Neither shaken nor stirred. Again.

Every morning I make my coffee and then pick up my iPad to check my emails, social media, and any news alerts for things that happened overnight, something I’ve done that for a very long time. This morning I saw an alert for a news story: “Why phones woke thousands before 5.9 magnitude earthquake”. My first thought was, “what earthquake?” It happened at 4:51am, while I was asleep, and was centred near the King Country town of Taumarunui, some 170km (around 106 US miles) south of Kirikiriroa-Hamilton. I never felt a thing, and I also didn’t get any alert, of course, since I’m an iPhone user.

Actually, not only have I never been awakened by an earthquake (so far…), and I’ve only ever felt two earthquakes (so far…). The first was on July 19, 2004, when we were living in Paeroa, and the second (and stronger) one was on February 21, 2007 when we were living on Auckland’s North Shore, something and I mentioned both in a post about the 2007 earthquake (it’s quite handy that I’ve been blogging for nearly 20 years).

Having said all that, there have been times when I’ve felt a gentle rumble and wondered if it was a heavy truck nearby, or maybe Rūaumoko was stomping about underground. More often than not, it would’ve been a truck—or not (very mild ones, mostly too mild for humans to feel, happen all the time in New Zealand).

Earth Sciences NZ seismologist Sam Taylor-Offord told 1News that aftershocks will continue for months, and he also explained something I’d wondered about: Why folks on the east and west sides of the North Island may not feel earthquakes on the opposite side as strongly, or even at all. According to the linked article, he said:

"There's kind of this shadow between running right down the middle of the Taupō volcanic zone, where the Earth is sort of softer, hotter, and seismic waves get worn down really quickly."

The thing that started my journey into finding out more about this morning’s earthquake was the phone alerts some people got, and I think the tech behind is interesting (of course…). It’s likely to improve and become more accurate over time, and, if it does, it’ll inevitably come to iPhones, too. This tech won’t mean people will necessarily feel the earthquakes they’re alerted to, but it could give folks a brief warning before a potentially bigger one reaches them wherever they are. Maybe?

Once I got to social media late this morning, I read the stories of people who felt the earthquake. While it’s not even remotely unusual for others to have felt an earthquake I didn’t, this time my first thought was actually about how I couldn’t even imagine being awake at 4:51am on a Saturday morning. That’s definitely about me.

This morning, and not for the first time, the morning news alerts on my iPad told me about something that happened while I was asleep, and so, I was, also as usual, oblivious to it all. But the Internet brought me up to speed on the story, and this blog helped me precisely remember specific details about some of my own history with earthquakes. To me, this is a good example of technology making my life better. Others may not feel that, of course. C’est la vie.

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 425 is now available

April was a… month

April may be “the cruellest month” in the Northern Hemisphere, but here downunder it’s in the middle month of autumn—no longer summer, but not yet winter, so maybe it that makes it the cruellest month for us, too? At any rate, this year’s April certainly wasn’t exactly the kindest month.

The first big storm to hit New Zealand was the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Vaianu, which struck the upper North Island the second weekend in April. Right up until it arrived, we weren’t sure how bad it would be, so preliminary watches and warnings were issued so that people could prepare. Having learned the lessons from 2023’s deadly Cyclone Gabrielle, many local governments declared preliminary states of emergency so they could respond faster to any horrible weather—well, apart from one charming fellow from the corner of the country hit the hardest by Gabrielle who refused to issue a “woke” state of emergency. Bet he’s a lot of fun at parties.

I planned on taking the same precautions I’d done for Gabrielle, and by Thursday the ninth, we were being urged to “take preparation seriously”. So, on Friday the first thing I did was to I put my rubbish and recycling wheelie bins in the garage (they were both empty, so prone to being blown around by the wind). I also put my patio table and chairs back under their cover because the wind was expected likely blow rain under the patio roof, and I felt that the cover would keep the table and chairs dry. That also gave me a place to stash the plastic bag of weeds I’ve been clearing from around the patio (off an on…) for weeks. I also did a quick check of my gutters (especially where the downspouts are) and the drain in my back lawn. I was 99% certain they’re all clear, and they were.

On Saturday, I got together with some of the family for lunch, and it was a mostly beautiful day. When I got back home, I moved the plants and doormat by my front door into the garage (for Gabrielle, I moved them into my entry way because at that time I didn’t have enough room in the garage). And that was it.

It was evening before the rain started, and it frankly wasn’t too bad. That’s because the storm was tracking further east than some projections showed, than that meant we were spared the worst of it. Even so, the entire North Island and the top of the South Island were all under some sort of watch or warning, something I don’t remember ever happening before.

That night, I woke up a bit after 1am and could hear what sounded soft rain. I could’ve thought to myself, “That’s it?! Pfft, why it’s just a bit of ordinary rain!” And that’d be the “common sense” reaction, wouldn’t it? Trouble is, storms have their own ways.

I woke up a couple more times during the night, same sort of more or less ordinary rain. I let Leo outside around 8:30 or so, and the rain had paused. I noticed that all the wood fence boards were thoroughly wet, a sign that the rain had been steady all night: When it’s not steady, parts of the fence will stay dry. I also noticed how warm it felt, warmer than the actual 21 degrees (69.8F). So, yet again, I was reminded that “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.”

After that, the rain started and then paused many times, but always remained “ordinary” in its intensity—nothing like Gabrielle was, or even as bad as severe “ordinary” storms. This figures: Waikato was under a “Heavy Rain Watch” until 6pm Sunday evening, and that was the lowest level of warning.

The rain became a bit more intense around 11:30pm or so, but the biggest concern in the area I live wasn’t the rain as much as the wind: We were under an “Orange Strong Wind Warning” (where Red is life-threatening, Yellow is possible damage, and Orange is between the two). That was scheduled to last until around 3am.

The issue was that the winds change direction and intensify as the storm moves south, because the winds hitting us start coming from a westerly origin. That was expected to happen in the Hamilton area later Sunday afternoon.

As it happens, the storm’s easterly track meant it headed back out to sea more quickly than originally expected, and that, in turn, meant the wind warnings were cancelled well before the original expiry. While there were a few strong gusts, for the most part there was really nothing more than a bit if a stiff breeze around my house.

Most other areas of the country fared reasonably well, though not totally unscarred. There was surface flooding in the hardest-hit areas, and some land-slips and damage to roads, but no one was killed and, apparently, there were so serious injuries. The storm’s track, and rapid weakening, meant it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, but the warnings were heeded, and people (inlcuding me) were prepared. I hope this can be a model for future cyclones—because, thanks to climate change, there will inevitably be more.

That wasn’t the end of the weather woes, however, because the next week the Wellington region was hit with a huge storm that pretty much stuck over the region. The flooding was extensive, and a life was lost. The storm was so bad that it was compared to the 1976 Wellington Storm [see also: What made Wellington’s deluge so intense?, 1 News].

