Source: Radio New Zealand

It took firefighters 30 minutes to respond to a callout in downtown Auckland on Friday afternoon, amid strike action.

The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union walked off the job for one hour from 12-1pm on Friday.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said two fire trucks arrived 30 minutes after a report of smoke coming from the top floor of Auckland’s Downtown ferry terminal was made at about 12.30pm.

The Waitakere and Laingholm Volunteer Brigades, both 30 minutes away from Auckland CBD, were the first at the scene.

Crews from Parnell and Silverdale arrived at just after 1pm.

A fire commander did arrive just after 12.40pm and was the first on site.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson told RNZ that after gaining access to the building, their crews confirmed at about 1.30pm that there was no fire, and the smoke was from a chimney working normally.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The terrorist who massacred 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques is in prison because he committed the crime, not because of a coerced guilty plea, the Crown says.

Australian Brenton Tarrant wants the Court of Appeal to overturn his convictions and sentence for the March 2019 shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre.

The 35-year-old now claims he was “forced” to plead guilty to 92 charges because he was irrational as a result of torturous and inhumane prison conditions.

On Friday, Crown solicitor Madeleine Laracy told the court the terrorist was where he was always going to end up.

“Mr Tarrant made an informed choice in circumstances where he was between a rock and a rock,” she said.

“If he pleaded, he was certain of conviction. If he went to trial, the Crown says a conviction was a certainty.

“This is more than an overwhelming case so we say there was a certainty of conviction either way and either way, he would spend the rest of his life in prison likely without parole. He knew all of that.”

Laracy said the terrorist’s appeal lacked substance and had no merit.

“My learned friend said yesterday that this is one of the most difficult cases. Certainly, it is one of the most terrible and despicable but in terms of looking at this as an appeal, the Crown would disagree,” she said.

“It is not a legally difficult appeal because the evidence to support the argument is not there and the law is clear.”

The terrorist’s pleas also had no impact on his prison conditions because he would remain subject to very restrictive conditions for as long as he posed a risk to himself and others, Laracy said.

On Thursday, Tarrant’s lawyers claimed their client’s guilty pleas were not voluntary and were the result of the “oppressive” conditions in which he was held.

They argued the terrorist suffered a “complete destruction of his identity” because of the isolation, constant surveillance, deprivation and harassment of his prison conditions.

Crown solicitor Barnaby Hawes said the records and reports from the time showed the terrorist was not suffering from any mental illness and raised no issues about his capacity or fitness to plea.

On 31 July 2019 the terrorist decided he wanted to plead guilty to all charges.

The decision became so advanced that paperwork was prepared in anticipation of the pleas being entered in court.

Four days’ later he changed his mind again, only minutes before he was due to appear before the High Court.

In March 2020 the terrorist appeared via audio-visual link and formally pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of committing terrorism.

Hawes said the terrorist spoke to forensic psychiatrist Dr Jeremy Skipworth in August 2020 ahead of his sentencing.

“Crucially, Dr Skipworth says that Mr Tarrant was fit to plead when he did,” he said.

“At this point, Dr Skipworth is interviewing Mr Tarrant. Mr Tarrant said he was sleeping well. Dr Skipworth says that Mr Tarrant was affable, engaged, polite. He was an intelligent man who enjoys debate.

“No thought forms or disordered thinking was noted. No delusions or perceptual abnormalities. No psychotic disorder either now or in the past.”

Earlier reports and records showed the terrorist felt the “need to uphold the honour of his movement” in May 2019 and that caused him distress and anxiety.

In August 2019 concerns were raised about his depressed mood.

The terrorist told clinicians at that point that he “had been doing a lot of thinking and thinks the attacks may have been a waste of time, a complete waste of time”, Hawes told the court.

“So there’s early evidence there of that type of thought being expressed, whether it is a true reflection of his thoughts at that point or not is perhaps something that will never be known.

“That was around the time that Mr Tarrant had first indicated that he was going to plead guilty and then changed his mind.”

The following month it was reported that the terrorist’s mood had improved after he was allowed to review his manifesto.

In May 2020 he threatened to kill himself but reported his mood had improved after a good sleep and it was noted his recent guilty pleas would have increased his anxiety and stress.

The following month he was again referred to clinicians because he was showering in his gown and did not want to go to Christchurch for sentencing.

Hawes said the records were clear and did not show the extreme mental decline and impairment that the terrorist now claimed was happening at the time.

“If the contention is that he was experiencing the levels of impairment, distress to call into question the guilty pleas the contemporaneous record should show it,” he said.

