Whena Owen

@jazzybellx7 How were you notified that your data had been hacked?

@Docstockk Awful

On Day 1, alcoholic homeless John phoned the Assisted Dying Service. On Day 2, he met his Personal Navigator. "Hi" said Alison, "I'm your Personal Navigator, and I"m here to help you".

"On Day 2, the person must be assigned a Personal Navigator by the Assisted Dying Help Service" (drafted by the former Director General of the BBC and a human rights KC - but of course it was).

@domdyer70 Hero

Good man

@Forest_and_Bird I’m so here for this. My Melanesian friends in high places…Pipiwharauroa Shining Cuckoo, arrive some time in 3rd week of September every year where I am. Hearing the first call is magic.

🌍 Today we celebrate World Migratory Bird Day and the return of nature’s most remarkable travellers, the kuaka bar-tailed godwit (our 2015 Bird of the Year).  ✨ Thousands of kuaka arrive at Pūkorokoro Miranda, on the Firth of Thames every September to October and stay for the summer.   Their migration takes them on a 11,000km journey from the Arctic, Siberia, and Alaska to our shores. Their endurance is amazing – one godwit was tracked flying 12,200km in just over 9 days!  📍 Pūkorokoro Miranda is one of the best places in Aotearoa to witness their arrival. It’s a vital stopover on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway – a major migratory route for 600 bird species, connecting the Arctic Circle to Australia and New Zealand via East and Southeast Asia.  🔭 Miranda’s unique sandy, shelly beaches and vast mudflats offer rich feeding grounds and safe roosting sites for hungry and exhausted kuaka. Visit around high tide and you’ll see them gathering before settling in for the season.  💬 This World Migratory Bird Day, let’s welcome kuaka home – and celebrate their epic journey.  Read more about the kuaka and other migratory birds: forestandbird.org.nz/resources/godw… 📷Kuaka bar-tailed godwit. Credit: John Oates #WorldMigratoryBirdDay

@BenThomasNZ But hasn’t Whakatōhea, Ngāti Porou & Wairarapa already slipped through with claims upheld?

Egregious to continue with this bill which (contra govt MP talking points) go far beyond overturning a CA decision that no longer has legal force (which was the coalition agreement the bill was based on) & retrospectively removes titles granted since that judgment was overturned

Shameful day as the government progressed its Marine and Coastal Area Act amendments to restrict the ability of iwi and hapū to have extant customary recognised, despite the Crown winning its Supreme Court appeal of the Court of Appeal’s statutory interpretation of the 2011 Act

@KiffinEileen I am still aggrieved that he thought Barry Manilow’s Copacobana was on his offensive playlist. Seriously.

Ex-speaker sued by child over Parliament protest music rnz.co.nz/news/political… Good grief. I should sue the busker who gets the words wrong outside the supermarket

@MichaelFieldNZ @chrisluxonmp So now, we can expect China to be very visible at the 60th independence celebrations in Rarotonga early August.

Winston Peters colonial assault on Cook Islands (& Kiribati next?) recalls NZ rule of Samoa during Mau period. Worse with Rarotonga done while @chrisluxonMP is in China: is this a disgruntled ex-deputy PM reprising his 1998 bring down the govt thing?apnews.com/article/new-ze…

@Jacindabook_com Can you direct message me please? I’m a journo with Q&A. Whena

@WalkerMarcus Blood of Christ perhaps

@MichaelFieldNZ Apparently the road off SHW 1 by Ohakea is swarming with plane spotters. And here comes!

Another unusual Antonov 124 flight into New Zealand. Out of San Francisco, stop over in Pago Pago and on into RNZAF Ohaka around mid-day - skirting around Cyclone Tam

@SharonM88707096 @AppX56352307 @Joe_Trinder Do you have a source for your 20 million on-line viewers stat?

@AppX56352307 @Joe_Trinder Ummm... nope we don't. The figure you quote is over 3 years and does not start till July 2025. It doesn't come close to the funding of NZSO, National Choir, Americas Cup... et al. 70k people in attendance, huge $$$ into Taranaki, over 20million online views. Worth it.

Te Matatini plays a crucial role in shaping and enriching New Zealand's culture in such significant way. All New Zealanders should be proud of this world class cultural performances at Te Matatini because Aotearoa is the envy of the world.

@ricozola Lovely. Verbena Bonariensis, commonly known as Purple Top. South American according to Google.

I'm not sure what this plant is. It's growing through a crack in the concrete and I've just left it. I admire its tenacity.

@SikotiHamiltonR Such a great read. Very exciting.

21/21 P'haps the waka found on Rekohu can help answer such questions, when its wood is analysed. I can't wait to read investigators' reports.

1/20 The discovery of an ancient waka on Rekohu/Chatham Island is enormously exciting. The object may well be a portal not just to the past but to a time when the Polynesian society on Rekohu was on the cusp of one of the most radical revolutions in human history.

@Joe_Trinder Agreed. Tourists don’t come to see the Invercargill Pipe band, they want to see expressions of Maori culture. But admit it Joe, the Invercargill Pipe Band is pretty awesome.

Anti Māori racism is rampant in Aotearoa during Te Matatini, for the record Kapa Haka Māori tourism makes billions in revenue every year because tourist don’t travel here to the South Pacific to see the Invercargill pipe band they specifically want to see Māori tourism and the last time I checked Maori were taxpayers.

@benmackey Yes. So do I.

@WhenaOwen I’m being slightly churlish as usual. hope Cook Islands media don’t suffer

Looks like the Cook Islands PM also learned a thing or two about treatment of media while in China. A very unbecoming attack. rnz.co.nz/international/…

@LikaFusimalohi Which infrastructure projects are needed?

Wondering what the alternatives are for the needed infrastructure projects if China is omitted from the equation. Is someone else ready to pick up the bill for Cook Island? 🤔💁‍♀️ Cook Islands PM accuses NZ media, experts of thinking ‘we are too dumb’ rnz.co.nz/international/…

@Purplerabbit241 @EndGameWW3 What port?

China-Taiwan...

@bulkeley_john This is wildly incorrect. NZ has had a close, supportive relationship with our Pacific neighbours for decades when no one was interested in the Pacific. We’ve funded hundreds of projects, trained hundreds of Pasifika and are home to the largest population of Pacific people.

x.com/stephendziedzi… Sadly, this is how Australia, New Zealand, and the US treat all island nations in the Pacific. They only care about them when there's a war on, which is how China has made inroads in places like the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands. The irony is that it takes only a small investment of money and respect in these islands to keep them in the western sphere of influence. So, when you get cheap and arrogant, this is what you get.

Yikes. Mark Brown withstands a no-confidence motion and unloads on New Zealand in Cook Islands parliament. He accuses NZ of using "state media" to "drown out" his government. Then suggests New Zealand is treating his government like a "child" which it wants to "control"

@SpoxCHN_MaoNing Why are Chinese war ships live firing in the Tasman Sea under a very busy flight path where airlines have to divert? This is facile power projection and intimidation.

In the southwestern metropolis of #Chongqing, tourists are flocking to a spot where they can film themselves “eating” passing trains! 🚈