So, yeah: After the Easter weekend, April wasn’t exactly kind to New Zealand. Cruellest month? Well, that’s probably a bit premature: The year isn’t even half over yet.

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 424 is now available

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 424, “A changed holiday weekend”, is now available from the podcast website. There, you can listen, download or subscribe to the podcast episode, along with any other episode.

The five most recent episodes of the podcast are listed on the sidebar on the right side of this blog.

A holiday weekend and some news I missed

Today is the final day of the four-day holiday weekend for Easter. I’ve talked about these holidays, and thier oddities, many times, but this year several things were different, including one thing I mussed last year. Combined, this Easter weekend was unlike all the others in my 30 years in New Zealand.

Last Wednesday, the New Zealand Parliament passed a Member’s Bill to streamline the rules for bars and restaurtants selling alcohol on the three and a half days a year with unusual sales restrictions: Good Friday, Easter, ANZAC Day morning, and Christmas Day. The Governor General provided Royal Assent the next day, and the new law was in place for Good Friday (and Easter, obviously). To me, the reforms were simply common sense reforms.

There was one other thing that was new this year: This year, for the first time, TV commercials were broadcast on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The thing is, Parliament passed the law back in October, but for whatever reason I never mentioned it. Whatever the reason for that oversight, the first of the three and a half holidays tihe the change was Christmas last year, but I was with family all day and not watching television, so I wouldn’t have noticed anything (though I don’t know whether I would’ve noticed if I had seen TV that day). I also wouldn;t have noticed that ads were broadcast on Sundays because I don’t turn the TV on until 5 or 6pm.

I was glad to see the ad ban removed, even though I think ads are mostly annoying, but forbidding ads on broadcast TV when it didn’t apply to streaming services, including YouTube. There was no reason to force NZ broadcasters to take a financial hit that didn’t apply to anyone else. As it happens, in my post on Easter Monday last year, I talked about mo bill having passed Parliament, and that was actually an update to something I said in a post on Easter Monday in 2024. Yet despite my interest in the topic, I nevertheless seem to have missed the news when the bill finally passed. Oh, well.

This particular Easter Weekend also had to unusual add-ons. The latest school holidays began on Good Friday because that was a public holiday (they’ll end on April 19). The other thing that happened this weekend was that we changed our clocks on Sunday. Apparently, on Sunday NZ parents (as recounted on Facebook) were complaining about their children waking up at 4am demanding chocolate, which doesn’t sound ideal.

So, for many reasons, this Easter weekend was unlike all the others in my 30 years in New Zealand. Fortunately, I think all the changes were good ones. Well, except for sleep-deprived parents having to cope with kids high on sugar. Fortunately, all those coincidence of dates don’t happen every year: Next year, Easter will be on March 28.

Fueling the rising costs for everyone

Fuel prices are rising throughout the world due to Tr*mp’s war against Iran, and obviously New Zealand’s fuel prices are rising fast, too. A couple days ago, an economist predicted that petrol prices could pass $4 per litre (roughly US$8.81 per US gallon). I think our prices will probably reach that point in maybe a week.

Here's why I say that: Late yesterday afternoon, I used the Gaspy App to look at prices at around 50 petrol stations within a relatively short drive from my house. The cheapest price for 91 was $2.93 per litre (three stations), and the highest price was $3.26 per litre. This evening, the cheapest price was $3.14 per litre (one station), and the highest price was $3.40—that’s around 24 hours later. It will keep rising.

Despite being late to take the situation seriously, the current NZ government is starting to talk about “worst case scenario” solutions. They claim NZ has seven weeks of fuel supply, counting both what’s here and what’s on the way, but experts in the industry estimate it’s actually around five weeks. One specific—and big—problem is that around 47% of NZ’s refined fuel comes from Korea, and they’ve talked about suspending exports, and if they do, this situation could get serious fast.

The government’s first step will be to work with partner countries overseas to try to find alternative sources of fuel, and they’re talking about temporarily relaxing fuel standards (I think, but don’t know, that they mean things like allowing higher levels of Sulfur in diesel). They also are working on a series of escalating restrictions on sales (to prioritise essential users, like emergency services and truckers shipping food to supermarkets) that they could use, if that becomes necessary—along with security guards at petrol stations.

I’m extremely lucky in that I don’t need to drive much or far, so this shouldn’t affect me for a while. Sales restrictions, if they happen, would obviously affect me, too, but, like everyone else, rising prices will increasingly mean I won’t drive anywhere unless I have to.

However, we'll all share the pain of fast-rising fuel prices because EVERYTHING we need to buy will become more expensive, including groceries, which are already at too-high prices—and, of course, farmers need fuel to grow and harvest our food (plus fertiliser may be hard to obtain). We’ve also been warned that because of all the uncertainties, there could be fuel surcharges added to anything delivered directly to us. Could? Make that there will be.

Related to that, I realised recently that this situation could mean that the guy who mows my front lawn may raise his prices. However, he recently cut back to mowing every other week, so even if he raises his prices, I should still be paying less per month than when he was mowing weekly. Like I said, I’m lucky.

No one knows how this will play out, or when the war will end. It certainly doesn’t help that the USA has a government that doesn’t have a clue what it’s doing, and the Republican politicians clearly have no idea whatsoever how to bring their war to an end. So, things right now are serious and getting worse, but they're not yet dire—emphasis on yet.

New Zealand is as vulnerable as any other country, and our own “Coalition of Chaos” government hasn’t exactly been inspiring confidence that they know what to do. Even so, I’m not willing to jump on the panic wagon about all this. First, there’s absolutely nothing I can do about the cause of all this turmoil. All I can do is manage what’s within my control, and I’m definitely doing that.

But, seriously, isn’t it about time we finally got to have some precedented times?!!!

NZ government prescribes change

Beginning a week ago today (on February 1), New Zealanders learned were eligible maybe, quite possibly, be able to get a 12-month prescription. Or not. The government claims it will save money for patients and time for GP practices, and that might be true sometimes, but for many—perhaps most—people, it's more complicated than the government makes it sound.

When the government first announced they were doing this, my first reaction was. “are they insane?!” That requires some explanation, beginning with a bit of history.

When I arrived in New Zealand in 1995, people on regular prescriptions generally got a 6-month supply. At some point after I started on regular medication that was shortened to three months because, we were told, too many people weren’t taking all their medications, and so, there was waste. I probably thought that was a bullshit excuse at the time, but the result was incredibly annoying.

I had to go to the chemist three times a year, which was annoying when the chemist was quite a drive from our house. Worse, one drug (the blood thinner) has special restrictions and I had to pick it up monthly. So, I had to go to the chemist every damn month.

Awhile back, I switched to an “online” NZ-owned pharmacy, and my prescriptions are delivered to me monthly, so I don’t have to go get them, which is so much better. They also remind me when it’s time to request a new prescription.

