This New Zealand Life

Beer and wine price increases from tomorrow

Beer duty rises to 1.7803 cents per litre, wine to 4.1570 cents per litre and sprits to 15.7701 cents per litre

THE government inspired yearly price hikes for spirits, beer and wine will come into effect from tomorrow with a mandatory duty rise.

From 1 July 2009, the ALAC (Alcohol Advisory Council Levy) will be set each year under liquor classes based on a beverage's deemed or average alcohol content.

More than balls unite NZ with Australia

Uluru, NZ icon. Photo: Australien-links.ch, Wikicommons

YOU HAVE to understand that when you come to live in New Zealand you are automatically bound up in another relationship that's almost certainly unwanted.

It's a love-hate friendship that pervades everything Kiwi and makes it, somehow, less good. The other party always does things differently, or better, or doesn't do them at all because the Kiwi way of doing things seems as hip as a gramaphone at an iPod rave.

Expat news roundup

Surprisingly there's a suggestion of price fixing by the incumbent Telcos. Who'd have thought it?

A FEW expat and immigrant related news items for you today.

The Telegraph has run a story about returning your children to school in Britain after schooling in a foreign country. It's always worrying to move children from one shool to another let alone one country to another.

Blog roundup: Midwinter food fest, and some stunning images

A PICK of the New Zealand themed blogs this week includes Slightly Intrepid's insights into Kiwi personality traits.

Perhaps unkindly he likens Auckland's yearly free rubbish collection to feeding time at the shark pen.

Editorial: NZ life is not all roses, but it's not all bad either

Writing it scared the teeth out of my jaws, especially for the sake of my children

IT IS without doubt the most depressing time of year to be in the Southern Hempisphere: the nights are long and cold, and the Antarctic winds whistle up your running shorts like spiny fingers skinning a frozen fish.

How to experience New Zealand life with a garden shed makeover

Typical Kiwi House. Photo: TonySt Wikicommons

BRITISH people tend to think of houses as rather stable items, attached to the ground by thick wedges of cement, built to last generations if not hundreds of years, and somewhere that, barring a small child with a box of matches or a Noah-sized flood, will be there when you come home from the shops.

You can leave your windows and doors open, stick up a sign saying "Nobody Home" and the worse that might happen is that the local hood will steal the improved, lighter flat screen TV, and a few wedding-present ornaments that nobody wants in any case.

But one thing he won't do is make off with the house. It's impossible. He'd be seen.

Small lottery win donated to asthma charity

In New Zealand, over 600,000 people have a respiratory illness. One in four Kiwi kids is estimated to have asthma and it's the most common cause of hospital admission among New Zealand children.

THIS morning I woke to the happy news that commentators on This New Zealand Life had won $19 in a division four win on yesterday's Big Wednesday.

This somewhat smaller sum than we'd all been hoping for, has been donated to Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand (Inc.) P O Box 1459, Wellington, in line with editorial discretion regarding the practicalities of dividing $19 between a dozen of us.

I hope you're happy with the decision. If you really want your share then drop me a note.

Living with Wellington's fearful secret

Wellington CBD from Mount Victoria. Photograph: wikicommons

THE capital of New Zealand straddles a violent crack in the earth's crust that is overdue for a seismic shift. Hundreds of buildings in Wellington's central business district could be destroyed, and thousands may die. So how do residents live with the risks?

A three dollar infection

Those same nano-sized viruses that are to the weave in his face mask like marbles to a football net.

THE bus driver was wearing a DIY face-mask yesterday morning specifically designed to stop you breathing all those carcinogenic chemicals they used to put in paint but now don't, because somebody decided giving decorators cancer was probably not a great marketing plan.

The driver seemed quite happy behind his white ribbed-mask that looked a bit like a pig snout with a metal strip across the nose.

Net migration to NZ at highest level for six years

NEW data from Statistics New Zealand reveals the highest net number of Permanent and Long Term (PLT) arrivals since 2003. Many of these arrivals are New Zealand expats returning from overseas.

PLT departures decreased by 2,100 in May 2009, including 1,500 fewer departures to Australia and 500 fewer to the United Kingdom. PLT arrivals decreased by 100 compared with May 2008.