“There is a picture of fluctuating mood and behaviour but that is brief, it’s situational and it’s responsive to external stressors without a sustained mood disorder or psychosis being identified.

“There are no indications of breakdown signs or clues as to what’s suggested.”

Hawes said lawyers who acted for the terrorist from late March 2019 until June 2020 had also called into question their former client’s claims.

Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson told the court on Tuesday that once the terrorist indicated an intention to plead guilty, he maintained it from then on and only wished to control when the pleas were entered.

The pair had no reason to distort the record from that time and acted in the terrorist’s best interest and with real care, Hawes said.

“There are direct aspects that he says that he told his lawyers or the way that he was, which they simply refute,” he said.

“That’s of significance, not only in terms of the treatment of Mr Tarrant’s evidence, but also when looking at other evidence and whether it can be accepted or not.”

Hawes said the terrorist’s case boiled down to his word against all others who dealt and interacted with him at the time in question.

“Mr Tarrant is an unreliable witness and his evidence and his narrative should be treated with great caution,” he said.

Crown submissions would continue on Friday before the terrorist’s lawyers were allowed the right to respond.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A homegrown scientific discovery from the South Island acclaimed worldwide for its wasp control is now taking on a deadly invader.

The specially formulated protein insecticide bait, which honey bees will not touch, will soon be at the forefront of yellow-legged hornet control on Auckland’s North Shore.

Called Vespex, it was developed by a Nelson-based entomologist.

Richard Toft was working at the then Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in Nelson during the 1980s. He arrived in Tasman as common wasps were swarming South Island beech forests, and he set to work in his lab.

The discovery of the fiprinol-based protein bait provided a valuable new tool for controlling common and German wasps, designed to be used at a key point in their breeding cycle.

Vespex was around 25 years in the making, and Toft’s work was honoured overseas with a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Conservation Innovation Award in 2015. The accolade recognised the significant breakthrough in conservation, helping protect native forests, insects and birdlife from invasive wasps.

The bait has been used extensively by the Department of Conservation to control wasps.

Now building on that success, Biosecurity New Zealand was analysing data to pinpoint the best time to feed it to the hornets.

At this stage of the breeding cycle, wasps and hornets have shifted their diet to more protein-based food sources.

Biosecurity NZ’s Scott Sinclair explained it could be a critical time window.

“The Vespex bait works by either wasps or hornets rolling it into small balls at the bait station and then taking it back to the nest,” he said.

“It’s distributed around the nest to feed the growing colony.

“During that process that fiprinol-based bait gets ingested by a whole lot of either other hornets or wasps in the nest, and a large proportion of that nest [die] off.”

While it had become an extremely valued tool for the control of common and German wasps, Biosecurity was not sure how well it would work for controlling hornets.

Some work in France had suggested they would find it attractive.

“The protein-based baits are going to be more effective against the hornets later in the season,” Sinclair said.

“We’re trying to still determine exactly when we’re going to deploy based on our dissections on the hornet nests that we’re finding, because that allows us to understand how our population is developing. The likely window is in the coming weeks.”

To date, there have been 51 confirmed queen hornets found and 61 nests on Auckland’s North Shore.

Vespex was now manufactured and sold by Nelson company Merchento, of which Toft was the director.

What is Vespex?

Vespex is a protein-based bait formulation that contains 0.1 percent fipronil (a neonicotinoid insecticide) deployed in specialised bait stations. It is designed to be highly attractive to wasps, which take it back to the nest, resulting in the destruction of the nest. It is specifically designed to not impact bees or native insects and birds.

Where was it developed?

Vespex was developed by the Nelson-based company Merchento. Toft, a member of Biosecurity NZ’s Technical Advisory Group and a well-known entomologist in New Zealand, developed the product.

It had been used extensively in New Zealand, including by the Department of Conservation, in both small and large-scale wasp control programmes.

Why is it being used at this part of the breeding cycle?

The timing of the deployment of Vespex in the yellow-legged hornet Response is due to both:

• a) the point in the life cycle, as earlier in season yellow-legged hornets favour more carbohydrate/sugar-based food sources, shifting to more protein-based food sources later in the life cycle
• b) the need for us to have live hornets in the environment to facilitate our best shot at eradication. We need healthy, live hornets to track back to nests so that we can destroy the whole nest (including the queen) in one go. Vespex too early in the season may weaken these nests making them more difficult to detect.

What’s the latest with the hornet?