The medical practice I go to sent a message to patients, saying, first, that some patients “with stable, long-term health conditions” may be eligible, however, “not everyone will be clinically appropriate.” Patients who need close monitoring, for example, won’t qualify. This doesn’t fully apply to me. Also, they said, “controlled drugs”, which they said inlcudied drugs “such as morphine, ADHD medicines like methylphenidate, benzodiazepines including temazepam, and zopiclone”. This doesn’t apply to me at all.

I don’t have “regular monitoring”, as they call it (like of my blood pressure), and so, I probably qualify for 12-month prescriptions. However, there’s also not much of an incentive for me to switch.

Not many people will save a lot of money by switching to a 12-month prescription. However long the prescription is, there’s a dispensing fee of $5 per item up to a maximum per year (I’ve forgotten what the annual maximum is, but I always used to hit it). The previous Labour Government abolished the co-pay, but the current National-Act-NZ First coalition government reinstated it. Not all pharmacies charge the co-pay: Australian-owned Chemist Warehouse and the pharmacy in the Australian-owned supermarket chain Woolworths also doesn’t charge it, but smaller pharmacies often do (the pharmacy I use doesn’t charge the co-pay).

For example, suppose a patient has four drugs. Each one would carry a $5 co-pay at the time the new prescription is filled. So, right now, with 3-month prescriptions, that would be $80 for the year. Under the new system, people who qualify to use it would pay $20 for the year, but they’ll have to pick it up every 3-months, because that part hasn't changed. This means that the pharmacies that charge the co-pay will be doing more work for less income.

On top of that is the fee the medical practice charges for a prescription renewal, and that varies a lot. In my case, I pay $26 for every renewal ($104 per year for the four 3-month prescriptions). If I got a 12-month prescription, I’d pay $26 for the year (and I’d save $78 for the year).

Some people may save a bit of money, others would save very little, and some would save nothing because they’re not even eligible for 12-month prescriptions. I’d probably be in the middle category, but I don’t care about that, I just want quality healthcare. Mind you, it’s easy for me to say that when I get my prescriptions without a copay and delivered to my house for free every every month.

Healthcare is difficult enough to manage, especially with the current government chronically underfunding the healthcare system, but I still think that it would’ve been wiser—and safer—to go back to the former 6-month system than to jump to the 12-month system that the current government chose. Maybe it really will help people save some money and also reduce workload for GP practices, as the government claims, but I’m not convinced it’ll do much of that, either. It’ll take time before we can know who’s right about this.

Changing times, September edition

At 2am Sunday, September 27, New Zealand’s clocks jump forward one our for Daylight Saving Time, which is known as “NZ Daylight Time”, or “NZDT“)”. While I hate the twice-a-year clock changes, the NZDT change is the hardest because everything’s suddenly an hour later, and many people say they feel tired for around a week afterward—and by “many people” I mean me.

Good, bad, or indifferent, these time changes are a fact of life, for now, anyway. One thing these time changes need are amusing memes for us to share. I’m being sarcastic, of course, but they are a handy way to remind folks of the impending time change—or, they would be if they were more specific.

One year I shared a time-change meme on Facebook, and an American friend shared it, even though we don’t change our clocks on the same date. I think that underscores the extent to which many (most?) people don’t know when their local clocks change, but I’ve noticed many, many times when people seem to be completely unaware of the time change.

So, this time I took an existing meme and added information specific to New Zealand (at the top of this post) so, I hoped, it was abundantly clear that it was intended for New Zealanders. I may do something like that again for the next New Zealand time change in April.

I don’t mean to suggest I’m wonderful and astute, though I’m clearly both, but I’ve always put the date of the clock changes on my calendars, first on old timey paper calendars, and later on my electronic calendars. My electronic calendar is now shared on all my devices—phone, tablet, desktop computer, laptop, and even my Apple Watch. In other words, I have no excuse for not knowing dates of things—though I only use specific alerts for important things like appointments.

I’ve noted in the past that changing the clocks in my house is much easier than it’s ever been: All those devices I mentioned automatically change the time, and even the clock-radio in my bedroom has a “DST” button to make it easy to add or subtract an hour. Actually, even my car automatically changes the time.

However, all is not perfect: My microwave and oven are completely manual, and so, I never change the time on them. The truth is, I’d never even think of looking at them to find out what time it is, not when I wear a watch and have ample other clocks to look at.

Ah, yes, those clocks: I have four wall clocks that I have to change twice a year. That’s annoying, absolutely, but there’s another aspect: If there was a major network failure of some kind, and all the devices that use the Internet to set their time couldn’t, at least in theory, display the time accurately, my four ordinary battery-powered wall clocks will be just fine. I guess they’re kind of like a chronographic backup system. That doesn’t actually make me like changing those four clocks two times a year, but I might feel differently if all my devices suddenly couldn’t display the correct time.

I actually wish we’d end these twice a year clock changes, and if one day all my clocks changed the time automatically, I certainly wouldn’t object. After all, if there ever was a catastrophic failure capable of prevent devices from displaying the time accurately, maybe it’d just be a good excuse to take some time off.

New Zealand will switch back to New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) at 2am on Sunday, April 6, 2026.

Fast track to waiting

Today the current NZ government announced changes it plans to make to speed up supermarket construction based on results of their official RFI (Request For Information) to the supermarket industry. The government wants to entice new retailers to increase competition in the supermarket industry. There’s still a very long way to go.

Nicola Willis’ announcement for the government is basically just another “things we’re going to do later” sort of thing, and not yet any concrete action. However, it’s nevertheless a little bit of progress. As usual, “the devil’s in the details”, but supermarkets do need an easier and faster path to build new stores, especially (or maybe only?) when that increases competition, because competition is the entire goal. So, the government plans to create a “fast track” to make it quicker and easier to bui;d supermarkets by allowing them to get consent to build faster (one year rather than 18 months), and to also allow them to use standard plans to speed up approvals and building permits.

Competition has already proven itself: When Costco opened in Auckland, it drove down prices among competitors in the area—and there were also news stories of people driving six hours to buy butter at Costco for people in their communities because the price, at the time, was about half of what the two existing supermarket chains were charging. Right now, there’s no real competition in most of the country, with the existing two supermarket chains being the only option.

Costco said not long after their store opened that they planned to expand in New Zealand, and clearly that would be a very good thing for families. However, that will do little for single person households (mine) or retired people (me again) who can’t use supersized packages of food. We need competition in the supermarket industry that includes “normal size” supermarkets, too.

Willis talked about existing companies wanting to expand, and I hope that happens, too, because in an ideal world competition should be an “all of the above” situation, not a “this or that” one. However, it matters which companies want to expand. New Zealand has a number of small grocery retailing companies, including specialists, like for meat, fruits/vegetables, or for different communities (especially South Asian and East Asian). Would limited retailers really help much when we need more general supermarkets? Also some of the existing smaller companies may be foreign-owned, for all we know, and that could be its own issue.

