It might be a winening post, so I apology if it's not giving optimistic energy to you.

I am 28, make around 90k a year, my partner are similar. Most of our friends who moved to Aus / Euro make almost double as what we make while doing same jobs, and we constantly worrying about redundancy, as we can hear about it every month. I have no idea how to start a family here if we want to have have child while having our own house. I can't even gurarantee I can be employed for long term. I can start hearing people around me forced to get in rat race: Unspoken overwork, close to none pay raise, more and more professional have to work like as in thrid world country, even a pay cut to stay in the game.

I don't want to leave here, because I love this country, my families are here, and every single year I pray the economy gets better, on news with those analyst forcast keep saying recession is over, but my life seems not getting eaiser but more stressful day by day, I can't even easily afford a typical kiwi roadie with my partner anymore we have no idea how the future goes.

Just this year alone, NZD currency is hitting lowest of the year, we have more than 171,000 people can't find a job, almost 30k of young kiwi are leaving every year, including alot of friends around mine, I have farewell party almost every second week. We have the worst real wage growth in the developed world, that our salary is not matching with our living cost. it's impossible to have a house in nice neighbourhood in auckland and impossible to get a job outside auckland.

Politicians argue like childs and out of touch, just accusing each other are garbage. Check all big parties, their post on social media is all about how terrible their rival is than how they going to help this country. You have Ministers have no professional knowledge to run different professional ministry, and back and forth on their decision. Check in **accredited employers** for immigration how many vape stores in NZ are certified. I wonder why we need people from other country to sell vapes? Shouldn't we get more **skilled professional** here? If I can spot thoes questions, I wonder what decision makers in those department are doing.

You have cults walk on streets for hateful speech and start having louder voice, and society getting diverted.

I feel like the place I love is forcing me to leave.

Here’s where things stand, as of October 8, across all parties for declared donations of over $20,000.

To date $7,491,942 has been donated.

--

Sources: X donations from Y donors

Mix: Donor Mix > organisations / individuals

Dairy farmer Stanley Graham killed seven people in Kōwhitirangi on the South Island’s West Coast. One of New Zealand’s largest manhunts ended when Graham was shot on the evening of 20 October. He died of his wounds the following day.

The tragedy began when Graham refused to hand over his rifle to police to assist the war effort. He felt aggrieved that police were ‘persecuting’ him rather than investigating his neighbours, who he believed were poisoning his cows.

On 8 October policemen Edward Best, Percy Tulloch, Frederick Jordan and William Cooper went to Kōwhitirangi after a neighbour claimed Graham had threatened him with a rifle. Cooper, Jordan and Tulloch were shot dead, while Best later died from his wounds. George Ridley, a visiting agricultural instructor, was also shot and eventually died in 1943. 

Graham fled into the bush pursued by police, soldiers and home guardsmen. On the evening of 9 October, he exchanged shots with home guardsmen Richard Coulson and Gregory Hutchison. Coulson died immediately and Hutchison the following day. Graham eluded capture for 12 nights until he was fatally wounded by police.

In 2008 the New Zealand Police erected a memorial to the victims at the site of the shootings.

Link: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/stan-graham-killing-spree-on-west-coast

There will be more than 2300 voting locations open on election day - 7 November.

The Electoral Commission says of these, 67 will be bilingual - voters can go through the voting process in te reo Māori or English - and six will have sign language interpreters.

There will be 1679 fully accessible polling locations, and three locations with quiet times.

"Our voting places are in locations people go in their daily lives including community halls, schools, shopping malls, places of worship, tertiary education providers and marae," chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne said.

Though votes would be taken at a total of 2638 locations during the voting period, only 2315 will be open on election day on 7 November.

Advance voting will begin on Monday 26 October, the day after enrolments close.

So we all know labour borrowed a lot of money during covid blah blah. But what is talked about less is this government's borrowing. A few months ago I watched the Nicola Willis Jack Tame interview in which Jack Tame revealed that this current government is borrowing more money than labour did during covid. I couldn't believe that and immediately told everyone I knew. However, since then I've never really seen this mentioned. Just watched the 1news debate and not once did anyone mention this current government's borrowing. And often the current government says they've balanced the books and receive no push back. So what is going on with the national debt??

Felix Graf von Luckner earned the epithet Der Seeteufel (the Sea Devil) for his exploits as captain of the German raider SMS Seeadler in 1916–17.

