Source: NZ Herald

Dec 04, 2008

Queenstown and the Lakes District, the South Island’s internationally renowned tourist area, has been rated as New Zealand’s most affluent place to live.

The Lakes District and tourist town just scraped home over the North Shore City, in Auckland, said Stephen Hart, the author of a report which examined a range of factors from more than 70 territorial authorities throughout New Zealand.

He said, after producing a list of 20 cities and districts based on house prices, they also looked at several other factors, including households earning more than $100,000 a year, homes least likely to be in deprived areas, the percentage of residents with a degree, lowest unemployment rates, and residents who were chief executives, general managers or legislators.

In his report, commissioned by the ASB Bank, Mr Hart said Queenstown, where “more and more of our most successful city folk are choosing to call home”, only just scraped home in first place ahead of North Shore City.

He said they were not searching for the domains of the super-rich or the hideaways of celebrities.

“What we want to discover is which of New Zealand’s towns and cities could be best described as being the most ’sought after’ and their residents’ the most ‘comfortable’.”

He said, like it or not, the most fundamental indicator of a place’s desirability was its house prices and if a lot of people wanted to live somewhere house prices rose as a result of that demand, and analysing house prices was a good place to start.

House prices and the other factors were allocated points to put the list of 20 places in order, starting with the most affluent.

Mr Hart said Queenstown Lakes was undoubtedly a highly desirable place to live. The population of 23,000 grew by 35 per cent between 2001 and 2006 - more than anywhere else in the country and more than four times the national average.

The average home in Queenstown Lakes was more than $570,000. Only North Shore City had a higher price at $573,000.

Queenstown Lakes also scored well against all other criteria, especially jobs. Its unemployment rate of 1.7 per cent was lower than any of the other contenders.

Queenstown people were also “a well qualified bunch with 19 per cent possessing a bachelor’s degree or higher, the fourth highest in the country”.

Mr Hart said Queenstown was also fourth in its percentage of population in the top occupation category of chief executive, general managers and legislators, behind Rodney District, Auckland and North Shore cities.

North Shore City was unlucky not to come out first overall. It was in the top three for every measure, except for its unemployment rate which at 4.3 per cent was lower than the national average of 5.1 per cent but only ninth-best of the places surveyed.

Wellington City was the best qualified and highest paid place in New Zealand but, surprisingly, rated only ninth for the number of chief executive officers, general managers and legislators. More lived in the nearby Kapiti Coast District.

Porirua and Manukau Cities scored higher than many expected. They ranked fourth and fifth respectively for households earning more than $100,000 a year - higher than Queenstown Lakes District.

Auckland City was second for high earners, graduates and senior managers, and third for house prices. Its unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent and ordinary low deprivation decile scores meant it would never be in the very top tier.

The top 20 most affluent places to live were:

1. Queenstown Lakes District

2. North Shore City

3. Wellington City

3. Auckland City

5. Rodney District

6. Selwyn District

7. Franklin District

8. Porirua District

9. Manukau District

10. Tauranga District

11. Tasman District

12. Central Otago District

13. Waitakere City

14. Kapiti Coast District

15. Thames Coromandel District

16. South Wairarapa District

17. Lower Hutt City

18. Taupo City

19. Christchurch City

20. Nelson City

Other snapshots from the report included:

House prices
Highest: North Shore City $573,430.
Lowest: Tararua District $145,742

Percentage of households earning over $100,000 a year
Highest: Wellington City 35.2 per cent.
Lowest: Buller District 6.3 per cent.

Percentage of households in deprivation deciles 1 to 3
Best: Selwyn District 69.9 per cent.
Worst: Wairoa District 1.4 per cent.

Percentage of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher
Highest: Wellington City 35.3 per cent.
Lowest: Kawerau District 3.7 per cent.

Unemployment rate
Best: Queenstown Lakes District 1.7 per cent.
Worst: Kawerau District 13.7 per cent.

Percentage of population of chief executives, general managers and legislators
Highest: Rodney District 5.3 per cent.
Lowest: South Taranaki 1.6 per cent.

October 2008

The World of Wearable Art Show puts New Zealand on the global fashion map

Audiences at Wellington’s 20th World of Wearable Art (WOW) awards show, which runs until October 5, were dazzled by some of the fabulous concoctions on offer.

The show mesmerised crowds with 189 garments from around the world, displayed in an extravaganza of acrobatics, dance, comedy, pyrotechnics and a menagerie of stunning white birds.

The event has turned Wellington into a hub for international design, with contestants from as far afield as the UK, the USA, India, Japan, Thailand, Germany, The Netherlands, Israel, Fiji and Canada attracted by the reputation of the event and the $NZ 100,000 prize money on offer.

“The success of WOW has always been dependent on new designers participating and we’ve spent considerable time traveling to The USA, Asia, and Australia to encourage fresh entrants,” explains Suzie Moncrieff, the show’s Founder and Director.  “We’re delighted to see many international entries coming in.”

Contestants are challenged to create something unique, which will have impact on a 40-metre arena stage and can withstand detailed inspection. 35 finalists are selected from approximately 300 global entries every year and the competition is fierce.  The ideas behind the entries are as varied as the countries they come from.

Incredible Creations

The Supreme Montana WOW Award winner went to Nadine Jaggi for her intricate garment Ornitho Maia (bird mother).  The Wellington costume technician had to do unimaginable things to leather: wet mould, emboss, carve, hand-dye and hand-sew it to achieve her highly crafted effect, and describes the idea as, “An ethereal protector of the beautiful feathered creatures of our world.”  Ornitho Maia was also winner of the Air New Zealand South Pacific Section.