Ground operations are working to find and destroy nests. To date, there have been 51 confirmed queen hornets found and 61 nests on Auckland’s North Shore.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Airport says it has noticed increased bird activity near its runway this week, and it is taking safety measures for planes following the Moa Point failure.

The sewage plant melted down last week, flooding the building with waste and sending raw sewage into the nearby south coast.

Nearby beaches remained off limits due to tens of millions of litres of screened but untreated sewage flowing out the plant’s 1.8-kilometre outfall pipe each day.

Wellington Airport’s location is very close to Moa Point.

With the risk of bird strike for aircraft in mind, its head of operations, Matthew Palliser, told RNZ they were monitoring the animals.

“We are keeping a close eye on bird activity around the airport and have noticed some increased activity at times this week, but we are always prepared for this.”

Palliser said the airport had regular patrols checking the runway and that they worked closely with the Airways control tower.

“When required, we use a range of tools to scare birds off, including different noises.

“We also have a full-time Wildlife Officer who monitors bird activity.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

One person has died following a crash in north Canterbury that left multiple people trapped.

Emergency services were called to State Highway 7, north of Waikari, at about 6.40am on Friday after a car went off the road.

At least four Fire and Emergency NZ crews worked to help free people trapped in the car.

Police said despite best efforts of emergency services, a critically injured person died at the scene.

St John said two others were in a serious condition and a third person was in a moderate condition.

State Highway 7, between McRaes and Mt Alexander roads, was blocked as a result of the crash, a police spokesperson said.

“The road remains closed while emergency services work at the scene.

“Inquiries into the circumstances of the crash are ongoing.”

St John had sent three ambulances and a helicopter to help.

The Serious Crash Unit has been notified.

“Traffic management is in place and motorists should expect delays.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A bus carrying children has been extensively damaged by a fire.

Emergency services were called to the fire near the north Auckland village of Leigh just before 8.30am on Friday.

Police said the bus, which was on Pakiri Road, was “extensively damaged” by the blaze.

“Four children were onboard at the time of the fire and they have all been safely removed,” Sergeant Mark Stallworthy said.

“It’s fortunate that no one has been hurt.”

Sergeant Stallworthy said Pakiri Road is down to one lane until about midday.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Council leaders on both sides of Cook Strait say lives could be put at risk due to its emergency tug being off-contract from this month.

In November it was announced the government had sunk plans to station an open ocean tug in the Cook Strait long-term after it said the costs outweighed the benefits.

The government also announced it would end the contract for the MMA Vision open ocean tug this month, rather than June when it was contracted for.

For years local government leaders on either side of the North and South Island had been calling for open ocean tugs after several near-miss accidents.

One of these was in January 2023 when the Interislander ferry Kaitaki was sailing into Wellington Harbour with 854 passengers on board and lost power, which resulted in a mayday call.

Greater Wellington Regional Council chair Daran Ponter said the absence of an emergency tug posed unacceptable risks.

“Cancelling the MMA Vision contract puts lives and economic lifelines in peril.”

Marlborough Mayor Nadine Taylor agreed, saying it was one of the most complex stretches of water in the world to navigate.

“It’s also a shipping route of national significance where the government is responsible for safety.”

The two leaders had penned a letter to Transport Minister Chris Bishop asking for an extension of the MMA Vision’s contract. They said not having the tug nearby would risk human safety, financial stability and the environment given the clean-up cost and damage if a large ship sank.

Ponter said from July, the closest vessel that would have emergency open ocean tug capability would be 1200 nautical miles away in Australia.

“That’s about five days of travel time. We cannot depend on harbour tugs for open-ocean rescues. They are not designed, equipped or crewed for towing large vessels in Cook Strait – where conditions are frequently beyond their operating parameters.”

RNZ has approached Bishop for a response.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A woman who helped her son and his wife buy a house has been offered $10,000 in compensation for the way the bank handled the dispute when the relationship went sour.

The case went to the Banking Ombudsman, which published a case note last month.

It said the woman wanted to help her son and daughter-in-law onto the property ladder. They formed a partnership and borrowed $320,000 in October 2008 to buy a house.

The loan was in each of their names.

But when the couple decided to separate, the mother and daughter-in-law decided to sell the property. The son told the bank there was a dispute and it froze the loan accounts and refused to act on any instructions until the dispute was resolved.

The mother offered to repay the loan in full so the mortgage could be discharged, but the bank still refused to act.

The Banking Ombudsman scheme said it raised concerns with the bank about its refusal to allow the woman to pay off the loan.