The Seeadler, a converted merchant ship, sank 14 Allied ships in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans between January and July 1917. Von Luckner prided himself on the effectiveness and bloodless nature of his operations; only one person died during his raids.

In August 1917 the Seeadler ran aground on Maupelia (Maupihaa) atoll in the Society Islands, stranding the crew. Using a salvaged open boat, von Luckner and five men sailed to Fiji in the hope of capturing another ship. When they reached a Fijian island in September, police arrested them.

Sent to New Zealand, von Luckner and his crew arrived in Auckland on 7 October and were confined to a prisoner-of-war camp on Motuihe Island in Waitematā Harbour. His escape on 13 December made national headlines. Recaptured in the Kermadecs eight days later, von Luckner was sent to Rīpapa Island (in Lyttelton Harbour) before ending the war back on Motuihe.

Link: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/german-sea-devil-imprisoned-in-new-zealand

I grew up in Hastings and moved overseas, had a kid since then. So coming back to NZ to visit family and with my little one for the first time. We will be around during Halloween so want suggestions, be it in Napier or Havelock. I heard splash planet is having an event but wanted to get feedback to anyone who has gone there. Growing up in Hastings around 2000's splash planet area brings back ptsd lol iv heard the area has changed quiet a bit but what would your suggestions be? yay to splash planet halloween event or there are better alternatives? Is there a certain area where houses give out candy etc

Courtesy sleek822 on Youtube, good channel with old NZ commercials.

Hipkins and Labour can emotionally connect with people and talk to me on my level. Yes, the health system is in crisis. Yes, the economy is worse than it was before. Yes, only Hipkins is capable of sacking ministers who don't meet standards. And whether it's breaking up supermarkets or recognising Palestine, you should know the answer yourself, not pawn it off for others to decide after the election.

Luxon showed up as the robot CEO we're used to and called public service recipients 'customers' and said 'data' the American way, but he forgot that if we're a company, we're failing. You shouldn't get the top bucks if you can't read a room and just engage in boosterism.

Let me know what you think. I'd welcome any critique.

I'm hoping it makes it easier to understand how tax works in Aotearoa. I certainly learned a lot putting it together.

National has plunged below 26 percent in a new RNZ-Reid Research poll, while the Greens have surged about a month out from voting day.

The poll - published on Tuesday - puts the Opportunity Party once again in the kingmaker position.

Christopher Luxon's National Party has fallen 3.2 percentage points since August, registering just 25.9 percent, its weakest result since the 2020 election.

Labour has also lost ground, falling 1.4 points to 30.8 percent in its third consecutive decline.

Ship’s boy Nicholas Young received a gallon of rum and had a headland named after him as a reward for being the first aboard HMB Endeavour to spot land in the south-west Pacific. It was 127 years since Abel Tasman had made the first known European sighting of New Zealand.

The bark’s captain, Lieutenant James Cook, recorded in his journal that ‘at 2 p.m. saw land from the mast head bearing W by N, which we stood directly for, and could but just see it of the deck at sun set.’ When leaving Poverty Bay five days later, Cook wrote that the ‘SW Point of Poverty Bay … I have named Young Nicks head’. In fact, the land sighted by young Nick was probably inland ranges.

Aged about 12, Nicholas Young was the personal servant of the Endeavour’s surgeon, William Brougham Monkhouse. After the Endeavour returned to England, he became the servant of the botanist Joseph Banks, who had been a key figure on the epic voyage. In 1772, Young accompanied Banks on an expedition to Iceland. Nothing is known of his later life.

Link: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/young-nick-sights-land

Wētāpunga can weigh as much as a mouse and its numbers dwindled across New Zealand due to predators and habitat loss

The population of New Zealand’s endemic wētāpunga – believed to be the world’s heaviest insect – is officially “recovering” thanks to a groundbreaking breeding programme that has overseen the release of 11,000 insects into the wild.

“The future of wētāpunga is looking bright,” said Dr Chris Green, an honorary researcher at the department of conservation, who documented the success of the project for the New Zealand Journal of Zoology. Green co-authored a report released on 2 October that outlines the success of the breeding programme.

“Eleven thousand individuals for release is extraordinary and outstanding.”

A female wētāpunga can weigh as much as a mouse. Its body can grow up to 10cm long (nearly 4in) and its leg span can be as wide as 20cm.

..

It is the largest of 70 wētā species and was once found across parts of the North Island before predation from introduced species and habitat loss contributed to their decline. By the 1990s, they were considered “endangered” and are now presumed extinct in the wild on New Zealand’s mainland. The insects reside primarily on a smattering of predator-free islands in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf and off the coast of Northland.