WOW judge and corrugated iron artist Jeff Thomson said “It’s exhilarating how people can be so creative when they limit themselves to one material; Nadine has stretched her imagination and created something that enters another dimension”.

In the HP Children’s section ‘Reinterpret the Tutu’ youngsters twirled in costumes made out of lego, pine cones, paintbrushes, barbie dolls, used tea bags, hamburgers and chips, balloons, birds nests and a make-believe stingray.

Men in 1930’s suits served up chickens, geese, parrots and doves on trays, as models pranced through the American Express Open section to a backdrop of blossoming imagery, as life-size birds created by Universal Studios costume maker and first-time WOW entrant, Sean Purucker capered around the stage.

Pink parachuting bras delighted the audience in the opening of the Shell Bizarre Bra section amongst 1950s dancers, air force regalia and Wellington’s Beat Girls.  Bras with propellers, wine barrels, purses, guns, handcuffs, lotto balls, boxing gloves, cockroaches, jack-in-the-boxes and a zimmer frame, ensured the 20th Montana WOW Awards Show ended on an uplifting peak.

Green Design

Recycling was big this year too. The Tourism New Zealand Avant Garde section stunned the crowd with burlesque trapeze artists, nuns on roller blades, girls on ladders with giant cocktail umbrellas, and a circus performer balancing on a tower of chairs.  Decadent garments were made from Tchaikovsky’s sheet music, names of Titanic survivors, 2000 black labels from Berlin, human hair from the UK, and recycled shoes from The Netherlands.

And old drinking straws have never been put to a better use; Anat and Ehud Van-Cleef Shamai from Hofit, Israel collected 3500 straws to create their garment, The Spirit Of Africa, which dances in the dark.  “Using the straw as a basic material in our garment is part of our life philosophy to recycle!,” said the team.

Winner of the 2007 Tourism New Zealand Avant Garde Section, David Walker, has created a cheeky garment, ‘No Laughing Matter’, for the Shell Bizarra Bra section,
made out of Jack-In-The-Boxes.  A carpenter by trade, this Alaskan artist has been creating wearable art for eight years.

Over 100 water bottles and an oxygen tent have gone into the construction of Bev
Juno’s avant-garde garment Clear Trash Beautiful. The artist from Sooke, Canada
was challenged to create something that used light and no colour. Her aim is to “Take art off the wall and throw away the frame; allowing it to interact in our daily lives.”

15 August, 2008 

Karori Sanctuary, one of New Zealand’s leading conservation tourism attractions, has won a prestigious conservation tourism award

The Sanctuary won the prestigious DOC Conservation in Action Award at the recent New Zealand Tourism Industry Awards.

Karori Sanctuary by CEO Nancy McIntosh-Ward is delighted with the win.

“This award recognises our contribution to New Zealand’s growing sustainable tourism industry and our achievements in managing the Sanctuary as both a visitor attraction and an internationally-respected ecological restoration project”

Located just 10 minutes drive from downtown Wellington, Karori Sanctuary gives a unique opportunity to engage with endangered native birds and other wildlife. A new Visitor and Education Centre is currently under construction, and due to open in the summer of 2009/10.

The new state-of-the-art Centre will be New Zealand’s first facility dedicated exclusively to our country’s unique natural history and conservation story.

Research indicates that in the first three years of the Centre’s operation, visitors to the Karori Sanctuary will increase almost three-fold from 70,000 to nearly 200,000.

“The Centre’s potential impact on Wellington’s international visitor market is significant. If 30,000 international visitors spent another night here because of the Karori Sanctuary, that would mean another $4.5 million per year being spent in Wellington.”

Positively Wellington Tourism has worked closely with Karori Sanctuary on the designs and plans for the Visitor and Education Centre. A key focus has been how the Centre will deliver a world-class visitor experience, through its design elements and layout.

“We have been excited by what we’ve seen, throughout the planning process,” says Tim. “The Centre will offer a unique visitor experience with its combination of nature, story-telling and interactive technology. I’m confident the Wellington tourism industry and public will be as excited about this Centre as we are.”

Source: NZ Herald 

11 June, 2008

They’re the very things we love to complain about, but public transport, a top-notch health service and attractive rental accommodation make New Zealand’s cities among the best places in the world to live.

The Mercer 2008 Quality of Living survey ranked Auckland fifth and Wellington 13th in a list of 215 cities worldwide.

As in 2007, Swiss and German cities took most of the top 10 spots, while Baghdad ranked as the worst place in the world to live.

The study by global consulting firm Mercer checked each city against a list of criteria including personal safety, schools and education, and climate. Factors like political stability and personal freedom were also taken into account. Each city was given a score compared to New York, the benchmark city, with a base score of 100. Auckland had the best quality of living of any city in the Asia Pacific region, followed by Sydney and Wellington.

Auckland and Wellington held on to their 2007 rankings, while Sydney slipped one place to 10th. Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide ranked further down in 17th, 21st and 29th places.

Auckland’s “excellent” range of restaurants won a special mention.

Auckland and Wellington both received perfect scores for housing, with surveyors commenting on their attractive rental properties and prestigious residential districts. They tied at 10th in the world for personal safety.

The Mercer survey is designed to help governments and big companies when they place employees in other countries.

Mercer’s head of information product solutions, Rob Knox, said the results were great news for New Zealand employers trying to attract overseas workers.

Auckland Mayor John Banks said the results were “very flattering” but he would like to see Auckland at number one. “To be frank, there is much room for progress and even more room for improvement.”

The most dangerous cities in Europe and the Americas were Bogota, Colombia, which ranked 207th for personal safety, and Moscow, at 196th. London ranked 69th for personal safety and 38th for quality of living - up one place from 2007.