to more Dreamliner flights between Auckland and Samoa represents around 20 percent more seats into Samoa year-on-year.
“Samoa is growing in popularity as an island holiday destination, so today’s news of additional widebody flights is great news for its local tourism economy.”
The number of visitors to Samoa from New Zealand increased by 6.4 percent to nearly 60,000 in the year to July 2017.
| An Air New Zealand release || August 25, 2017 |||
The small airline known for its innovations and kooky safety videos is taking its first big swing at the fast-growing U.S. and Canadian market writes Melissa Locker for Fast Company.
Air New Zealand has a thing or two to teach Americans. First and foremost: that a kiwi is a type of bird, it’s not extinct, and despite being flightless, it is capable of flying perfectly well—at least when strapped into one of Air New Zealand’s coach seats.
In the plucky airline’s first global brand campaign aimed at U.S. and Canadian residents—starring a talking kiwi named Pete who is voiced by Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill—Air New Zealand will teach travelers all about the wonders of the kiwi bird and encourage them to follow their dreams to New Zealand (hopefully, on a certain airline).
The campaign is part of a concerted push for a growing number of American visitors. “Air New Zealand is probably the premium airline that you’ve probably never heard of living in America,” says Air New Zealand’s CEO, Christopher Luxon. “I would argue it’s the most successful airline in the world, by commercial results, customer results, and cultural results.” Some numbers may back him up: In 2016, Air New Zealand posted record profits of $663 million (which it shared with its staff in the form of bonuses) and the airline has been named Airline of the Year for the last four years in a row by the review website AirlineRatings.com.
Continue to read the full article here
| A FastCompany release || August 25, 2017 |||
Writes Allan Golombek a Senior Director at the White House Writers Group for Real Clear Markets.
The scene in the Hamburg supermarket was stark. Row after row of empty shelves, dotted by a few products made domestically. Edeka supermarkets, the largest supermarket chain in Germany, emptied one store of every last imported good on a weekend. They were making a point. Rather than a protest against openness and diversity, it was an object lesson in the benefits we all derive from those two values. It was a defense of tolerance, but also a reminder that openness to goods and services, people and ideas is not just something we engage in to help others, but to help ourselves, directly and every day.
It is not surprising that this case for openness was made in Hamburg, a city that used to serve as a major port of departure for German immigrants to the United States, and the place widely believed to be responsible for the development of the hamburger, one of many foreign dishes that achieved enormous international popularity. Stripping the shelves of foreign-made products didn’t just demonstrate the advantage of drawing people from around the world through liberal immigration policies, as valuable as that is. It also illustrated the indispensable advantage of being free to import, utilizing resources and skills that can be found around the globe. While pro-trade politicians often try to sell free trade as a way of encouraging exports to create jobs, far more important is the fact that it makes it possible to import, enhancing choice – which is the economic purpose of working in the first place..
The ghost town image of the Edeka supermarket helped make it clear just how much we benefit from imports, of food and other goods, and how important they are to us. In the United States, the amount of imported food continues to increase as Americans consume more products that are either not locally available or not grown fast enough to meet demand. Americans import a wide variety of foods, literally from fish to nuts. Some are not grown in the United States, such as bananas and coffee. Many are made a lot more cheaply in other countries. Many are seasonal, and many new entirely to Americans (as pizza, bagels and felafel once were). Rather than a source of economic decline, two of the driving forces behind the growth of food imports are the desire to cut back on the cost of one’s food budget, and rising incomes spurring a wider desire for choice. Next time you sit down to a meal or grab a snack, ask yourself if it would be available to you if it wasn’t for global trade. No lamb from New Zealand, salmon from Norway, or pasta from Italy.
And next time you hear a politician criticize NAFTA, bear this in mind: The two largest sources of agricultural imports to the United States are its trading partners, Mexico and Canada. That includes most sugar and tropical products, such as coffee, cocoa, and rubber, and animals and animal products, including beef and veal. If your doctor has told you to eat your veggies, bear in mind that Mexico dominates vegetables imported into the United States, supplying peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, pinto beans, broccoli, and cabbage to name a few. Canada supplies carrots, cauliflower, asparagus, mushrooms and potatoes. NAFTA is good for you, physically as well as economically. And if you’re worried about the trade deficit with China, bear in mind that it includes billions of dollars worth of seafood each year, including farm-grown tilapia, shrimp, salmon and catfish.
The value of eating globally, not locally, undermines the core arguments of a growing anti-trade movement: Locavorism, which is based on the flawed premise that a diet of locally grown food offers environmental, economic and social benefits. In fact, the opportunity to import food extends our food supply chain, enhances competition and choice, delivers lower prices, and provides greater variety – the spice of life, literally as well as figuratively.
Over the years, we have been shaping a global diet. The brief removal of imported food from a supermarket’s shelf in Hamburg demonstrates its economic and cultural value to us.
Allan Golombek is a Senior Director at the White House Writers Group.
| A RealClearMarkets release || August 25, 2017 |||
Air New Zealand is poised to launch its first ever global brand campaign showing international travellers why the airline is A Better Way to Fly to New Zealand.
The campaign will kick off in the US on Thursday night (Friday afternoon NZT) with a star-studded event in Los Angeles then roll out progressively across the UK, Europe, Asia and South America in coming months.
It’s set to feature New Zealand’s own Sam Neill (Hunt for the Wilderpeople; Jurassic Park) as the voice of CGI character Pete, a kiwi who wants to see the world but is hampered by his inability to fly. Pete takes viewers along on his journey to show travellers the Air New Zealand inflight experience.
The campaign follows the success of a similar marketing approach launched in Australia last year featuring a CGI goose named Dave who has been convincing Australians that Air New Zealand offers a better way to fly long-haul to North and South America.
