Auckland International Airport (AKL) Services

    We are open for all international flights and provide high standards of for visitors to New Zealand. We offer information on a range of attractions, and we also offer a booking service for activities, accommodation and transport. Buses into the city centre are provided at a competitive price.

    The second floor of the international terminal offers a view of the airfield and all incoming and outgoing flights. There is a café situated here as well as a restaurant, which is available for all airport visitors to use.

    Passengers who require immediate medical attention should dial 9877 on any public telephone in the terminal. The chemist's is located on the ground floor near the departure lounge, and sells a complete range of products.

    Departing passengers can put their luggage or packages into recyclable plastic bags to protect them from damage. Luggage storage, charged at $10 per hour, is available on the first floor. Transit（过境）passengers have free access to storage service.

    Every international passenger, with the exception of children under 12 years of age, is required to make a payment of $25 when leaving New Zealand. This can be arranged at the National Bank on the ground floor.

    As Auckland International Airport has adopted the “quiet airport” concept, there are usually no announcements made over the public address system. Details of all arrivals and departures are displayed on the monitors located in the terminal halls and lounge areas.

    The airport meets the needs of business travelers and has several rooms available for meetings or business gatherings. These are located next to the airport medical center on the first floor. For information and bookings please contact the Airport Business Manager on extension 5294.

    Easter (复活节) is still a great day for worship (崇拜), randy in baskets and running around the yard finding eggs, but every year it gets quite a bit worse for bunnies (兔子).

    And no, not because the kids like to pull their ears. The culprit is climate change, and some researchers found that rising temperatures arc having harmful effects on at least five species of rabbit in the US.

    Take the Lower Keys March rabbit, for instance. An endangered species that lives in the Lower Florida Keys, this species of cottontail is a great swimmer—it lives on the islands!—but it is already severely affected by development and now by rising levels. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, an ocean level rise of only 0.6 meters will send these guys jumping to higher ground and a 0.9-meter rise would wipe out their habitat (栖息地) completely.

    The snowshoe hare, on the other hand, has a color issue. Most of these rabbits change their fur color from white in the wintertime to brown in the summer, each designed to give them better cover from  predators (捕食者). As the number of days with snow decreases all across the country, however, more and more bunnies arc being left in white fur during brown dirt days of both fall and spring, making them an easier mark for predators. Researchers know that the color change is controlled by the number of hours of sunlight, but whether the rabbit will be able to adapt quick enough to survive is a big question. The National Wildlife Federation has reported that hunters have noticed their numbers are already markedly down.

    American pikas or rock rabbits, a relative of rabbits and hares, might be the firs' of these species to go extinct due to climate change. About 7-8 inches long, pikas live high in the cool, damp mountains west of the Rocky Mountains. As global temperatures rise, they would naturally migrate (迁徙) to higher ground - but they already occupy (占据) the mountaintops. They can't go any higher. The National Wildlife Federation reports that they might not be able to stand the new temperatures as their habitat beats up.

    The volcano rabbit has the same problem. These rabbits live on the slopes of volcanoes in Mexico, and recent studies have shown that the lower range of their habitat has already shifted upward about 700 meters, but there are not suitable plants for them to move higher, so they are stuck in the middle. Scientists are concerned about their populations.

    Native to the US, pygmy rabbits weigh less than 1 pound and live in the American West. They are believed to be the smallest rabbits in the world. Their habitats have been destroyed by development. Several populations, such as the Columbia Basin pygmy, almost went extinct and were saved by zoo breeding programs. Pygmy rabbits also rely on winter cover by digging tunnels through the snow to escape predators, but lesser snowfall is leaving them exposed.

    All of this gives new meaning to dressing up in a giant bunny costume (服装) this Easter.

    We may think we're a culture that gets rid of our worn technology at the first sight of something shiny and new, but a new study shows that we keep using our old devices（装置）well after they go out of style. That's bad news for the environment – and our wallets – as these outdated devices consume much more energy than the news ones that do the same things.

    To figure out how much power these devices are using, Callie Babbitt and her colleagues at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York tracked the environmental costs for each product throughout its life – from when its minerals are mined to when we stop using the device. This method provided a readout for how home energy use has evolved since the early 1990s. Devices were grouped by generation. Desktop computers, basic mobile phones, and box-set TVs defined 1992. Digital cameras arrived on the scene in 1997. And MP3 players, smart phones, and LCD TVs entered homes in 2002, before tablets and e-readers showed up in 2007.

    As we accumulated more devices, however, we didn't throw out our old ones. "The living-room television is replaced and gets planted in the kids' room, and suddenly one day, you have a TV in every room of the house," said one researcher. The average number of electronic devices rose from four per household in 1992 to 13 in 2007. We're not just keeping these old devices – we continue to use them. According to the analysis of Babbitt's team, old desktop monitors and box TVs with cathode ray tubes are the worst devices with their energy consumption and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions（排放）more than doubling during the 1992 to 2007 window.

    So what's the solution? The team's date only went up to 2007, but the researchers also explored what would happen if consumers replaced old products with new electronics that serve more than one function, such as a tablet for word processing and TV viewing. They found that more on-demand environment viewing on tablets instead of TVs and desktop computers could cut energy consumption by 44%.

    Some jobs are so demanding that there is not a free moment to do something else than to recover and rest. Most physicians have great difficulty starting or even maintaining a hobby. But there are exceptions.