“We pointed out the dispute among the three borrowers had no effect on the right of each borrower to repay the loan at any time. The terms and conditions of the loan allowed for just such a step…. [she] held a 77 percent stake in the partnership so was able to pass resolutions without the consent of the other two partners.”

The bank offered the woman $10,000.

Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden said partnerships could be a good way to get into the property market, but the case was a reminder that it was important everyone was clear on their rights and what would happen if circumstances changed.

“When relationships end, joint accounts, loans and partnerships can become tricky. It’s crucial to understand how your accounts are set up, and what your rights and obligations are. This knowledge can prevent a difficult situation from becoming even more stressful.”

She said people should decide in advance how they would divide assets if they separated and get legal advice if they needed formal arrangements.”

Mortgage adviser Jeremy Andrews, from Key Mortgages, said he dealt with people wanting to buy in partnership several times a year.

“There are some advantages such as being able to combine everybody’s deposit together to get the best possible interest rates, and combining everybody’s incomes together to get the highest approval figure based on income servicing.”

He said the case highlighted the main downside – what would happen when one of the parties wanted to get out of the joint ownership, such as to buy a different property.

“If they are jointly and severally liable for the loan, which is typically higher than a single or couple’s income alone could have allowed, this could be a dealbreaker without selling the property.

“There needs to be a clear understanding of the future implications at that point, before entering into such [an] agreement, and we always recommend each party seeks independent legal advice on this.”

He said sometimes people would own a house as tenants in common, which gave them an agreed and specified percentage of the ownership.

“If the property increases in value over time, then each party receives their respective percentage increase in value each when the time comes to sell – hopefully for an overall profit.

“There are also downsides to this type of arrangement, such as if one or more of the co-borrowers wish to retain ownership of the property, and then based on the income they have at the time, can they buy out the other exiting parties share of existing mortgage – plus typically accumulated equity on top of that.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

An Auckland man promised two people a better life, but instead kept them as slaves for several years, police said following his sentencing.

Moeaia Tuai was on Thursday jailed for 16 years and four months for dealing in slaves, rape and numerous other sexual assaults.

Detective Inspector Warrick Adkin of Counties Manukau CIB said the Samoan chief arranged to bring them to New Zealand in 2016.

He praised the bravery of the complainants for standing up in court, saying they gave compelling evidence.

“Initially the victims were promised a good education and a better way of life. But that’s not what happened – instead he put them to work, kept their wages and assaulted them.

“The charges are the result of more than two years of work by Immigration New Zealand and New Zealand Police, dating back to 2024 when the first allegations of Tuai’s offending were brought to our attention.”

Specialist agencies supported the two young people through the process and five-week trial, he added.

Immigration investigations manager Jason Perry said slavery was often a hidden crime, and urged people to report migrant exploitation.

“Immigration New Zealand is committed to supporting police to ensure those who deliberately harm or take advantage of others are held accountable. Immigration investigators worked closely with police throughout the operation, helping to ensure those responsible for these often hidden crimes are brought to justice.

“Coordinated action like this is essential to protecting vulnerable people and raising awareness. If you see signs of exploitation, report it.”

Tuai, 63, was sentenced to a non-parole period of eight years.

The High Court in Auckland heard he put the male complainant straight to work at an Auckland boarding house run by his wife’s sister, before moving both victims to Australia, where the young man escaped in 2020.

It took another four years before the young woman, back in New Zealand, also managed to run away.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Campers are shocked and devastated as a Hawke’s Bay campground is evacuated due to the “extreme” risk of a landslide, the manager says.

It comes three weeks after six people died in Mount Maunganui when a chunk of the maunga crashed onto a holiday park.

The Hastings District Council said it evaluated “at-risk” sites including the Clifton Motor Camp after that tragedy.

At 4.30pm on Thursday, the council told campers and permanent residents they had 24 hours to leave because a geotechnical report has found an extreme risk of landslides affecting the grounds.

“Heavy or prolonged rain, elevated groundwater levels, or an earthquake could cause the slope to fail,” the council said.

“If that occurred, soil, rocks and large trees would fall directly onto buildings and caravans located at the base of the slope.”

Hawke’s Bay is under a heavy rain watch from 3pm today.

The council said there would be little warning and limited opportunity to escape safely if a landslide occurred.

The council said making the site safe would require significant engineering and drainage works, likely costing several million dollars.

Unless that work was undertaken, the campground could not be considered safe to occupy.

There had been slips there in the past: one in 2011 damaged the toilet block and covered the playground, and one in 2019 that put two tourists in hospital.

