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Overseas buyers start new gold rush
By KAREN ARNOLD – Sunday, 01 February 2009
GOLD RUSH: New Zealand is poised for another gold rush but it’s unlikely anyone will be digging for their fortunes. Pictured is $100,000 worth of Kiwi gold.
New Zealandis poised for another gold rush but it's unlikely anyone will be digging for their fortunes.
New Zealand Mint head bullion trader Mike O'Kane said as the world recession deepened, more people wanted to safeguard their cash and saw the precious metal as an insurance policy.
As gold prices hit record levels, it's overseas buyers with money to spare who are turning their dollars into Kiwi gold.
O'Kane said that with the failures of large US investment banks, such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, demand for New Zealand gold increased.
The price of gold has doubled in the past two years and last week hit an all-time high, reaching $1745 an ounce. The failures coincided with NZ Mint doing a month's worth of transactions each day."
During the past two weeks one US buyer had bought $1 million in gold -about 570 coins -and was contracted to buy another $1m during the next fortnight.
"We've just started to see another surge in demand through fear and worry. "They're going to take that away with them.
"There's an Asian couple flying over to buy $500,000 worth," said O'Kane. NZ Mint would not reveal that buyer's identity for privacy reasons."
There have been two other recent $1m gold transactions one by a New Zealander. As well, there had been five $100,000-plus gold transactions in the the previous month. As well, there had been five $100,000-plus gold transactions in the the previous month.5cm high about the length of a ballpoint pen.
Fifty-four gold coins equals $100,000 worth of gold, and stacked on top of each other they are 13.
O'Kane said New Zealand was regarded as a place where gold would be kept safe. And while $1m in notes would be the size of a pallet, the same sum of gold would fit in a shoebox.
Not all countries manufactured gold bullion and some made it difficult to buy.
About half the gold bought at NZ Mint was kept there in secure storage; the rest was taken away by the owners, he said. O'Kane said once a trader placed an order, it was confirmed within 24 hours and delivered to the client within one to four weeks. NZ Mint, a privately owned company, tried to make the process as simple as possible. A year ago the average gold purchase was about $25,000 a time, he said.
The number of Kiwi gold buyers was also increasing."
O'Kane said the drop in the NZ dollar and the ever-steady demand for gold was driving the price up."
O'Kane said the drop in the NZ dollar and the ever-steady demand for gold was driving the price up.
MINT'S MOMENTS
* Fifty-four gold coins equals $100,000 worth of gold, and stacked they are 13.5cm high – about the length of a ballpoint pen.
* $1m in notes would be the size of a pallet, the same amount of gold coins would fit in a shoebox.
* NZ Mint buys refined gold from reputable suppliers throughout the world including Australia, Europe and Asia
* Once it arrives in New Zealand it is melted down and made into rough bars
* The bars are pressed repeatedly until they reach the desired coin thickness then discs are cut out and softened in an oven at temperatures of between 500 and 600degC.
* They are then "stamped" with a Kiwi on the top and map of New Zealand on the bottom of the coin
* A pure NZ Mint gold coin is the size of the old 50c piece.
* It weighs one troy-ounce = 31.1gms.
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Armed police interviewed over motorway shooting
– Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Cop had ‘seconds’ to decide
Drugs could be McDonald’s defence
Police are today interviewing the Armed Offenders Squad members involved in the incident which led to the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Halatau Naitoko.
Mr Naitoka was killed by a stray police bullet while they were shooting at 50-year-old Stephen Hohepa McDonald following an hour long police chase through Auckland on Friday.
Detective Inspector Peter Devoy said police were appealing for further witnesses to the tragic events.
"The driver of the truck has advised that, at the time McDonald was threatening him, a vehicle went past on the outside lane, heading towards the city.
In particular, they wanted to speak to the occupants of a vehicle heading towards Auckland City about 2pm which passed the truck that the alleged offender, McDonald, was trying to hijack at the time.
The driver of the truck, 40-year-old blacksmith Richard Neville, was injured in the attempted heist. We'd like whoever was in that to contact us as they could provide some valuable witness information to the inquiry," he said.
Police also believed there would have been more witnesses who saw the chase on its way from west Auckland into New Lynn, Grey Lynn and Ponsonby."
Police were taking more than 50 statements from police staff who were involved in the ordeal.
"It's important that we speak with as many people who saw some of the activity along the way so that we can accurately reconstruct the events leading up to Halatau Naitoko's death.
Witnesses with information or mobile phone photos should contact police on 09 302 6567.
Five vehicles, including the Eagle helicopter, were also undergoing forensic examination in the search for clues as to what went wrong.
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Airbus crash victim remembered
– Monday, 22 December 2008
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LEST WE FORGET: The remembrance service for Air New Zealand Airbus victim Jeremy Cook took place at Wigram Air Force Museum in Christchurch yesterday.
There is a point in every funeral when the crowd gets a collective lump in its throat and every eye fills with tears.
At a remembrance service for Air New Zealand Airbus victim Jeremy Cook in Christchurch yesterday, it was when his elderly mother took the podium.
Mothers should see the start of their children's lives but it was a cruel and unnatural thing when they saw the end, she said in a voice cracking with emotion.