We know that inviting in foreign corporations will obviously result in profits being shipped overseas, but it may also make New Zealand more vulnerable to international supply chain disruptions that the existing duopoly has somewhat less exposure to because they both rely heavily on producers in New Zealand and Australia. Over-reliance on foreign (in this case meaning not “Australasian”) companies could create a whole bunch of new problems. Personally, I don’t have confidence that NZ’s current Rightwing government will put the national interest ahead of foreign corporations, but I’d be delighted for them to prove my scepticism wrong.

I also noticed that Willis said there was no participation in the RFI from Aldi or Lidl, both of whom have expanded internationally. Aldi is established in Australia (Lidl isn’t there), so one would’ve thought it’d be an easy add-on for Aldi. Why didn’t Willis’ team reach out to the companies individually when they didn’t participate in the RFI? They both would have insights into what a foreign company might need to be tempted to enter the NZ market. After all, there were no promises of anything to any companies—it was just an RFI.

Things being what they are, the most optimistic view, perhaps, is that new supermarkets from either new foreign entrants or expansion of smaller existing operators are probably three years away, maybe longer. In the meantime, we’ll have to continue paying higher prices than people in Australia or the UK. Overall, food prices in New Zealand are around 3% higher than the average paid in the OECD. That, too, won’t change any time soon.

All of which is why the government’s announcement today is good, but just another (very) small step on a journey that’s still hundreds of metaphorical kilometres from its end. We need competition to drive down supermarket prices, but, at the moment, getting that is still a very long way off, despite today’s announcement.

A good month begins

Welcome to August! This is a very exciting month because it’s the final month of winter, and that means spring and better weather is on the way. It’s been a challenging winter, one I’’l be glad to see go away.

It’s safe to say that complaining about bad winter weather is a behaviour I’m drawn to, primarily because because that weather that can be aggravating, annoying, or even just a massive inconvenience, and I no longer have much tolerance for that. I may not be able to do anything to change the weather, but at least I can still complain about it.

All that said, the weather really has been pretty disgusting this winter. Last month, I wrote about June’s weather, and I said in that post that the temperatures in Hamilton were more or less aligned with historical averages, but we’d had a lot of rain. In July, the avearge high temperature was slighly higher than the historical average, but—yet again!—the rain was significantly more than the historical average. Turns out, though, Hamilton got off lightly.

In July, parts of New Zealand received three or four times the average rainfall, leading TVNZ’s 1News publishing a detailedrport on it: ”What was behind New Zealand’s wet and windy July”. Worse. 1News meteorologist Dan Corbett said that the rain “would be returning — with a vengeance”, so,we should "keep that raincoat handy. There is going to be more wild weather coming." Oh, yay.

Apparently, we’re getting all this rain because the surface water in the Tasman Sea is much warmer than usual (and yes, that's related to climate change), and that means that ordinary rain storm systems passing over it draw up lots of that evaporating moisture and then dump it on New Zealand. That won’t last forever, of course.

Despite all the rainy weather, we still get sunny days, sometimes a few in a row. Today was a sunny day, for example, and I got three loads of washing done with free electricity, though I could only dry two of them (I dried the third load when the rates went down at 10pm—winter days have fewer hours of daylight, and that affects how much power the solar panels generate, and so, how much free electricity I can use).

This particularly rainy winter has given me a new pastime: Frequently checking the extended weather forecast so that I can plan things, like doing the washing and charging the batteries for the mower and line trimmer (as well as working out when I can use them). I actually think this sort of constructive planning is a good thing —usually? At any rate, it makes it possible to get things done even when the weather isn’t cooperatimg.

Yeah, sure, all of that, BUT, spring is now only a month away, and for me that’s a great reason to celebrate—unless spring and summer also throw up, so to speak, bad weather. If they do, though, I’ll plan around that, too. Maybe I’m more predictable than the weather?

Sunny side up

It’s been extremely rainy in New Zealand lately—shocking news, I know. As usual, I had work-arounds. Eggs among them.

Early last week, I looked at the extended forecast, and saw it was supposed to be rainy until this past Friday. But, we had a run of a few days without rain, so I mowed the lawns on Tuesday—and that went well, fortunately, and on one battery charge.

It was fortunate I mowed the lawns when I did, because the extended forecast kept changing, and the sunny days kept moving farther away. By Friday of last week, the entire week was supposed to be rainy, then by this past Monday we were warned of big storms, especially for the top of the South Island. I decided I wasn’t going anywhere that day.

I started the day by making fried eggs (photo up top). When I shared it on my personal Facebook, I wrote: “My brunch today, the only 'sunny' thing I’ll be seeing today. 🙁”. I then added:

Kirikiriroa-Hamilton is under an Orange rain storm warning, with the potential for very heavy rain and strong winds until the wee hours of the morning. The top of the South Island, however, is under a Red Warning. Basically, an Orange Warning means “be prepared” because storms may be bad, and a Red Warning means “take action” because the storms WILL be bad.

The weather Monday was truly awful: Sometimes heavy rain, strong wind gusts, and steady rain even when it wasn’t raining heavily. I definitely made the right choice to stay home that day.

The extended forecast has pushed out next sunny day out again, to one week from today—July 20. There’s like to be sunny periods over the coming week, but rain is predicted for at least part of every day/ So, yay.

I’ve fully embraced my winter adaptations: I run the dishwasher, washer, and dryer only after 10pm whne the power rate drops to the lowest amount. I need to do this because there aren’t enough sunny hours to get free electricity, both because of all the rain we get in winter, and because the daylight hours are still pretty short.

I’ve also felt cold much of the time this winter, more so than I have in many years. I have no idea why, since the daily high temperatures, while cold, aren’t particularly unusual. Maybe all the rain has made things unusually damp?

Still, one does what one must to cope, and for some folks—like me—it requires a bit more effort. Sometimes even something as simple as well-made “sunny side up” fried eggs can help, too. Just another of my winter adaptations.

The clouds’ silver lining

Winter is not my favourite season, and while I don’t think I’ve mentioned that before, it’s definitely true. Now that we’re in the middle month of our winter, I can reconfirm my dislike of the season. Winter in this part of the country is often cold and rainy, and it seems this year it’s even more true than usual—maybe?

Last week, I wrote about the weather and how I’d felt yucky feeling, and I also mentioned that I’d found out that it had rained less in May than it seemed. Well, MetService reported that June was different in a couple significant ways.

June and July are the coldest months of the year (though very cold days can happen before or after those months), and the high temperatures in June were aligned with historic trends, however, the low was colder than normal. It also rained a LOT in June: The total for June was 192.2mm (approximately 7.57 inches), as compared to the historic average of 128mm (approximately 5.04 inches)—though in June last year the total was only 79.4mm (approximately 3.13 inches). So, basically, it rained a lot in Hamilton June.