Air New Zealand General Manager of Global Brand and Content Marketing Jodi Williams says, “This first phase of the campaign is targeted at North American travellers interested in visiting New Zealand - and potentially Australia - as well as those travelling between LA and London. It uses Pete the kiwi to win potential customers over with our award-winning product and service.
“In the past year alone there’s been a 26 percent increase* in the number of visitors arriving in New Zealand from the US, but more importantly research shows there are still around 27 million** Americans interested in holidaying in New Zealand, demonstrating the huge potential of this market.
“We’ve conducted detailed consumer research all over the world to gain greater insight into travellers’ habits and their understanding of our products and services. Interestingly, we found that perception of distance is one of the greatest barriers to travel to New Zealand with some consumers believing we’re 20 hours or more flight time away. By showcasing our direct services and inflight products in an innovative and creative way, we hope to bust those myths and get more international visitors to commit to travelling on Air New Zealand.”
Video content of the campaign, including the hero video and Sam Neill discussing his latest starring role, along with high resolution images for A Better Way to Fly can be downloaded here
| An Air New Zealand release || August 24, 2017 |||
There’s up to $11,000 worth of software now added to Autodesk’s Product Design & Manufacturing
Whittaker's, a premium brand of chocolate in the Land of the Long White Cloud has established a foothold in the Fijian market thanks to an exclusive distribution deal with the Motibhai Group.
Whittaker's head of international markets Matt Whittaker who visited the country this week on a market-familiarisation trip, said he was very impressed with the response from Fijian customers.
"We're delighted to now have this opportunity to build our relationship with chocolate lovers in Fiji via the strong distribution network of Motibhai Group and Prouds retail outlets," he said.
Mr Whittaker said while more established brands in the Fijian market would prove to be a challenge, Whittaker's unique manufacturing process and taste would ensure local chocolate lovers would take to the brand.
"As a family and as a company, we are steadfastly committed to producing only chocolate of the highest quality.
"Whittaker's ensures quality by controlling the whole manufacturing process — from bean to bar — from our one factory in Wellington, New Zealand."
Mr Whittaker said the brand was available in 20 markets around the world with the biggest being Australia followed by Malaysia, China and Canada.
"Of strategic importance is the North American and Asian markets and for the Pacific, one of them is Fiji.
"I think Fiji is going to be exponential — we have already seen four times the sales in the first year with Motibhai and its really exciting days ahead for us.
"In the New Zealand market, we are number two approaching number one and we are market leader in the categories we compete in."
Motibhai Group director Tajesh Patel said the Whittaker's brand was already making inroads in the Fijian market.
"Whittaker's were doing some supplying to some companies in Fiji directly before but about two months ago they nominated the Motibhai Group as their distributor in Fiji," he said.
"And that's how we came into partnership with Whittaker's.
"So Motibhai is the main distributor of Whittaker's in Fiji and we will be distributing through our Prouds stores, supermarkets and in time to come petrol stations as well."
| A Fiji Times release || August 24, 2017 |||
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Research, commissioned by Cathay Pacific and published in Travel Weekly via the pen 0f Hannah Edensor shows that despite the average Aussie traveller snapping on average 33 pictures a day, 78 per cent of Aussies believe they're in real danger of missing out on holiday memories because they're too focused on taking photos or posting on social media.
Seven out of ten people surveyed wished they had more ways to remember their holiday experiences.
The research shows this ‘snap and dash’ culture means thousands of Aussies are spending too much time capturing and revisiting their holiday through a screen, and are neglecting their other senses, including their most powerful and evocative – the sense of smell.
One company – French rail company Thalys – executed this perfectly, when they created a pop-up travel agency that invited keen travellers to get to know the destinations they serviced via a different route: their noses.
Yep, Thalys got a bunch of curious travellers attending a pop-up travel agency, sniffing their way through 64 different parts of Europe, from “A real French breakfast” in Paris, “Latexxx” in Amsterdam and “Moments after Mass” in Cologne.
Dr Oliver Baumann, Researcher, Queensland Brain Institute, said by engaging the sense of smell, it can create real memories for travellers.
“Not only is smell our oldest sense, it also has a direct link to the hippocampus – the main memory centre of the brain. Scent can therefore bring back memories much faster and stronger than any of our other senses,” he said.
To help Australians avoid forgetting their trip in a flash or feeling uninspired by past Instagram images, Cathay Pacific have created Parfums de Voyage – a scientifically crafted perfume designed to ignite passengers’ memories long after visiting Hong Kong.
The fragrance has been designed in collaboration with a renowned perfume expert, Samantha Taylor of The Powder Room.
“I travelled around Hong Kong and immersed myself in everything on offer before I started to design the scent.
“The resulting Parfums de Voyage fragrance has a fresh, clean top note inspired by the greenery of the island, drying down to a warm, peppery base note that’s evocative of exotic spices and smoky incense.
“The scent is appropriate for both women and men,” said Taylor.
And they’re not the only companies in travel doing things differently. itravel signed a new partnership with Barrow & Bear Travel + Coffee, a business that offers the clever combination of coffee and travel bookings, while a bunch of cool Aussie agencies are reinventing what it means to be a brick-and-mortar store.
And around the world, other travel agencies are trying new and unique approaches to capture the traveller’s attention.
Rakesh Raicar, General Manager Southwest Pacific, Cathay Pacific, said, “We’re constantly looking for meaningful ways to enhance our customers’ travel experiences.
“Parfums de Voyage is a sensory souvenir we can give to our passengers to help them remember those special memories and moments they experience when they are travelling with us.”
Parfums de Voyage will be available on board select Cathay Pacific flights from October 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
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