    Take Menno Baars for instance. He works full time as a cardiologist(心脏病专家)in a hospital in Holland. "Full time" might still be an understatement-as a cardiologist he spends about 60 hours a week in the hospital. However, after a long day of work, he likes to come home and spend hours doing what is his great passion: painting.

    How can he find the time and energy to live a life that few others can pursue?" "Actually it is quite simple. If you like what you do, you will find a way to do it. Don't get me wrong. I love cardiology, but it is not a very creative profession," says Baars."It is a specialty that is based on strict treatment guidelines, without much room for your own ideas and creativity. That is why painting as a hobby is so wonderful. There are no rules and I can do whatever I want."

    Although there are no rules in painting, for Baars it is still some sort of a custom. The only thing that reminds the painter Baars of the cardiologist Baars is his white coat and his surgical gloves which he wears every time he is painting." I sometimes start at 10 at night and can continue working until 4:30 in the morning and still make it to work on time that same day," says Baars."That is the advantage of my training as a medical specialist. I get used to making crazy hours and long nights."

    You would think that someone who is so driven by his passion for painting was already fascinated by art as a little kid." Not at all," says Baars unexpectedly." I never dreamed of becoming a painter. My parents expected me to finish college and pursue a professional career. I only realized my passion for painting after having completed medical school. Once I was attracted by a painting of Miro, but could not afford it. So I decided to paint myself. I just started painting lines, but within minutes a beautiful dove was on the canvas. I suddenly realized this is what I want to do."

    A successful doctor. A successful painter. It seems unfair to have the two identities in one person. What do his fellow cardiologists think of his passion for painting? "They accept it and actually appreciate it as well. You see, if I was a cardiologist who provided suboptimal(未达最佳标准的)care for his patients，they would not agree. My chairman told me a few years ago in the hospital that he would rather see me reading cardiology books at night than see me holding a paint brush."

    "I used to pack a lot of ideas into each painting-different shapes，colors and so on. I still have tons of ideas, which is not the problem. But I do strive for more simplicity. To depict a simple idea clearly is my goal. Also my technique has improved over time. When I started out, the paint would sometimes flake(剥落)if the basis was not good, but that doesn't happen anymore these days."

    Menno Baars never has any doubts when he is painting. However，he does like the response he gets from the most important woman in his life. His wife is the first to see each newly-finished painting." Sometimes when I finish a new painting in the middle of the night, I wake her up to see if she likes it. She doesn't always like to be woken up, but she always gives an honest answer.

    Even if she doesn't like it, for me the painting is finished. I won't change it afterwards. It is more of the feeling that once my wife has seen it, it is ready to be presented to the rest of the world."

    As winter set in, it's the perfect time to get out of town and escape the seasonal mood disorder. Here are vacation ideas to adopt now.

    Costa Rica

    Costa Rica, located in the Valle del General, is an off-the-radar agriculture town that's not overrun with tourists. The area is known for its coffee, pineapples and sugar cane plantations, as well as its rich forests. What's more, you can enjoy horseback riding, spend afternoons at the spa or tour a nearby wildlife shelter to look out for colorful birds, sloths and other animals.

    Los Cabos, Mexico

    If you love wine, travel to Los Cabos, a beautiful vacation destination at the southern edge of the Baja Peninsula. During your getaway, you can enjoy special wine tastings and dinner cooked by Los Cabos's Michelin-starred chef. There are wildlife-viewing opportunities, too. From December through May, you can spot whales, manta rays and more wildlife.

    Petit St Vincent, the Grenadines

    This private Caribbean island was spared the anger of hurricanes Irma and Maria. What's more, the whole island is only 115 acres and has 22 cottages. Each cottage is located in a quiet place, and you can expect to unplug and recharge phones with no wireless connections, televisions or telephones in the cottages. Even better, you can spend your days admiring fascinating marine (海洋的) life at the Jean-Michel Cousteau Diving Caribbean center.

    The Exumas, Bahamas

    On Fowl Cay's 50-acre private island, you can enjoy a carefree escape. Days can be spent fishing, boating and diving before wandering along white sands. The resort features large one-, two- and three-bedroom houses. Best of all, if you're planning a group getaway or multigenerational trip, you rent the entire island for a one-of-a-kind island escape.

    Imagine a school where self-awareness is celebrated, students are encouraged to solve maths problems by writing on the walls and applying learned lessons to real life is more important than homework. These are a few of the concepts that makes Space of Mind School unique.

    Located in a home built in 1896 in Florida, US, the program serves students in grades 2 through 12 and will accept kindergarten students next year. It also offers an after-school program for students who attend traditional schools, as well as evening programs for adults and educators and weekend events for families.

    There is a different atmosphere from that of a traditional school building. Tables and brightly colored walls are white boards. In the science room, students are studying climate changes at a weather station, while in the music room, a student is solving an equation (等式) with his academic coach while he connects music theory and maths.

    The daily schedule at the school also stands out. "We don't assign boring or exhausting homework." said Space of Mind founder and CEO Ali Kaufman. "Instead of homework, we ask that they go home and take a video of themselves applying a lesson they learned or cooking a meal for their family that they learned how to make at school."

    For lunch, instead of traditional cafeteria dishes such as pizza, the school offers organic meals made out of products from local gardens and farms. "Our students also run a business at the Delray Beach Green Market on Saturdays so they can understand sustainable living practices and how to run a business," Kafman said.

    " We are also the first school program in Florida to start and end each day with 15 minutes of meditation (冥想)," Kaufman said. "The positive results we have been seeing in the students from meditation are amazing. We are really about infusing social, emotional and creative skills with academic and life skills."