Have things (for tourists) in New Zealand improved any since 1954?

[Dreamliner]

Lumps!!!


I am wondering if it's time I revisited.

Yes. You can take over production.

Pineapple Lump saviour wanted as investors sought for Cadbury sweet production

 

[magicalmoments]

A fellow spirit. Keep the good places to ourselves and let the tourists go elsewhere.

To late!! Even members of Trump's inner circle have got their bolt hole secured. Peter Thiel, advisor to Trump has bought a farm and taken out NZ citizenship. Showing his great faith in Trump's future leadership!

 

[ishtat]

I miss also orange roughy . A delicious sort of white fish.

Problem is the fish went missing after a few years. It turned out that they took 30 to 40 years to grow to edible size so after just a few years fishing of this deep water species there weren't many left. They' re now mainly protected.

 

[james_1957]

I've never heard of heinlien but I imagine new Zealand in 1954 would have been pretty dire. Probably not much improved from Mark Twain's visit in the late 1890s, although he gave a fairly positive report.

I see in today's paper that some German outfit has judged Wellington new Zealand, our capital city, as the best place to live in the world. As a former resident of the city I can certainly say it is the best city I have ever lived in.

Also lonely planet judged the province of Taranaki, my current home, as the 2nd best tourist destination in the world, I think that's what it was.

New Zealand also routinely features in the top five of the most free and uncorrupt countries in the world.

We also have a reputation of being clean and green as well, although that has been called into question recently with the impact of intensive dairy farming on the environment.

In my opinion there is an under current of systemic and institutional racism within the majority European ethnic group, although almost all of them would deny this.

All in all it's not a bad place to live, I certainly have never been tempted to live elsewhere and I've visited a large part of the world.

Interesting article...

Is our refugee quota really all that bad? Yup, it’s Trump-level bad.

When you crunch the numbers, the feebleness of NZ’s intake becomes shamefully clear, argues Murdoch Stephens, head of the campaign to double the quota

For the first few days of Trump’s presidency, Bill English fumbled around trying to get the tone right. When Trump instituted his first Muslim ban and cuts to refugee numbers, English was AWOL for more than 24 hours. When asked what he thought of the policy he told reporters that we were not planning on doing the same thing here. Guyon Espiner laughed: “It wasn’t really my question was it?”

But the irony of English’s response is that in effect he doesn’t need to implement the same policies here because New Zealand’s refugee intake per capita and selection criteria is already nearly identical to Trump’s heavily criticised ban.

The racist – sorry, regionalist – side of how we select refugees

Trump’s ham-fisted attempt to ban immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries was a knee-jerk response to perceived security threats. Remember how he said he was going to ban Muslim immigration until he worked out “what the hell was going on”?

In New Zealand we’re not so brash. But we do limit refugees from coming here based on the regions they live in.

In 2009 we also instituted a ban on new refugees from the Middle East and Africa, unless their family was already here. The government cynically framed it as an “opportunity” for family reunification. This policy has been in place for eight years and has led to a slashing of refugee numbers from the Middle East by half. It has affected those from Africa even more as we’ve cut our intake from around 200 people per year to, on average, less than 20.

The issue is so embarrassing for the National government that they have had to redact both their internal discussions and advice from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on the matter. I am confident that the redacted middle column in the table below will have the UNHCR’s recommendations to significantly increase our intake from Africa above the 1% taken in 2014/15.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/12...-really-all-that-bad-yup-its-trump-level-bad/

 

[james_1957]

To late!! Even members of Trump's inner circle have got their bolt hole secured. Peter Thiel, advisor to Trump has bought a farm and taken out NZ citizenship. Showing his great faith in Trump's future leadership!

Interesting article...

PayPal billionaire and Donald Trump adviser Peter Thiel's secret New Zealand citizenship sparks backlash .

A secret deal to grant New Zealand citizenship to technology billionaire and Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel has caused a political scandal as it emerged he failed to meet the usual requirements but donated $NZ1 million to the relief effort after the devastating 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.

The government documents show Mr Thiel was made a citizen at a private ceremony at the New Zealand consulate in Santa Monica in August 2011.

The government recommended he be given citizenship despite his admission that he would not live in the country.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ire-donald-trump-adviser-peter-thiels-secret/

 

[hashtag46]

Interesting article...
"Secret deal to grant New Zealand citizenship to technology billionaire and Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel has caused a political scandal as it emerged he failed to meet the usual requirements but donated $NZ1 million to the relief effort after the devastating 2011 earthquake in Christchurch."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ire-donald-trump-adviser-peter-thiels-secret/

As much as I applaud his charitable gesture, 1 million dollars aren't that much in this day and age.
Certainly not enough to justify making someone a citizen, thus giving him all sorts of opportunities.

 

[KingOrfeo]

As much as I applaud his charitable gesture, 1 million dollars aren't that much in this day and age.
Certainly not enough to justify making someone a citizen, thus giving him all sorts of opportunities.

What "opportunities" is Thiel buying if he's not going to live there?

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]