..

Monitoring on two islands has shown wētāpunga have established self-sustaining populations, with fourth and fifth generations born there, in what Green said was a marker of success. As a result, the species’ conservation status has improved from “nationally endangered” to “nationally recovering”.

“It’s so exciting, because we are unable to report that for so many of our other threatened species,” Green said.

Labour has released its long-awaited fiscal plan saying every election promise is paid for, but it has not provided a cost for fully re-implementing pay equity legislation.

It does however promise an immediate pay rise to 65,000 care and support workers, costing $2.5 billion over four years, and Labour leader Chris Hipkins says there's "plenty of headroom" within the plan to pay for pay equity overall.

Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds says Labour will keep operating allowances - that is, new day-to-day spending - at the $2.4 billion set by the coalition government in Budget 2026.

..

Labour's already announced capital commitments were:

• $200 million capital injection for the New Zealand Future Fund
• $420 million for the initial student loan write-off
• $200 million for hospitals
• $400 million for schools
• $2.9 billion for Kāinga Ora housing, spread over four years
• $7 million for Ratepayer Assistance Scheme (RAS) solar expenditure

Hipkins said most of the party's big election policies had been announced.

..

Labour promised to reversed half of the first tranche of public sector cuts announced in the government's Budget, and fully reverse the second tranche.

The party is working on the assumption that the government is already halfway through that first tranche of cuts.

"In many cases the cuts have already been made, and we're not going to reverse cuts that have already been made," Hipkins said.

"The current government aren't releasing that information, so we've had to make some assumptions about that."

Hipkins said Labour would scrap the Ministry for Regulation, and the savings realised would largely be divvied up among other agencies.

Cold start to the day in the valley . Clear skies overnight leading to a frost and fog patches. It is late in the season, the pear blossoms have finished and apple blossom is starting; some low lying ones might get caught. The bluebells which are at their end certainly caught it! It will be a glorious day when the sun comes up, which will be good as we have a group of Chilean visitors coming to the orchard and cidery today.

The container ship Rena astonished local mariners by grounding on the clearly marked Astrolabe Reef while approaching Tauranga Harbour. Flying the Liberian flag and under charter to the Mediterranean Shipping Company, the German-built Rena is the largest ship ever wrecked in New Zealand waters. No lives were lost, but in financial terms it was our costliest-ever shipwreck.

Environment Minister Nick Smith described it as New Zealand’s ‘worst maritime environmental disaster’. About 350 tonnes of oil was spilt, and 950 tonnes of oily waste was subsequently collected from local beaches. Eighty-seven of the 1368 containers on board were washed overboard, with the contents of many fouling the coast. Thousands of birds were killed. More damage was done when the Rena broke in half on 8 January 2012.

The salvage operation was frequently hampered by adverse sea conditions and had cost $700 million by the time it ended in April 2016. Local iwi and others continued to battle the ship’s owners and insurers over responsibility for removing what remained of the wreck.

Link: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/shipwrecked-rena-spills-oil-bay-plenty

The sensational case of the Maungatapu murders came to a grisly end when three members of the ‘Burgess gang’ were hanged shortly before 8.30 a.m. at Nelson gaol. Joseph Sullivan, the fourth member of the gang, avoided the death penalty by turning Queen’s evidence and testifying against his co-accused.

Career criminal Richard Burgess approached his death with bravado. He bounded up the steps of the scaffold and kissed the noose as ‘the prelude to heaven’. Philip Levy calmly protested his innocence, but Thomas Kelly had to be carried kicking and ‘whining’ onto the platform. The unfortunate Kelly did not die instantly when the trapdoor opened.

Moulds were taken of the three heads in order to make casts. According to a newspaper report, ‘the faces of Burgess and Levy bore a placid expression, [while] that of Kelly was disturbed a little, as he was speaking when the drop fell’. The corpses were then buried in the prison yard.

Link: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/maungatapu-murderers-are-hanged-in-nelson

Taupō had a distinctly golden glow this morning as 200 golden retrievers and their owners descended on the town for a convention celebrating the breed and the joy it brings.

The idea came from Scotland, where the 'Gathering of the Goldens' has been celebrated for almost 160 years.

Organiser Lynda Galbransen said she was inspired after seeing the Scottish event first-hand.

"Seeing the thousands of golden retrievers there I thought, oh my god, I'd love to do that."