bioneural.net » New Zealand

New Zealand tipping over the edge?

Bruce — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:17:44 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Are New Zealanders, the People on the Edge of the World, about to tip off the edge and into cultural homogeneity with the United States? I was surprised to read in The New Zealand Herald that the a new edition of the Lonely Planet travel guide is advising visitors to leave a tip of about 10% for good service. Tipping was not part of the culture when I was growing up, and nor was it an overt practice during my last stint at home during 2006–2007. It would be unfortunate if visitors to Godzone came with the expectation that they had to pay over and above the advertized price. All goods and services in New Zealand are subject to a 12.5% Goods and Services Tax (GST), included in the displayed price. I was also under the impression that most employees (such as wait staff) were adequately remunerated so that they did not need to rely on tips for income, as I believe is the case in the USA and some other countries (where workers aren't properly paid). I don't like the phenomenon of tipping. I've always found it uncomfortable as a traveller knowing when to tip and by how much. I want to look at a menu and know in advance what I'll be paying—just as I can buy a new keyboard for a fixed price without thinking about the 10–15% extra it might cost if the sales assistant demonstrates competence with the card reader. But more than that I resent ...

iPhone wallpapers for homesick Kiwis

Bruce — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:52:51 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Everyone loves customizing new toys and making wallpapers for your phone is probably one of the easier ways to do it (a lot easier, for example, than trying to find an inexpensive yet good-looking protective case!). I took a selection of images from Project Koru are turned them into three thematic wallpaper sets for my iPhone using this great Photoshop template. Blue Welly We love Wellington. We miss it and this makes us feel blue at times; the Windy City also has blue skies more often than those above us in England. These are evident in the Blue Welly wallpapers, featuring public sculptures around the city. The images in this set show: The Fern Ball in the Civic Centre; One of the totem poles on the City to Sea Bridge; One of the metal nikau palms outside the Public Library; The Weta Workshop Tripod in Courtenay Place. Click thumbnail to enlarge imageBlue welly iPhone wallpapers Godzone patterns New Zealand has a lot of different landscapes in relatively close proximity, making it an ideal place for the photographic pursuit of natural pattern spotting. The images in this set show: The golden sands of Abel Tasman National Park in Golden Bay; The leaf structure of the New Zealand tree fern; The rippled surface of Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds; A dense stand of manuka (NZ tea tree) on the slopes of Mt. Taranaki (looking rather like a wooden barcode). Click thumbnail to enlarge imageGodzone patterns iPhone wallpapers Kiwi icons I've touched on iconic Kiwi symbols before (and noted a couple of icon sets). The images in ...

New Zealand progressive on fair use laws

Bruce — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:12:48 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

As reported by Ars Technica, the New Zealand House of Representatives passed a bill on 8 April 2008 reforming copyright law for the "digital age". Most netizens even outside the US will have come across the American DMCA: any mention seems tainted by the taste of bile. The DMCA criminalises circumvention of digital rights management (DRM) technologies and access controls—many folk argue at the expense of "fair use". Do the NZ reforms provide workable compromise? Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand [© iStockPhoto] Ars cite a Canadian law professor as saying: The anti-circumvention provisions are arguably the best of any country, since they are compliant with WIPO, limited in scope, and seek to preserve fair dealing rights. Having looked at the new Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Bill I find myself almost as confused as I was before; it raises at least as many questions as it answers. Time and format shifting I've always wondered exactly how recording a TV programme to VHS tape, DVD+RW, or PVR hard drives sat with current copyright laws. It must be pretty unusual to walk into a living room and not find the home owner's favourite TV series or movie archived on recordable media for repeated viewing at their leisure. Fortunately the bill specifies that anyone watching TV that isn't "live" is no longer engaged in a criminal act (recording of an on-demand broadcast isn't allowed). It does mean, however, that domestic recording libraries are still illegal: you must watch your recordings within a "reasonable" time frame and then delete them. No ...

