Author: Press Room

The Government’s proposal to charge people to enter Aotearoa’s most popular natural attractions has received mixed reviews.The Department of Conservation (DOC) is asking the public who should pay to enjoy our national parks and conservation areas and how that money should be used.Ruapehu mayor Weston Kirton welcomed the idea — if the money funded desperately needed infrastructure.The mayor said central plateau tourism hotspots such as Mount Ruapehu were not coping with the number of tourists they had.”National parks can’t continue on with the damage caused by visitors over the years and without the infrastructure needed to support up to 200,000…

Rotorua Airport and Air New Zealand are working to improve services amid business community gripes of “poor schedule times, frequent cancellations, and prohibitive costs”.Their frustrations were voiced in a biannual survey that also found Rotorua businesses were feeling positive about the year ahead — despite facing challenges.The sixth Rotorua Business Pulse Report was released this week and 99 business owners, chief executives and general managers took part.Results of the survey, run by RotoruaNZ in partnership with the Rotorua Business Chamber, were shared at an event on Thursday, including a speech by former National Government minister, Steven Joyce.About 52% of respondents…

‘Azerbaijan cannot impose any kind of solution’ COP29’s host tells Euronews, adding that the only way forward at the climate summit is through consensus. ADVERTISEMENTThe foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijan’s president has told Euronews that Azerbaijan is only one of 198 participants and all of them “have their own responsibilities and their own objectives.””Azerbaijan cannot impose any kind of solution or any kind of decision to the other countries,” Hikmet Hajiyev said on Saturday, on the sidelines of the summit in the capital Baku.Many critics have suggested that Azerbaijan, as an oil and gas rich state, was always going to…

Was the famous 1984 Christmas hit a ham-fisted opportunity for celebrity posturing and insensitive lyrics, or an altruistic cultural phenomenon that saved millions of lives? And has it changed the nature of charity forever? It depends who you ask. By academic Colin Alexander with a response by Sir Bob Geldof. In November 1984, BBC journalist Michael Buerk presented a series of dispatches from the small town of Korem in northern Ethiopia. He described the scenes he encountered as a famine of “biblical proportions” and that aid workers in the region had told him it was “the closest thing to hell…

Former prime minister Dame Jenny Shipley has warned the ACT Party is “inviting civil war” with its attempt to define the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in law.The party’s controversial Treaty Principles Bill passed its first reading in Parliament on Thursday — voted for by coalition members ACT, New Zealand First and National.The latter has said its MPs will vote against it at the second reading, after only backing it through the first as part of the coalition agreement with ACT.Voting on the bill was interrupted when Te Pāti Māori’s Hauraki Waikato MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke tore up a copy…

Christoper Luxon has met with Chinas President Xi Jinping for the first time while in Peru for the APEC summit. During their scheduled 30-minute meeting, President Xi commended Luxon’s efforts at building a relationship with China and the growth between the two nations since he took office. “I commend your efforts,” said Xi to Luxon, saying Luxon has attached importance to New Zealand and China co-operation. “Over the past decade, China and New Zealand relations have maintained a momentum of sound and steady growth which has greatly improved the wellbeing of our two peoples and should be greatly cherished.NZ Prime…

A 25-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with assaulting an eight-year-old boy in Whakatāne who has since died. Police were called to Whakatāne Hospital at 5.30pm yesterday and have begun a homicide investigation. The woman appeared in Whakatāne District Court this morning and was due to reappear next Wednesday.”Police are not ruling out laying charges against other people in relation to this matter,” police said in a statement. “A scene examination will be conducted today at an address in Te Teko.”Anyone with information that could help police enquiries was asked to contact 105. Information could also be provided anonymously…

Opposition protesters in Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia have refused to leave key government buildings unless the regional president resigns. ADVERTISEMENTAbkhazian President Aslan Bzhania announced on Saturday that he would step down and hold early elections if demonstrators vacated the region’s parliament building. But crowds that gathered in the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi, rejected the deal and opposition leaders said they would only accept Bzhania’s unconditional resignation.“None of us have come here for the sake of seats (in parliament),” former Abkhazian Prime Minister Valery Bganba told the crowd in a video livestreamed on social media. “We came here to save our…

“Gobsmacked” café staff in Wairarapa arrived at the near demolished eatery this morning after a front-end loader destroyed the front of the building while trying to rob an ATM machine. CCTV footage obtained by 1News shows the heavy machinery crashing into an ATM at the front of the Martinborough eatery.Police said it was called at 11.40pm to a burglary of a commercial premises on Kitchener St. “A digger was used to gain entry to the premises. Inquiries to locate the offender and determine the circumstances of the incident are ongoing.”The Martinborough café sustained massive damage from the failed raid. (Source:…

An Auckland auction house expects five rare huia feathers to fetch a good price when they go under the hammer on Sunday.Interest in the extinct native bird’s feathers has soared since May, when a single feather _ valued at between $1000-$2000 — sold at Webb’s for a world record-breaking $46,521, making the feather the most expensive in the world.The Guardian dubbed the feather “more expensive than gold”.Since then, the price of huia feathers had taken flight, Webb’s head of decorative arts Leah Morris said.”It’s definitely increased. You would see them sell for around the $2000 mark prior to the May…