Mortgages unlikely to fall in spite of rate cut
New Zealand Herald
Fri Jul 25 05:30:00 2008
Mortgage costs are likely to keep rising for months despite governor Alan Bollard cutting the Reserve Bank's official cash rate from 8.25 to 8 per cent yesterday. With 88 per cent of mortgage debt in fixed rate loans, people whose...

Contaminated Clevedon oysters make 73 sick
New Zealand Herald
Fri Jul 25 05:01:00 2008
Seventy-three people have fallen ill with norovirus, a vomiting and diarrhoea bug, after eating contaminated raw Pacific oysters from southeast Auckland. The Auckland Regional Public Health Service said last night that oysters...

Average Kiwi 'kapai' when it comes to Maori words
New Zealand Herald
Fri Jul 25 05:00:08 2008
A random Herald survey in the Waikato showed the Maori language is slowly ingraining itself into the everyday New Zealand vernacular, with most people knowing more than half of the basic words and phrases on the list. Rebecca...

Key joins ranks of the seriously rich (+photos of NZ's richest)
New Zealand Herald
Fri Jul 25 05:00:00 2008
Opposition leader and aspiring Prime Minister John Key has joined the ranks of the country's richest people. The National Business Review Rich List - released today - reveals Mr Key spent US$3.25 million ($4.36 million) on a holiday...

Blaze victims could have been charged
New Zealand Herald
Fri Jul 25 05:00:00 2008
Two of four people killed in a Christchurch house fire could have been charged with murder had they lived, a coroner's hearing was told yesterday. When emergency services were called to a fire at the Tomonagas' home in April last...

'No ordinary storm' to strike New Zealand
Stuff
Fri Jul 25 05:00:00 2008
Strong winds in the lower North Island and snow in the South Island disrupted people yesterday, but the MetService is more concerned about a potentially 'destructive' storm due this weekend.