Other parts of New Zealand, especially Auckland and Northland and also the top of the South Island, were hammered with rain. So, sure, it rained a lot in Kirikiriroa-Hamilton in June, but it was much worse in other parts of New Zealand. And yet, even that wasn’t as bad as it wounds.

As result of regular rain since April, New Zealand’s hydro lakes are at unusually high levels, and that means that we won’t have any rolling blackouts this winter, like when we had an unannounced rolling blackout on the coldest night of 2021.

The issue is that when winter begins, the lakes behind the dams are usually low due to low-to-no summer rains, and when the weather turns particularly cold, power use goes up, and if the hyrdo lakes are low, then we can face rolling blackouts as a “last resort.” We were threatened with the possibility of rolling blackouts several times after that infamous 2021 night, but none actually happened. It seems pretty clear it won’t happen this year, and the big storms we’ve had this winter have made sure of that.

So, all the rain we’ve had this year has had a genuine silver lining. There had to be something good about it. But I still hate winter. Have I even mentioned that?

Senseless census?

The current New Zealand government announced recently that it’s scrapping New Zealand’s five-yearly census. The government says it’s doing this because of rising costs, which, it thinks, can’t be justified when much of the information the census surveys can be extracted from data collected from various government agencies. Are they right? Or will their focus on cost alone cost New Zealanders in other ways?

In announcing the change, Statistics Minister Shane Reti described the change as being a”sharpened focus on quality economic, population stats”. Beginning in 2030, the new system will end the traditional nationwide census and will adopt a new approach “using administrative data, supported by a smaller annual survey and targeted data collection.” Reti claimed this “will save time and money while delivering more timely insights into New Zealand’s population,” but will it really? I think they’re overlooking the importance of what isn’t collected by anything except the census.

The government plans to use what’s called “administrative data”, which is basically statistics collected by various government agencies every day, things like tax records, education enrolments, health data, and other government data. in fact, Stats NZ uses administrative data for reports between censuses. Also, some of that sort of data is NOT collected by the current census, and so, it’s true that routinely including administrative data will give Parliament and the government of the day a better idea of the state of the country—or, at least, programmes central government manages.

However, the census also collects data no one esle does, including sociological and cultural data, such as, languages spoken in the home, religious affiliation and non-affiliation, and, most recently, sexual orientation and gender identity. Administrative data may sometimes hint at such data, but there’s no reason for them to collect it. To be blunt, it’s not merely about taxation or performance of the economy, so government agencies don’t need, and so, don’t collect such data. This kind of data provides a fuller picture of who, exactly, New Zealanders are, things beyond empoyment, tax, student debt, or any other things government departments collect information on.

Censuses provide the data that helps elected governments to work out not just where government spending is needed, but also WHY the money needs to be spent. Census data also gives local government insights into where new parks, public libraries, and various local improvements will be needed. Basically, getting the fullest, most complete picture of the people helps elected representatives to better represent the people who put them in power, as well as all the people who didn’t for whatever reason, like, for example, because they’re under 18.

Continuing the financial argument, Reti said, “Relying solely on a nationwide census day is no longer financially viable. In 2013, the census cost $104 million. In 2023, costs had risen astronomically to $325 million and the next was expected to come in at $400 million over five years [emphasis added]. I have absolutely no idea what that “over five years” thing means, and neither the press release nor media coverage have explained it—at all. Speaking of unexplained things, the announcement says that the census will end in 2030, but the next census was due to be in 2028—two years before the announced end of the census, so what’s going on? Are we not doing the 2028 census? If not, why isn’t the end date 2028 instead of 2030? The press release doesn’t say, but I saw a journalist’s comment (sadly, I didn’t bookmark it…) that we may have done our last census. Does the current government know what's up?

Still, despite Reti’s focus on cost alone, and even ignoring his weird, unexplained conflicting timeline, he was correct about one thing when he said, “successive censuses have been beset with issues or failed to meet expectations.” Absolutely true. It’s also absolutely true that we don’t know if the current government ever explored ways to improve the census rather than killing it off, because they don’t seem to have ever mentioned doing that, or having decided not to do that.

I have huge concerns about whether any of the data after the census ends will be complete, or even as useful. Stats NZ is the agency that currently conducts the census and will presumably collate the administrative data and the results from the “smaller annual survey and targeted data collection” the current government claims will fill in the missing data from the cancelled census. Will Stats NZ actually even be ABLE to get useful information about the needs of minority and vulnerable communities through the those planned targeted special surveys? Asking people who already mistrust government to do the census is a huge ask right now, but getting them to do a special survey most people don’t get asked to do sounds like it’s destined to fail. In fact, this non-compliance could make the “errors” in recent censuses seem very minor.

Conservative governments always look to cut costs, and so, services provided by government. In general, those who are obsessed with the cost of everything seldom understand the true value of anything. The current coalition government has the numbers to push through the required legislation, though if they lose the 2026 election, the new government could repeal the changes—or, not. That, too, is unknown territory.

To me, this issue isn’t merely about money, but also about the quality of the data, and I’m not convinced that what the current government is proposing with provide quality data that elected representatives in Parliament and local government alike need. As a middle ground, it seems to me that switching to a decennial census (like the USA has) could allow the collection of census data to periodically correct the data collected by other means, while still saving money. Maybe in time, as systems improve, the census wouldn’t be needed, but I’m not convinced that time is now.

Word nerd footnote: The formal term for a census conducted once every five years is to call it a “quinquennial census”. I can't remember ever hearing anyone using the term quinquennial, either for that or to refer to something that last five years (its other meaning). But I avoided using it in this post—until this footnote.

Doubly under the weather

I was recently “under the weather”, both literally and figuratively. We had several weeks with few sunny days (though some cloudy days did have some sunny breaks), and lots of rain, often heavy rain. Then I had more on top of that.

The first week in June, I started feeling bad. It started as a very mild cold the first weekend in June, and that ebbed and flowed, so to speak, for around a week after that. I wasn’t particularly sneezy or have a constantly runny nose, though both have happened at times. Mainly, I just felt yucky, and sometimes my sinuses felt angry. I didn’t have a fever, though, which is part of the reason I sometimes thought it felt more like a bout of allergies than a cold. Even so, I felt pretty bad on a couple days.

I ventured out again on Thursday of last week, once I felt sure the affliction had passed. I used an abundance of caution because I went to visit my mother-in-law, and certainly didn’t want to pass a bug to her.

And then there was the weather, too.

In general, cloudy and rainy days aren’t that important, really, except that temperatures also dropped a lot (have I ever mentioned how much I hate cold temperatures?), and there seemed to be an awful lots of rainy days. The rainy weather is dreary all on its own, but it also means my solar panels make far less power on what are already shorter days (though, as I said yesterday, the daylight hours were two seconds longer than Saturday…). That affects what chores I can do—or, at least, what I’m willing to pay to do in the daytime.

