New Zealand on Tuesday passed into law a unique plan to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes. The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, it would be punishable by fines up to NZ$150,000 ($95,910). The ban will remain in place for a person's whole life. It means the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up. In theory, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to show they were at least 63 years old. But health authorities hope smoking will fade away well before then. FILE PHOTO: Vaping by a man in a street in Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/David Rowland) Already boasting one of the lowest adult smoking ...
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travelogues, travel articles and news from New Zealand
New Zealand’s Tūroa ski area is usually a white wonderland at this time of year, its deep snowpack supporting its famed spring skiing. This season, it’s largely a barren moonscape, with tiny patches of snow poking out between vast fields of jagged volcanic boulders. The ski area was forced to close for the season this week, three weeks earlier than planned. Rain repeatedly washed away the snow, and the ski area’s 50 snowmaking machines proved no match against balmy temperatures. Climate change appears to be a significant factor, after New Zealand experienced its warmest winter on record — for the third year in a row. The ski slopes are almost devoid of snow at the Tūroa ski field at Mt. Ruapehu, New Zealand on Sept. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Nick Perry) The disastrous snow season co...
Read MoreTourists will no longer need to be vaccinated to visit New Zealand removed most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions Monday as the government signaled a return to normalcy for the first time since the pandemic began. People will no longer be required to wear masks in supermarkets, stores, busses or planes. The last remaining vaccine mandates — on health care workers — will end. And tourists will no longer need to be vaccinated in order to visit the country. The government announced it was ditching its so-called COVID traffic light framework altogether and leaving in place just two main restrictions — that those who test positive for the virus isolate for seven days, and that people wear masks when visiting health care facilities like hospitals and aged-care homes. FILE PHOTO...
Read MoreThe Whanganui River is surging into the ocean, fattened from days of winter rain and yellowed from the earth and clay that has collapsed into its sides. Logs and debris hurtle past as dusk looms. Sixty-one-year-old Tahi Nepia is calmly paddling his outrigger canoe, called a waka ama in his Indigenous Māori language, as it is buffeted from side to side. Before venturing out, he makes sure to first ask permission from his ancestors in a prayer, or karakia. It’s the top item on his safety list. He says his ancestors inhabit the river and each time he dips his paddle into the water he touches them. Tahi Nepia, a waka ama (outrigger canoe) paddler and caretaker at a Maori immersion school, travels on the Whanganui River in New Zealand on June 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Brett Phibbs) “You ...
Read MoreThe infrequently sighted southern right whale, or tohorā is one of New Zealand's rarest whale species Photographs shared by members of the public, via Facebook and nature-watching network iNaturalist, helped scientists assess how the species is faring around the Aotearoa New Zealand mainland. Carried out in cooperation with the Department of Conservation and published in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management, the study reveals that southern right whales are slower than expected at re-establishing a habitat in mainland waters. The Tohoro, or Southern Right Whale is one of New Zealand's rarest whale species. Researchers have monitored its movement and presence with the help of citizen scientists. Photo credit: University of Auckland, Department of Conservation permit The re...
Read MoreNew Zealand on Friday welcomed the first cruise ship to return since the coronavirus pandemic began, signaling a long-sought return to normalcy for the nation’s tourism industry. New Zealand closed its borders in early 2020 as it sought at first to eliminate COVID-19 entirely and then later to control its spread. Although the country reopened its borders to most tourists arriving by plane in May, it wasn’t until two weeks ago that it lifted all remaining restrictions, including those on maritime arrivals. Many in the cruise industry question why it took so long. The Pacific Explorer sails into the Waitemata Harbour, in Auckland, New Zealand, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. (Brett Phibbs/New Zealand Herald) The end of restrictions allowed Carnival Australia’s Pacific Explorer cruise shi...
Read MoreNew Zealand's borders fully re-opened to visitors from around the world on Monday, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic closed them in March 2020. New Zealand's borders started reopening in February first for New Zealanders and restrictions have progressively eased. The process of reopening the borders ended last night with visitors who need visas and those on student visas now also allowed to return to New Zealand. New Zealand is now also letting cruise ships and foreign recreational yachts docks at its ports. Most visitors arriving in New Zealand still need to be vaccinated against COVID and must take two COVID tests after arriving. However, there are no quarantine requirements. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday during a speech at the Chi...
Read MoreNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday the country will fully reopen its international borders from 11:59 p.m. on July 31, with cruise ships also welcome back to local ports on the same day. The end-July opening of the border is two months earlier than the government's previous time frame and will mean visitors who need visas will now be able to come to New Zealand. Ardern said in a speech to a Business NZ lunch in Auckland that opening the borders would help to relieve urgent skills shortages, open up tourism and put immigration settings on a more secure footing. "We are building on our proven plan to secure New Zealand's economic future," Ardern said. (Reuters) ...
Read MoreBut Indian tourists will still have to wait till October to get in New Zealand welcomed thousands of travellers from around the globe on Monday as the country opened its borders to visitors from around 60 nations including the United States, Britain and Singapore for the first time since COVID-19 hit in early 2020. Maori cultural performers sang songs at the arrivals gate in Auckland and travellers were handed popular locally made chocolate bars as the first flights came in from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Friends and family hugged and cried as people were reunited for what was for some the first time in more than two years. Garth Halliday, who was waiting at the airport for his son, daughter-in-law and grandson to land from London, told local media it made him happy an...
Read MoreNew Zealand is bringing forward the opening of its international borders to some travellers after more than two years of COVID-19 isolation, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying an influx of tourists will boost the nation's economy. The change means the end of some of the toughest border controls in the world during the COVID pandemic, imposed as the government tried to keep the coronavirus out, comes months ahead of the previous schedule. New Zealand's policies helped keep infections and deaths low. But with the Omicron variant now rampant, criticism has grown as business, particularly tourism, and agricultural sectors see little value in staying shut off from the world. Ardern told reporters on Wednesday that vaccinated travellers from Australia, New Zealand's biggest sour...
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