Posted by
Lee Suckling on May 29th, 2008
Looking forward to a long weekend? The NZS.com team certainly are. Queen’s Birthday is celebrated is this Monday - but you may not know that it’s not actually her real birthday, the celebratory date changing of the monarch’s birthday is a long standing tradition amongst the British royal family. To get the full story on why the Queen has two birthdays, check out our Queen’s Birthday Holiday article.
What’s a better way to celebrate Queen’s Birthday this weekend than catching Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical live on stage! The classic Aussie road movie is brought to life (or shall we say, larger than life?) across the Tasman for 2 weeks only, now showing in Auckland until June 7. Tickets are available from Eventfinder.
Not interested? Enjoy the last public holiday of the season, for most New Zealanders we won’t get another one until Labour Day!
Image from Flickr.
Posted by
Lee Suckling on May 27th, 2008
The 2008 Budget has been released - how do you feel about it?
The New Zealand government announced last week that from October 1 it will introduce tax cuts to the tune of $10.6 billion, but media rife leads us to believe many are still unsatisfied with it.
Giving the average Kiwi $16 extra in the hand each week, the tax cut program was dubbed the “Colby Budget” just hours after it was released - signifying it is merely enough to buy a block of cheese with (what is our obsession with cheese in this country?). The Christchurch Press coyly pointed out that they could not find a block of cheese at the supermarket for more than $12.55, which I found quite amusing.
All workers will benefit from the tax cuts, in particular people working on minimum wage salaries. By 2011, when the final stages of the budget are rolled out, it is estimated that there will be 300,000 taxpayers throughout the country who will no longer face the highest tax bracket: 39%, and will instead fall into the 33% category.
Remember that if you earn above any threshold, only the excess in your wages is taxed at the higher rate, not the entire amount.
Here are the details of the cuts:
| Current Rates |
New Rates based on 2008 Budget
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From 1 October 2008
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From 1 April 2010
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From 1 April 2011
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15% to $9,500
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12.5% to $14,000
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12.5% to $17,500
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12.5% to $20,000
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21% to $38,000
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21% to $40,000
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21% to $40,000
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21% to $42,500
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33% to $60,000
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33% to $70,000
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33% to $75,000
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33% to $80,000
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39% over $60,000
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39% over $70,000
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39% over $75,000
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39% over $80,000
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Image from Flickr.
Posted by
Greta Simpson on May 27th, 2008
Latest netball results from this weekend’s competition (Round 8, May 24 - May 26):
- Tactix lost to the Magic; 50-54 in Christchurch
- Firebirds beat the Vixens; 60-51 in Brisbane
- Thunderbirds lost to the Swifts; 44-50 in Wellington
- Pulse lost to the Mystics; 48-54 in Adelaide
Check out the netball standings to find out where your team is currently placed, and stay tuned to the blog for more ANZ Championship netball results…
Image from Flickr.
Posted by
Lee Suckling on May 26th, 2008
Tried to get onto Stuff.co.nz today for your news fix and been left hanging with an error page?
Stuff.co.nz was one of the 14,000 Wellington Transpower customers which lost power this morning, also cutting internet connections by the failure of parts of CityLink’s high-speed telecommunication network.
Many businesses throughout the Wellington CBD and Northern suburbs lost power just before midday today - a power cut which also affected New Zealand Government agencies such as the Wellington District Court and several parts of Parliament. The power was restored just 17 minutes later, but internet connection problems remained throughout the afternoon.
The powercut occurred as one of the transformers of the Wilton substation tripped, which took out 70 megawatts of load.
Image from Flickr.
Posted by
Gary Jensen on May 26th, 2008
Latest super 14 results from this weekend’s competition (week 15, May 24):
- Crusaders beat the Hurricanes; 33-22 in Christchurch
- Warratahs beat the Sharks; 28-13 in Sydney
Check out the Super 14 standings to find out which team is on top, and stay tuned to the blog for next week’s Final Super 14 results..
Image from Flickr.
Posted by
Dave Sanforth on May 23rd, 2008
It’s officially happened, 91 Unleaded petrol hit $2 per litre last night. It has been the number that has been on our minds via the New Zealand media’s continual reference to it for months now - so now that it’s happened, will the hype die down? Will we just accept petrol as a commodity with a rising price, and leave it alone? Or - will $3 become the new $2?
