The New Zealand dollar gained after comments from US House of Representatives Speaker and senior Republican John Boehner stoked optimism policymakers will set aside their differences and bypass the fiscal cliff of US$607 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, stoking investor confidence and pushing stocks higher. The kiwi dollar rose to 82.34 US cents at 8.30am in Wellington …

Wellington, New Zealand (CNN) — You’d have to have been hiding down a, er, Hobbit hole, to miss the hubbub. You can fly to New Zealand, where the Hobbit premieres on Wednesday, on a Hobbit-branded plane — complete with a Hobbit-inspired safety video with Peter Jackson, telling you how to keep safe, if the flight approaches its own Mount Doom. When …

In her report on fracking, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, suggested tougher rules for oil and gas workers may improve protection for the public and the environment.  Listen here