iPhone features Maori carving wallpaper

Bruce — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 02:35:28 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Apple recently posted a tour of the forthcoming iPhone. Watching the presentation I was surprised to see one of the default wallpapers is the face of a tiki (a wood carving of the human figure). The Maori style is typically curvilinear (most Polynesian art is rectilinear in style). The face in the wallpaper looks very similar to the one on the New Zealand 10 cent coin: Wallpapers on the iPhone (© Apple, Inc.) It's a bit hard to make out much detail in the screen capture. Here is a wall figure (representing an ancestor) from inside Tokomaru Bay Marae which better demonstrates the intricacy of many such designs: Maori ancestor (© B McKenzie, available here)

Rugby, anthems and patriotism

Bruce — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 05:12:38 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Inspired by seeing Wellington's Hurricanes win against South Africa's Bulls, and in fulfilment of Simone's wish to see the All Blacks perform the haka live, we went to see New Zealand face France last night. I'm not a rugby fan, but I sure felt patriotic and shared in the excitement of seeing the national team thrash France 61 to 10. Here is a short movie (2min 46sec) showing the All Blacks entering the stadium, the singing of the national anthem, the haka (Ka Mate), the first try, and a Mexican wave: All Blacks v France video download (8.6 MB H.264-encoded movie, zip archive) You can read about the game here. If you need a French translation of the haka, watch this. There's a very energetic Italian ad featuring the haka here. To support the home team lots of folk waved flags bearing the silver fern (not the Union Jack). All we need now is a new national flag. New Zealand's national anthem, God Defend New Zealand, was something I was taught at school. Well, the first verse anyway. This is often sung twice, once in Maori and once in English: E Ihoã Atua, O ngã iwi mãtou rã ãta whaka rongona; Me aroha noa Kia hua ko te pai; Kia tau tõ atawhai; Manaakitia mai Aotearoa God of Nations at Thy feet, In the bonds of love we meet, Hear our voices, we entreat, God defend our free land. Guard Pacific's triple star From the shafts of strife and war, Make her praises heard afar, God defend New Zealand. The tune has been played often on TV recently as part ...

Bake like it's 1914

Bruce — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:28:34 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Do you recall what is was like to eat home-baked food? Food that didn't contain E numbers? For pre-ADHD delights, try the Edmonds Sure to rise cookery book. There's a complete copy in PDF format for download on the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre website (1914 edition). Edmonds brand of baking powder was invented by an English grocer from Lyttelton (Christchurch) in 1879. Edmonds Cookery Book is the biggest selling book in New Zealand history. The factory on the cover of later editions was a local landmark until it was demolished in 1990. The story goes: One day Mr Edmonds was asked if his baking powder was "any good". Struck by the question he replied, "It is sure to rise, Madam". Recognising the aptness of this comment he used it to design the famous trade mark SURE TO RISE with the rising sun, which is one of New Zealand's most durable, colourful and recognisable trade marks. Sure to rise: apparently the Dominion favourite Every good Kiwi should know how to make pikelets, containing the best-selling Edmonds Baking Powder, of course: 1 breakfastcup ﬂour 1 dessertspoonful sugar 1 egg (well beaten) 1 teaspoon Edmonds' Baking Powder 3/4 breakfastcup milk 1 oz. butter Mix ﬂour, sugar, and Edmonds Baking Powder together, then mix egg and milk, make a well in centre of dry ingredients, and mix to a smooth paste with milk. Cook in small lots on hot greased girdle. Find out more about this icon here.

Maui's fish and the origin of myth

Bruce — Sat, 12 May 2007 05:51:04 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

I've always enjoyed the myth concerning the origin of New Zealand's North Island, said to have been hauled out of the Pacific by Maui and his brothers. This story is one of several so wonderfully captured in an illustration by Dittmer, reproduced in a book belonging to my grandmother, which I still have and recently re-discovered. But this myth has become something of a legend in itself, evolving throughout prehistory and during the cultural transition of colonisation to become a story that belongs to all New Zealanders regardless of ethnicity. The modern version was enacted before our eyes in Wellington earlier this week in the show Maui: One man against the gods. Some of my favourite line illustrations, published in An illustrated encyclopedia of Maori life by A.W. Reed, are 100 years old this year. It thus seems fitting that they should be brought to life in a stage production. In one of his many escapades the demigod Maui and his brothers determine to trap the sun-god Ra—according to some accounts, with the purpose of slowing his rapid pace across the sky. As I watched the show it was as if these old drawings had become animated, leaping out of the page in a spectacle of light, aerial movement, and sound. Maui takes on the sun-god Ra. Image credits: Left: Dittmer, Wilhelm, 1866-1909: Maui's fight with the sun [from Te Tohunga. The ancient legends and traditions of the Maoris, London, Routledge, 1907]. Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be ...