At the end of May, there was a storm in Hamilton that caused a “mini tornado” in an area a couple kilometres from me, though the weather wasn’t as severe in my neighbourhood. However, at the same time that the suspected “mini tornado” struck, there was a torrential downpour in my neighbourhood, so much so that I had to turn the TV volume way up so I could hear it over the rain. The winds didn’t seem strong here, though.

That was only one of several storms with heavy downpours in May, so many, in fact, that I assumed it had been a rainy month, but apparently not. According to MetService, the rain accumulation in Hamilton in May of this year was completely aligned with May of last year and the historical data, too—which is a pretty good argument for not relying on mere perception, especially when the actual data is available.

Okay, fine: The amount of rain that fell in May was actually quite ordinary, even though it didn’t seem that way. Maybe it was the fact the days were shorter, and the fairly constant cloudcover—which isn’t tracked in data, as far as I can tell—is probably what affected my (incorrect) perception of rainy weather. Just cloudy, then.

All of which means that the actual rainfall in May wasn’t as bad as it seemed to me at the time, and my June disease affliction wasn’t as bad as a “real” illness. In fact, I sometimes still have times I’m a bit sneezy with a briefly runny nose, so maybe it’s just some sort of winter allergy, or whatever.

Winter is never pleasant for me, regardless of the amount of rain that actually falls in any given week, and this year has been no different. I’m glad I quarantined myself for my mother-in-law’s sake, even if my seeming disease affliction really were “just” allergies. The yucky feeling was real, even if my perception of rainfall may have been based on alternative facts. I blame winter

A change of clowns

New Zealand’s 3-ring circus government had a major change today when the leader of the hard-rightwing Act Party, David Seymour, became Deputy Prime Minister (aka “DPM”), replacing Winston Peters, leader of the rightwing populist New Zealand First Party (Peters will remain Foreign Minister). On the surface, its not a big deal at all, but it may prove to be one for entirely partisan political reasons.

The job-share Deputy Prime Minister position (a description of the job that both Seymour and Peters loathe, which is ironic since they both say disparaging things about opponents that are far, far worse) was part of the two parties’ coalition agreement with the right-of-centre National Party, headed by current Prime Minister Chris Luxon. The role of Deputy Prime Minister exists so that someone is “in charge” when the Prime Minister is out of the country, at which time the DPM becomes acting prime minister. Because there were times over the past 18 months when both Luxon and Peters were out of the country, Seymour has been the acting PM a couple before. And that’s where the unimportance ends.

By taking the first half of the job-share role, Winston is free to start campaigning for next year’s General Election. He has never won re-election after serving in Government, but he clearly hopes that this will give him the distance to run against the very government he was part of. Interesting ploy from the wily Winston, but it’s by no means certain it’ll work. The election of "change” was 2023, and 2026 will be largely a reaction to the past three years of this Government.

I wrote about this circus arrangement back in 2023, and in that post I quoted TVNZ journalist John Campbell making the same point about Winston’s motivation for being DPM first. Today, 1News published a new piece about his interviews with Winston and David about the job-share change, and Winston confirmed the reason he went first. So… not so secret then. Clearly.

Seymour, on the other hand, apparently wanted to be the sole DPM because his party won more seats in Parliament than Winston’s did. Those of us who oppose this rightwing government have dreaded this job-share change because, of the two, Seymour is way more reprehensible. His “Treaty Priniciples Bill” was the most divisive—and racist—bill in decades, or even longer. It resulted in the largest-ever protest march on Parliament and an astounding 300,000 submissions to Parliament the VAST majority of which opposed the bill. The parliamentary select committee recommended that the bill be rejected, and Parliament did: It only got 11 votes, all from the Act Party’s own MPs—ALL other parties voted against it and former politicians from all over the spectrum denounced the bill.

Among other neoliberal things, Seymour is a proponent of “charter schools”, as he was in the past, and many of his opponents, including me, see it as his way of privatising education by stealth. He and his party are not friends of working people, though in a sort of backhanded compliment, they’ve also never pretended to be. Their policies promote the sort of far-right, neoliberal agenda that could never get through democratically (kind of like the current occupant of the USA’s White House’s “Project 2025” fascist agenda).

Seymour is openly hostile to the news media—often aggressively so (though one suspects it may be mainly performative…) but always in a dickheadish way. John Campbell talks about that, too. Seymour has ties to a far-right a foreign neoliberal network that worked behind the scenes to affect public policy in multiple countries. He dismisses concerns about his past, and denies any connection, even though his policy objectives align with the neoliberals’ priorities. The extent of his involvement in the far-right group and its influence on him, AND his prickly relationship with journalists, can be seen in an RNZ documentary in its “Mata Reports” series, titled “ACT: The Foreign Influences That Have Shaped David Seymour's Political Agenda” presented by veteran journalist Mihingarangi Forbes.

Seymour has a habit of making outrageous and confrontational statements that openly and strongly contradict official government policy, often to claim “credit” for his party. While some of that is purely performative, mainly for the benefit of the minority of New Zealanders who agree with him, he’s always nevertheless consistently promoting an unpopular hard-right political agenda, and he does so with a weird blend of attempted humour and aggressive bullying. It’s never pleasant to watch him perform for the cameras—but, to be clear, he really is very, very good at performing and has a productive social media team, which is why the very journalists he attacks always cover him and his antics.

The bottom line in all this is that for the majority of New Zealanders, Winston was (and is) bad, but Seymour is far worse. To be abundantly clear, I have never voted for Winston or Seymour’s parties, and I can’t conceive of any scenario whatsoever in which I would consider it for even a nanosecond. This is a truly “duh!” statement: As I’ve made abundantly clear over the past 18+ years of this blog, I am absolutely not a “conservative”, much less a hard-rightwinger. It is, in fact, my centre-left politics and values that make me reject both Winston and Seymour. It’s not personal, it’s political.

As difficult as the past 18 months have often been, the coming 18 months may be even worse. If they are, it’ll help ensure this current government is turfed out at the next election. That gives Seymour an incentive to behave himself in his job-share role. Can he do it? Dunno. But I doubt it.

Behind my ‘Weekend Diversion’ posts

It’s Sunday, and that often means a “Weekend Diversion” post about pop music, though the next one isn’t until next week. However, one of the important resources for those posts had a significant anniversary this week, and that’s definitely worth noting.

This past Friday, May 2, the official New Zealand music chart turned 50. The very first song to be listed at Number One was “Yesterday was Just the Beginning of My Life” by Mark Williams (it’s available to watch on NZ On Screen, however, that may not be viewable in all countries, at least not without using a VPN). I never heard the song until I came to New Zealand, and even then it was kind of by accident: 20 years after it went to Number One, it wasn’t exactly cool anymore. It didn’t chart in any other country.