"This goes beyond the natural order of life," Beryl Wride said.
The service concluded with a fly-past by a DC3 in honour of all the victims of the tragedy.
Cook, 58, who died in the Air New Zealand Airbus crash off the coast of Perpignan, France, last month, was remembered by a crowd of over 200 friends, family and work colleagues at the Wigram Air Force Museum yesterday.
Among the flying machines he loved, the speakers recalled a Civil Aviation Authority inspector who was diligent about safety but also a sharp-witted man known for his quick mind and sense of humour."
Beryl Wride said her son's mechanical bent made him "really love the job he was doing".
One friend recalled a noisy carload of hoons yahooing in a Lada had prompted Cook's observation that: "These cars just seem to get Lada and Lada. .
"How much better that he went swiftly to his death in full flight rather than he grow old and not be able to do what he loved, chained to this Earth," she said.
The bodies had yet to be identified.
French authorities announced yesterday they had recovered a sixth body of the seven people who died in the crash.
Yesterday, Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe praised the response of the French to the accident.
Yesterday, Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe praised the response of the French to the accident.
Clive Cook said Cook's passion for "machines of all kinds" was "legendary".
Wride said her son was mechanically minded from an early age and had a life-long love of cars, motor bikes, aircraft and engines.
"He took the mickey constantly, but he was never mean.
Sister Maggi Wride said her brother could appear solitary as he tinkered away on projects in his garage but the over-riding impression of the father-of-two was one of a jokester who could not resist a laugh.
His wife and two children were "the centre of his universe", she said."
Maggi Wride said Cook was a devoted family man and husband.
The DC3 was a familiar plane to Cook from his time spent working in Papua New Guinea.
The loss had devastated the family, leaving "a Jeremy-shaped gap" in all their lives.
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Auckland commuters escape bus blaze
– Monday, 08 December 2008
CHAZ FOXALL/Supplied
BLAZE: A bus fire on Gowing Drive, Medowbank. Two commuters and the driver were on the bus when it went up in flames. No one was injured in the incident.
Fire Service spokesperson Jaron Phillips said the bus went up in flames in Gowing Ave, Meadowbank at about 8.
A small number of Auckland commuters had to flee for their lives earlier today after the city bus they were travelling on caught fire. He said the blaze was so intense calls were received from as far away as the North Shore.30am.
Fire trucks from Remuera and St Heliers attended the fire which left the bus severely damaged.
Investigations will continue throughout the day to find out how the fire was started. .
.No-one was hurt in the incident
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Rescued climber in ‘remarkable’ condition
at Mount Cook Village – Friday, 05 December 2008
SURVIVOR: Hideaki Nara is brought to Christchurch by Westpac Rescue Helicopter after his mountain ordeal.
Rescued climber airlifted to Christchurch
The climber rescued from Mt Cook/Aoraki this morning after a week-long ordeal which claimed the life of his guide is in "remarkable" condition, Christchurch Hospital staff say.
Hideaka Nara, 51, was airlifted to hospital this morning suffering frostbite, buthis climbing companionKiyoshi Ikenouchi, 49, perished overnight, just hours before the rescue helicopter arrived.
Christchurch Hospital staff saidNara was still undergoing tests this afternoon but he was in "remarkably good" condition.
The pairendured seven days at 3700m on the country's highest peak in ferocious weather conditions which prevented earlier rescue attempts.
Ikenouchi and Nara are understood to have lost their tent yesterday and may have lost a sleeping bag as well, leaving only one between them.
Despite suffering frostbite to his hands and face,Nara was able to walk to the helicopter.
The men spent last night in the open as their tent either became buried in snow or blew away, Police Inspector Dave Gaskin said.
But itmay not have made much of a difference in the end, as the pair were already very well equipped, he said.
Supplies were dropped near their camp yesterday, but Gaskin said rescuers confirmed this morning the pair did not know they were there."
Senior Constable Brent Swanson said an improvement in weather this morning had made the rescue possible.
"Indications are that, if anything, they were over-equipped and that may have been one of the reasons why they were very slow in the first two days of their trip.
"The outcome wasn't 100 per cent, but it was 50 per cent.
He said he was comfortable with the decisions made during the week…''
Pilot Nigel Gee said it had been a "text book" rescue thanks to better weather conditions..
It was "extremely hard" to know that Mr Ikenouchi died within hours of rescuers reaching him, he said.
DOC area manager Richard MacNamara said the week of waiting had been very stressful for the search team."
Mr Ikenouchi – who helped in a rescue on the mountain five years ago -is the 69th climber known to have died on New Zealand's highest peak, and the seventh Japanese.
"The only good thing to come out of it is that at least there is some closure for the family.
The slow progress meant they were caught out by a mountain storm and forced to bivouac at high altitude.
The pair were attempting Mt Cook's Grand Traverse, climbing from the Hooker Valley to the South Peak, summiting from there, before heading down to Plateau Hut.30am.
The conditions finally cleared this morning and the rescue team flew in by helicopter at 5.
"It's pretty perilous sort of stuff," said Gaskin.
"It's pretty perilous sort of stuff," said Gaskin.
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