The New Zealand Urban Search and Rescue (Usar) team which went to Japan, returned home today. They said there was nothing more they could do in Japan. There is no hope of finding any survivors now because of the extreme cold. This is different from t...
Today, Christchurch held a memorial service to remember those who died following the earthquake on February 22nd. It was a public holiday for Canterbury so that many people could attend. The service was held outdoors in Hagley Park at midday and thou...
Prince William arrived in Christchurch this morning. He has come here to attend the memorial service tomorrow and to visit the families of the Pike River miners in Greymouth. This is a 5-day visit to parts of New Zealand and Australia where there hav...
Christchurch learnt today that the rugby games as part of the World Cup will be moved to other cities. This is because of damage to the stadium. There is damage to the field and damage to the stands where people sit. Another problem is the lack of ac...
Today, a memorial service was held for students and teachers from an English Language school who died following the earthquake on Feb 22nd. Their school was on the fifth floor of the CTV building which collapsed, killing 71 students and 9 teachers. 2...
The Feb 22nd earthquake in Christchurch was 6.3 on the Richter scale yet it did much more damage than the 7.1 earthquake on Sept 4th 2010. There are several reasons for this but the main ones are the depth of the epi-centre and the distance from the...
Japans Urban Search and Rescue (Usar) team left Christchurch today to help in the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan. They have been working long hours for the last two and a half weeks and are tired. They planned to leave tomorrow but when the...
The governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Bollard, reduced the official cash rate (OCR) by half a percent from 3% to 2.5% today. For background to the OCR, listen to June 10th 2010 and follow the links. Most banks immediately dropped the floating mortgage...
The Prime Minister said that possibly 10,000 houses will have to be demolished after the earthquake. The Head of Civil Defence thought the number was probably only 2,000. Time will tell. The important message from the Prime Minister is that the gover...
The Prime Minister announced today the name of new Governor-General. He is Lieutenant-General Jerry Mateparae. His job will start in August this year and last for five years. Jerry Mateparae began his career as a soldier in 1972 when he was 18 years...