Because the official chart is so (relatively) young, it charts, so to speak, a LOT of New Zealand pop culture history as it happened. For example, it documents the first single entirely in Te reo Māori, “Poi E”, which I talked about way back in 2010. The Aotearoa Music Charts site has published a a “50 Iconic Chart Moments” infographic, which provides insight into part of NZ’s pop culture history over the past 50 years—even without being eve vaguely familiar with the songs.

The official NZ music chart provides the local context for my “Weekend Diversion” music posts, and that’s incredibly valuable to me—and interesting, too. Like all bloggers, I have many, many resources to refer to when writing my posts, but this one has been very important. And acknowledging its 50th birthday on the day of the week on which I often celebrate pop music seems to me to be utterly appropriate. Happy Birthday, NZ Music Chart! And happy NZ Music Month, too.

The weird holiday weekend

Today is Easter Monday, a public holiday in New Zealand, and the conclusion of a four-day holiday weekend. It’s also the weirdest holiday weekend. Still.

I wasn’t originally going to say anything about it this year, especially because I pretty much said all I wanted to in a post on Easter Monday last year, especially my criticism of the wacky and very confusing trading ban rules (most shops are supposed to be closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, even though Easter isn’t a public holiday, and no TV ads can be broadcast on either of those days, or Christmas Day, not until after noon on Anzac Day and every Sunday. There’s since been an update to to something I said in that post last year, especially about the ad bans. I wrote:

The current broadcasting minister, a former TV show host of dubious ability as a minister, has blandly promised a re-write of the [Broadcasting] Act (written way before the Internet or streaming services were a thing), but given the chaos under our current three-ring circus coalition government, I doubt it’ll actually happen. I think that ending the ad bans ought to be done as quickly as possible: They make absolutely no sense, deny NZ broadcasters revenue that foreigners still get, and has nothing whatsoever to do with New Zealand workers and days off.

The first update is that the Media Minister I wrote about was sacked only a few weeks after my post (apparently I’m very influential…). Then, in December of last year, her replacement as Media Minister announced that the government would introduce legislation to allow TV advertising on Sundays and public holidays, because the ad bans don’t apply to streaming services (like YouTube) or to radio, meaning broadcast TV is losing money that other media providers can still get. The Minister told RNZ in the linked article,"Traditional media outlets are operating in an extremely difficult environment and as the government, we must ensure regulatory settings are enabling the best chance of success." Indeed. He also said it “could generate approximately $6 million for the industry” which doesn’t sound like much to me. Even so, I think that’s absolutely the right thing to do—though the government hasn’t yet actually passed the bill.

I still think the trading bans should be removed from Good Friday and Easter, not the least because New Zealand is now majority “no religion”, but mostly because those holidays don’t have the same sort of traditions like family gatherings that Christmas Day does (the other all-day holiday with a trading ban, plus Anzac Day morning has a trading ban, too). So I’m fine with keeping the ban on trading Christmas Day, but the trading bans on Good Friday and Easter Sunday seem silly to me. At the very least, the TV advertising bans should be ended, and maybe they finally soon will be.

Halloween again, again

Today is Halloween again. Again. It’s still a day that I don’t have any interest in—though I don’t hate it, either. To each their own, and all that. Today is a far bigger deal for other reasons, but more about that in another post.

I said last year that one of the reasons I stopped buying candy for trick or treaters was that there were seldom any that stopped at any of the houses we lived in but I also said, “I’ll probably buy candy” for this year. That never happened.

While this has been a difficult year for me, and for a lot of reasons, the issue right now is that I haven’t had enough good sleep, even though the number of hours have been enough, and it’s left me feeling tired and disconnected. I managed to mow my front lawn today (the back is scheduled for tomorrow), and that left me physically tired, too.

In fact, I was so worn out after the mowing that I didn’t have my shower until late afternoon, and that was when I heard kids’ voices coming for a neighbour's yard that I remembered it was Halloween today. As it happens, I had some things to do in the back of the house (including writing a couple more blog posts), so I wasn’t up front when the kids started knocking on the door.

The doorbell camera told me that between 4:57 and 6:43pm, there three groups of kids in costume who came to my door, around ten kids in total. Three of the visitors were mid-teen girls who stood looking at their phones after they’d knocked. One of them said, “He says he’s in the area”, and they went on to the next house a moment later. Just like last year, the only response the trick-or-treaters got at my house was a telling off from Leo. Also like last year, I had the blinds closed so I could have my dinner and watch the TV news in peace—well, relative peace.

There still wasn’t much news coverage, but Stuff reported that, ”Billionaires’ Auckland mansion transformed into haunted house for trick-or-treaters”, an event which turned out to be a fair bit more than the average New Zealander could do. Not content to let the billionaires have all the fun, RNZ reported that the NZ Police warned “Don't throw caution out the window for Halloween” , which began, “It's that one night of the year where parents basically throw out the stranger danger warning, send their kids out at dusk and green light them taking lollies from random people,” which is true enough—and the biggest irony of the holiday. Even so, the piece had a bit of a buzzkill to it.

I still don’t know whether anything can ever rekindle an affection within me for Halloween, but I do think it's kind of fascinating to watch how Halloween participation in New Zealand is growing in spurts and shrinkages. Last year I wondered whether “more people start adopting it, could change things for me, but the jury’s still out on that.

The drawing accompanying is post is one I originally shared last year, something I made when I was in my late teens or early 20s. I’m sharing it again this year because I can, I never did before last year, and because this particular crude doodle thing is still the only treat I have to hand out this year.

So, I guess that’s again my Happy Halloween to those who celebrate.

New Zealand is changing

The 2023 New Zealand Census data that I’ve been waiting for has finally been released, and to statistics and demographics nerds like me, it’s utterly fascinating. To avoid burying the lede, New Zealand is finally majority non-religious. I’ve written about that subject several times over the years, and have always said this was inevitable.

This is the way Statistics NZ reported the change:

For the first time since the New Zealand census began to collect religious affiliation, over half of the census usually resident population had no religion at the time of the 2023 Census. The proportion of people with ‘No religion’ steadily increased from 41.9 percent (1,635,348) in 2013, to 48.2 percent (2,264,601) in 2018, and 51.6 percent (2,576,049) in 2023.

That’s an increase of ten points over a decade, but it was a slow change. This is the point where I always point out that “no religion” means precisely that: While it includes the categories atheist and agnostic, it also includes those who have “nothing in particular”. The only thing we know for sure about these people—which, full disclosure, is the category I chose for myself—is that we aren’t part of any organised religion. The stats for religious identification are also changing:

The three largest religious groupings in 2023 were:

• Christian – 1,614,636 people (down 102,543) or 32.3 percent of the total population, compared with 36.5 percent in 2018
• Hindu – 144,753 people (up 21,369) or 2.9 percent compared with 2.6 percent in 2018
• Islam – 75,138 people (up 14,517) or 1.5 percent compared with 1.3 percent in 2018.