Uplifting, Uprising

Bruce — Fri, 04 May 2007 22:39:18 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

MAORI MARKet was recently held at the TSB Arena in Wellington, showcasing contemporary Maori artworks. Many of the works on display were world-class in both execution and price tag, the range including carving in wood, stone and bone, painting, woven cloaks and baskets, jewellery and pottery (the latter not being a traditional Maori art form). On the look-out for a piece to complement our Jeff Thomson wall sculpture, we felt drawn to Whakatikanga (Uprising), a diptych by Hawkes Bay artist Jackie Hawkins. Jackie was born in 1979 and gained a Bachelor of Maori Art from the Toimairangi School of Maori Visual Culture, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, in Hastings. She says this diptych is the first of a new series based around her leaving Toimairangi and becoming an established artist. The kite (manuote) represents the soaring spirit while the kowhaiwhai on the second piece represents the mana (loosely "pride") of the land (whenua). Kites were traditionally made of raupo or toetoe stalks bound with strips of flax, sometimes bark cloth, and decorated with feathers. As well as being entertaining they may have had a spiritual purpose: Depending upon the tribe, the names of Maori kites usually included the word manu (bird) and, as throughout Polynesia and Micronesia, Maori made their kites in the shape of a bird, possibly in the belief that birds were the communicators between humans and the spirit world. It was thought that the soul or spirit of a person was in the form of a bird so that the kite ...

Kiwi! Kiwi! Kiwi!

Bruce — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 08:15:26 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Today on Kapiti Island Simone and I were lucky enough to see (and photograph) Apteryx owenii, the Little Spotted Kiwi—the rarest type (only about 1600 are left nationwide). Kapiti Island lies 5km offshore from Paraparaumu, about 45 minutes north of Wellington. Permission to land on the island must be obtained in advance from the Department of Conservation (DOC), and is restricted to a maximum of 80 persons per day. Roughly 10 by 2 km in size, Kapiti was once the stronghold of Te Rauparaha (we've read about him) and served as a whaling base before being virtually cleared for farming. The recovering forest now provides a predator-free sanctuary for bird populations to increase unmolested. We saw our "Little Spot" at Tuteremoana, the highest point on the island (521 metres). Click thumbnail to enlarge image Little Spotted Kiwi, Kapiti Island The national bird is a threatened species. Most New Zealanders probably have never seen a live kiwi, and if so it was likely in a kiwi house. Normally nocturnal, we never expected to see one during our tramp. A DOC ranger suggested our little fellow might be a bit stupid (we'd suggested insomniac) and didn't fancy his chances of escaping being "fluffed up" by an aggressive weka. Aside from the kiwi (call) and many weka, we also saw several other native species including tui (call), bellbirds, kaka (a parrot, call), kereru (a wood pigeon), kakariki (a parakeet), saddlebacks, and hihi.

100% Pure NZ on Google Earth

Bruce — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:26:01 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

In a "world first" partnership, Google Earth now includes content from 100% Pure New Zealand, the official site of Tourism New Zealand. The content appears under the Travel and Tourism layer in the application and comprises placemarks describing cultural and scenic highlights with backlinks to the campaign website for further information (local activities, accommodation, transport options): Although much of the New Zealand aerial photography currently available is low resolution, there are high resolution images available for most major centres (although notably not Whangarei), including the capital Wellington (featuring 10 placemarks in the new layer) and important tourist destinations (such as Rotorua, the Tongariro Crossing, or Queenstown): It's nice to see good quality information join community-contributed content available via Google Earth layers. As and when more tourism authorities get in on the act, this should make planning travel abroad just that bit easier. Getting your head around the geography of a place is half the problem when planning what to see and what to leave out in any given location.