For racing fans the long awaited and much celebrated Melbourne Cup got underway at 5pm today with five New Zealand trained horses in this year’s field, including Daffodil, Capecover, Harris Tweed, Gallions Reach and Spin Around.

While 2008 Melbourne Cup winner Viewed shared the favourite’s tag along with Alcopop, the results were these:

Shocking took the win, paying $9.90, while Crime Scene took second place paying $10.80 and Mourilyan took third, paying $8.20.

No New Zealand trained horse has won the Cup since the Shiela Laxon trained Etheral won in 2001.

Labour weekend is right around the corner, so if you’re looking to make the most of the long weekend make sure you jump online with House of Travel to book some great New Zealand travel deals.

It’s now easier than ever to compare the best prices and book NZ airfares online, especially with quick web tutorials to help you through the planning and payment steps if you need a little extra help with your New Zealand travel deals purchase.

And if you’re thinking of travelling locally this Labour weekend, check out our top selection of New Zealand destinations before booking your domestic flights NZ and New Zealand travel deals.

Craving high definition audio visual to complement your home theatre system?

Audio visual and entertainment technologies have come along way – particularly with the development of HDMI cables which reduce consumer confusion with their standardised connections.

Forget the once-common nightmare of hundreds of cords connecting your audio visual and home theatre. With HDMI you can easily connect televisions, audio visual, Blu-ray disc players, multimedia PCs, gaming systems, digital camcorders, and more.

To find out if your audio visual equipment is HDMI compatible or if you have any questions be sure to get in touch with your local home theatre distributor.

Kiwi kids are in the thick of school holidays before the final term for 2009, but it’s not too late for parents to plan a quick family holiday or weekend trip away before the kids go back to school.

Term Four will begin October 12 for primary, intermediate and secondary school students, so if you’re considering a spontaneous trip with the family, contact a local holiday planner to sort things out for you.

Whether you need the skinny on cheap flights and hotel deals or car rentals and travel deals, doing your own research and getting some industry expert advice is the quickest and easiest way to get your holiday started.

You may even be able to nab some last minute deals, so be in quick before school starts back.

The New Zealand newspaper industry has come a long way since the first primitive printers introduced to the country cut their teeth on our flagship publications.

While the style, tone, content and context of newspaper in New Zealand continues to change to keep up with the evolution of society and technological advancements, daily newspapers in NZ still retain a loyal readership, both regionally and nationally.

While the advent of online newspaper has brought news into the digital age, most New Zealand news sources have kept up, offering readers both print and online options for their preferred news consumption.

It’s the must-have home theatre appliance for any home entertainment guru, but choosing the right flat screen can be a whopper of a decision with so many options available in LCD and Plasma screens.

Ask any expert and they can wax lyrical about the advantages of Plasma vs LCD for hours, but in finding the right big screen for your entertainment and living situation you’ll need to do a little research.

Plasma TV has been declared one of the most important developments in consumer electronics technologies of the past decade, thanks to the edge it has traditionally had in display quality of contrast.

LCD TV displays however have been fast catching up with this technology, and are said to offer a lighter and les power-hungry alternative for space and eco-conscious consumers.

The death of 80s heartthrob Patrick Swayze has inspired an outpouring of Internet messages and tributes from fans and fellow actors, while a darker side of the web tries to cash in.

Hackers are renowned for jumping on the search bandwagon and targeting popular search terms to sell fake anti-virus software and to infect people with malware.

Just as scamsters have exploited public interest in the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett and Natasha Richardson to lead people to virus-laced websites, Swayze’s death has led to a flood of similar sham web pages

These cyber criminals use search engine optimisation techniques to get these websites to rank high in search engines such as Google.

While the websites appear legitimate, upon visiting them targets are advised their computers need anti-virus scans. When these scans are complete targets are advised their computers have been infected with Trojans, offering to sell them fake anti-virus software to remove them.

Many of the sites also infect users with viruses designed to steal personal details such as passwords and credit-card numbers.

The annual Undie 500 will kick off tomorrow, with a heavy police presence expected to ensure a repeat of previous years’ riots does not mar the event.

Organised by the University of Canterbury student club ENSOC, the Undie 500 is a long established student-run car rally between Christchurch and Dunedin. The name comes from the original requirement that vehicles purchased for the event do not exceed $500. Participants decorate vehicles and themselves before driving south to the city of Dunedin.

Controversy has surrounded the event for the last couple of years after Police were forced to arrest 69 people during the 2007 event, 24 of whom were University of Canterbury students.

Though the Undie 500 was officially banned last year, an unofficial version of the event was organised, which resulted in 30 arrests.

This year entry is limited to just 150 cars, and in an effort to clean up the event’s image, the Undie 500 is now being labelled a ‘charity drive’, with participants being encouraged to donate non perishable food items to Dunedin’s food banks.

There will be a 24 hour alcohol ban in place in North Dunedin from 6pm Saturday night, and Dunedin police have issued a warning that anyone arrested in relation to the event will not be offered police diversion.

Are you a Dunedin resident? Going on the Undie 500 Charity Drive this weekend? Send your comments and photos to news@nzs.com.

Spring is finally upon us, and what better way to rejuvenate and celebrate the onset of the warmer months than with a day of indulgence at a day spa?

The Rotorua pools are a popular destination for tourists and travelling Kiwis. Rotorua may be one of the tourism destinations of New Zealand with its unique mix of adventure and therapeutic attractions, but there’s no doubt the spa Rotorua experience is at the top of all visitors’ lists.

If you’re planning a mini-vacation, a weekend away or a longer break during the off-peak season, check out the Rotorua pools and soak up the serenity.

The ‘Skanks in NYC’ blogger whose identity was unmasked by court order plans to sue Google for $US15 million for breaching her privacy.

Google was forced to reveal the blogger’s name after former Vogue Australia covergirl Liskula Cohen claimed statements published on the Google-run blog about her were defamatory.

Cohen confronted and reportedly forgave the blogger, and has decided against going through with a defamation suit. Even though her right to sue the blogger was the whole reason Google was forced to reveal the blogger’s identity in the first place.

And in a new plot twist, the blogger – 29 year old New York fashion student Rosemary Port – is now going after Google.

Port’s lawyer Salvatore Strazzullo said he was prepared to take a case against Google all the way to the US Supreme Court because the company had “breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity”.

Port has argued Cohen had defamed herself by launching such public legal action, and claimed she had the right to an opinion. She said before the lawsuit and subsequent groundbreaking court order, there had been few hits on the website.

“That was before it became a spectacle. I feel my right to privacy has been violated.”