We Say, You Say: Island Festival
Hi Auckland,
What do you think about the newly announced festival on Motutapu?
Island Time on Motutapu is a festival to be held over the last weekend in February and is set to feature a smorgasbord of food and drink vendors and music artists.
Festival-goers will be treated to a day long festival on either February 27 or 28 on the island. Tickets range from between $65 to $85, with a portion of ticket sales going towards to wildlife conservation.
Billy Brown, the deputy chairman of Ngāi Tai Ki Tamaki, said that it is an excellent opportunity to showcase the culture of the island and for them to educate visitors about volunteer opportunities on Motutapu.
“In the end, we want a calendar of events on the island, covering sports, arts, food – all of it," he said.
Share your thoughts below and don't forget to type NFP if you don't want your comments used by Stuff.
To find out more about the festival click here.
Christmas Eve busiest shopping day of the year with more than 500,000 sales
Busiest shopping day of the year
Peak time 12 noon-1 pm - 563,303 transactions
Per second peak - 167 transactions
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Number of sales beats Black Friday, but lowest Christmas Eve in six years
Christmas Eve has been the busiest shopping day of the year with 9,745 sales a minute at its peak.
Payments company Worldline says noon to 1pm saw 563,303 sales recorded on its network, down by about 7 percent on a year ago.
The company's network covers about three-quarters of the electronic terminals in operation.
Worldline did not have a dollar value for spending, but the peak number of transactions was the lowest for the past six years and well shy of the record 679,436 in 2019, before the pandemic.
Earlier this month it noted rising sales in the first three weeks of the month, but they remained 1.3 percent lower than 2024, with most parts of the country trailing the previous year's spending.
Official data from Stats NZ to the end of November showed a small rise in spending on the previous month, to 1.6 percent higher for the year.
Retail spending has been subdued as households have remained cautious because of high prices and a slow benefit from lower interest rates, and as well as concerns about the soft labour market.
However, recent surveys have shown improving consumer sentiment with ANZ bank's monthly report showing confidence at its highest level in four years.
Boxing Day is traditionally the country's favourite shopping day, but with Black Friday spending also softer this year the amount going through retailers' terminals may also be down on a year ago.
Adding a dampener to consumer spending may be the recent rises in longer term fixed mortgage rates because of higher wholesale rates.
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