I think that the small increase in those choosing Hindu or Islam is probably because of immigration (though that might take deeper analysis to confirm), but it’s fascinating that less than a third of New Zealanders identify as Christian—this in a country once heavily dominated by those identifying as Christian.

New Zealand has actually been a secular nation for a very long time, even when religious identification was still a majority (in other words, 2018 and earlier). In my personal experience, most New Zealanders don’t like having religion shoved in their faces, so much so that door-to-door proselytisers, and pretty much any insistent religious person, is likely to be called a “god botherer” (though not to their faces…) by ordinary Kiwis—even including many of those who identify as Christian. Basically, Kiwis want to be left alone.

The 2023 Census was the first to ask people about their gender, sexual identity, and whether they were born with a variation of sex characteristics. The results showed that around 1 in 20 adults belonged to Rainbow or LGBTIQ+ communities. Wellington has the highest percentage (11.3 percent) of LGBTIQ+ residents, Dunedin was second (with 7.3 percent), then Christchurch (6.0 percent), Palmerston North (5.8 percent), and Hamilton (5.6 percent). Auckland, by far New Zealand’s largest city, had a lower percentage of people who belonged to the LGBTIQ+ population (4.9 percent) than Hamilton has, which surprised me. Within Auckland local board areas, Waitematā, which is mainly the central city, including some historically LGBTIQ+ suburbs (neighbourhoods), had the highest proportion of LGBTIQ+ adults, with 12 percent. [For more detailed information, see “2023 Census shows 1 in 20 adults belong to Aotearoa New Zealand’s LGBTIQ+ population”].

Here are a few random facts I thought were interesting:

• In 2023, 22.5 percent of the population was 60 years and over, and 18.7 percent were children under 15 years. These proportions were 20.8 and 19.6 percent respectivelyin 2018. Also, the average number of children born to each female aged 15 years and over was 1.6, down from 1.7 children in 2018 and 1.8 in 2013. Taken together, this shows why immigration will continue to be important for New Zealand if it is to cope with an aging population and declining numbers of New Zealand-born young people to support them.

• Almost 30 percent of usual residents were born overseas. The most common overseas birthplaces in 2023 were: England at 4.2 percent of the total population (208,428 people), People’s Republic of China at 2.9 percent (145,371 people), and India at 2.9 percent (142,920 people). 31,779 people in New Zealand were born in the United States. The number of people born in the Philippines increased from 37,299 people (0.9 percent) in 2013 to 99,264 (2.0 percent) in 2023. Not all of these foreign-born people are citizens or even necessarily permanent residents—they’re merely “usually resident”, and may be on work permits and visas. [For more detailed information, see “Census results reflect Aotearoa New Zealand’s diversity”, which also includes information on languages spoken and ethnicity].

• Around two-thirds of households in New Zealand (1,175,217 or 66.0 percent) now own their home, compared with 64.5 percent in 2018. Stats NZ principal analyst, Rosemary Goodyear, noted that, “This increase in home ownership, although small, is a reversal of the falling rates we have seen since home ownership peaked in the early 1990s.” However, home ownership is lowest in Auckland (59.5 percent), probably in part because it has some of the highest house prices in the country.

• About two-thirds of private dwellings (66.8 percent) had heat pumps in 2023, compared with just under half (47.3 percent) in 2018. That’s a huge increase, and that makes homes warmer and drier, but their energy efficiency makes the increase good new for the country. 

• Landline telephones are rapidly declining in use. In 2023, 31.0 percent of households had a landline, down from 62.5 percent in the 2018 Census. I don’t know if they have a way to track VOIP phones (what I have), which are internet-based but use traditional “landline” phone numbers.

Every time I look at newly-released census statistics, I always find things I think are interesting, and there was obviously far more in the press releases than I’ve shared here. Eventually I’ll look at the raw data to see if the answers to any of my questions are there, or can be extrapolated from the data that is there. But that’s a job for the future. Right now, though, it’s like Christmas for statistics and demographics nerds like me. Hooray!

More information on any of these census statistics can be found in the links above. Also, “Home ownership increases and housing quality improves” has data about housing, including the last three points on my random facts list.

Left off the map. Yet again.

A very serious international incident occurred today. Sure, it won’t lead to global war, or even sanctions or whatever, but it’s still very, very serious: New Zealand was left off a world map at the Olympics closing ceremony. After the most successful Olympic Games New Zealand has ever had, literally everyone in New Zealand is asking, “How many medals does New Zealand have to win to be included on the map?!”

Okay, so not everyone is talking about this faux pas, but that may be only because we’re used to it: New Zealand is frequently left off world maps. The video up top is from the 100% Pure New Zealand YouTube Channel, a project of and New Zealand Tourism, and it features all sorts of videos promoting tourism in New Zealand. This video features NZ comedian Rhys Darby (who is probably best known for playing Murray Hewitt, the band manager of Flight of the Conchords in the television series of the same name as he tries to find out who’s behind the “conspiracy” to leave New Zealand off of maps. Also in the video is Jacinda Ardern, who was NZ Prime Minister at the time.

The video was released in May, 2018, which may explain why I never shared it here on the blog: That was the month that Leo came to live with us, so my focus was elsewhere. Insteadt, I only shared it on Facebook, writing:

This is joking, BUT it’s something every New Zealander has noticed. First time I noticed it was nearly 20 years ago. We were visiting Universal Studios in California, and, yep, New Zealand was missing from the big globe.

On the other hand, I’ve read that New Zealanders have a superhuman ability to spot the letter “Z” within a full page of printed text without even trying. I’m certain there are studies proving this, but none by American researchers. They keep pronouncing it “zee” so they miss the proof entirely.

I thought that there was a photo of Nigel and me in front of the globe pointing to where New Zealand should be, but I I looked through the album, and don’t have a photo like that. It might be in the video Nigel shot, but I’m not certain where that is, and, anyway, it’s never been digitised and that may not even be viewable anymore: It was shot 25 years ago. To get the general idea, though, here’s a photo Nigel’s cousin took of us in front of the globe (I don’t think I was pointing, or whatever—she probably snapped the photo before I was totally ready). Australia is just above me at the top of the photo—but there’s no New Zealand!

So, New Zealand missing from a world map isn’t really an international incident, though the incident will likely inspire Kiwis’ to use their legendary sarcastic humour to mock the perpetrators, and that may be a bit too pointed for French sensibilities to hear—sacré bleu!—so maybe the international incident is still to come?

All joking aside, it would be nice if various folks stopped leaving New Zealand off the map. Many foreigners have trouble remembering where on the globe the country is, and leaving us off the map doesn’t help. Wait a minute: If we’re left off of maps, maybe the bad people in the world who might start a global war won’t know where we are so they won’t attack us. Hm…

On second thought, never mind.