While the media hype surrounding the petrol pricing saga hasn’t started to bother me yet, I must say I am finding that opening the paper every other day to a front page story about the price of cheese is becoming a little tiring. Sure, cheese is tasty, but it’s just a topping, not an essential staple. Moreover, in the wake of all of the coverage in recent weeks, I haven’t seen a brand of cheese not on special at my local supermarket (many selling 1kg for under $10).
Now, while I do understand that the increasing price of commodities places hardship on many New Zealand families, economies fluctuate, times have been hard before (and have certainly been much harder) and they will be hard again. Until we get to rationing out meat and dairy, we don’t really have that much to grumble about in New Zealand - and we must note that many products are now cheaper here than ever before (electronics, for example).
In fact, why not see the current global economic situation as a positive, and take the trip to the US? With our dollar hovering around 80 US cents, it has never been a better time to travel Stateside and spend up large. I remember when our currency was half of this just years ago, and I doubt it will ever go higher - so make the most of it now!
Image from Flickr.
Posted by
Lee Suckling on May 23rd, 2008
We’ve done it again! Each quarter, Hitwise award the ten highest traffic websites in each of its 160+ categories with a shield recognising each website’s success.
For the quarter January-March 2008, NZS.com has placed #5 in both the Business and Finance - Business Directories industry, and the Computers and Internet - Search Engines industry! This status is based on the market share of visits among all New Zealand websites within those industries - so we’re doing pretty well to be in the top five throughout the country in two different categories!
Is your website in the running for a Hitwise award? All you need to do is register for the awards program (which is free), you don’t need to become a Hitwise Member. It’s a great idea to find out if you rank well amongst your competitors, and strive to upstage them for the next quarter. Stay tuned for NZS.com’s placings in the April-June quarter.
Posted by
Lee Suckling on May 21st, 2008
The price of petrol is continually on the minds of New Zealanders these days. Going up, going down (the former being the ever-present this month), the price of this essential commodity is causing public concern and media interest all over the country. I was sure that not too long ago I used to fill up my car for less than $1 per litre, but others around me seem to think it was much longer ago that I did, so I set out to get to the bottom of this and find a petrol pricing archive.
To Google I went, and I searched, and searched. Unfortunately, this was proving one of those few moments in life where Google simply cannot find the information you’re looking for. While daily petrol prices were readily available, there seemed to be no online source with an archive for the past decade. After much frustration, I contacted the good folks at Statistics New Zealand, who happily collected the data for me from their archives and promptly e-mailed it to me, even though the data was not even published on their own website.
So I am proud to say that, to the best of my knowledge, NZS.com is the only online source with an archive of petrol prices for the last decade…and the last time 91 Unleaded was under $1 per litre? Just five years ago in June of 2003.
Image from Flickr.
Posted by
Greta Simpson on May 20th, 2008
Latest netball results from this weekend’s competition (Round 7, May 17 - May 19):
- Pulse lost to the Tactix; 50-55 in Palmerston North
- Thunderbirds lost to the Vixens; 46-52 in Adelaide
- Magic beat the Steel; 56-47 in Hamilton
- Swifts beat the Fever; 66-54 in Sydney
Check out the netball standings to find out where your team is currently placed, and stay tuned to the blog for more ANZ Championship netball results…
Image from Flickr.
Posted by
Lee Suckling on May 19th, 2008
Imagine walking into a nightclub or outdoor dance party to hundreds of people dancing to silence… sounds a little crazy, right? Saturday night in Christchurch saw a unique phenomenon hit the South Island for the first time: a silent disco.
There are only a few companies I can think of that regularly produce brilliantly innovative marketing campaigns, so it was only logical that world class (kiwi made) vodka brand 42 Below put on an event like this for free.
Silent discos are a new concept whereby party goers are provided with wireless headphones and can tune into one of several channels streaming music from different DJ’s. The May 17 event saw DJs T Rice (Auckland), Josh Sinclair (Christchurch) and John Manson (Christchurch) pump out their tunes for eager dancers in a basement in the popular bar and nightclub district of SOL Square in Christchurch city.
So while the woman in the red dress was getting her freak on to some hot vocal house, the man with the dreadlocks was grooving to his own drum & bass tune. The silent disco experience was put on by UK Based company SilentArena, who offer their services worldwide and are able to provide in excess of 2500 headphones for clients.
Image from Flickr.
