Stuff.co.nz: What's in a name? A $1m Internet bungle

Trade NZ, the Kiwi tourism board, so wanted to own the newzealand.com address that it first initiated legal proceedings that it knew would fail against the U.S. owner and then paid out $1 million for the name in what is being investigated as an unapproved and improper appropriation.

Minister of Parliament Rodney Hide acquired documents showing the transaction history through New Zealand's equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act. The opposition legislator said the decision to purchase the domain was an "unfathomably stupid decision."

"Not content with blowing a million bucks," he said, "they also made New Zealand a laughing stock internationally, which they are quite capable of doing every day for free anyway."