Hastings District Council chief executive Nigel Bickle said the decision was not a “knee-jerk reaction”.

“The advice is clear – the level of risk is extreme and cannot be ignored.”

Bickle understood it was distressing news for people who used the campground – some for many decades.

“But when expert advice tells us there is a credible threat to life, we have a responsibility to act.”

Campers shocked, devastated

Clifton Reserve Society’s Piki Wellwood-King – which leases the land from Hastings District Council – said the advice came out of the blue.

“Everyone here is in shock around the short notice, absolutely devastated trying to comprehend what’s really happening,” she said.

“The camp composes of people who live here permanently, people who live here seasonally, and the public who come in and rent a site,” she said.

“It’s really weighing heavy on everyone … it’s huge.”

Some had camped there for generations, and more than a dozen lived there permanently, she said.

But Wellwood-King said the advice to leave made “perfect sense” given the safety risk.

The council said staff were working with the society and support agencies to help residents with accommodation and support services, and to ensure they could retrieve their personal belongings.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A person is in a stable condition in hospital after being shot and injured in the Auckland suburb of Mission Bay.

Senior Sergeant Rebecca Kirk says police were called to a property about 9.15pm on Thursday.

She said it appeared a group of people had turned up at the house where some kind of altercation took place.

An investigation was underway to track down those responsible.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Fisher Funds says it has made some changes to the team that manages its hardship applications, with KiwiSaver managers under pressure as withdrawal applications spiked.

Inland Revenue data showed there were 58,460 withdrawals for hardship reasons in 2025, 10,000 more than were made for a first home.

In total, $514.8 million was withdrawn from KiwiSaver because of hardship and $2.1 billion for a first home.

Some applicants faced delays as providers struggled to keep up with the volume.

Fisher Funds said some changes were made last year to its team, for the eight staff based in Hawke’s Bay.

“We put a change proposal to them, inviting them to relocate to Auckland/or Wellington and unfortunately none of them took up the offer.

“All roles were replaced with people in either Auckland or Wellington.”

A spokesperson said Fisher Funds was not immune to the overall increase in applications and, anticipating that Christmas would be a time of additional pressure on household budgets, extra staff were added from November through January.

Milford Asset Management has a partnership with DebtFix, to help manage the hardship application process. It, too, has seen a significant increase in applications.

A spokesperson for Westpac said it had added staff to its team, to handle first-home withdrawals as well as hardship applications.

“We’ve improved some of our internal processes to make it faster and more efficient for customers.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say the fire that ripped through the top floor of a factory in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga is being treated as suspicious.

Up to eight crews were called to the two-storey building on Patrick Street at 2.15am on Friday, where they found the upper floor fully alight.

Fire and Emergency said the bulk of the blaze had been extinguished by 3am.

No one was hurt in the fire.

Police said staff will work with fire investigators, with a scene examination to be completed later on Friday.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Emergency services are responding to a crash in north Canterbury, that has left multiple people trapped.

Fire and Emergency NZ said it was called to State Highway 7, north of Waikari, at about 6.40am on Friday after a car went off the road.

At least four fire crews are working to help free people trapped in the car.

One of the people trapped is in a critical condition and three others in a serious condition.

St John said it is responding with three ambulances and a helicopter.

Motorists are told to expect delays.

Police have been contacted for comment.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Two customers caught out by large changes in the valuation of their vehicles through AA Insurance say they only realised something was amiss when they went to claim.

RNZ has reported on a number of people who have queried the valuations of their cars through the insurance company in recent months.

One woman, Nicki, was upset that the value of her 24-year-old Subaru had increased two-and-a-half times when the policy renewed this year.

Another said that the value of his 2003 Subaru Forester dropped 58 percent last year and then lifted by 3.67 times this year – to $9900, 10 percent more than he paid for it 11 years ago.

AA said it relied on third-party data to provide vehicle values and from time to time the methodology and data sources were updated.

One person, Chris, who contacted RNZ said their policy renewed in February.

But five days later, the vehicle was hit while stationary and it was only then that they realised the insured value had been reduced by 70 percent. Chris said while the change in premiums was made clear in the information emailed about the renewal, the change in the insured value was more difficult to find.

Another person, Ruby, said the value of her car dropped from $6900 to $1300 at her policy renewal..

“After a lot of back and forth, stressful phone calls, and providing my original purchase receipt, AA eventually reinstated the agreed value of $6900.

“The repair quote for the damage is between $2000 and $3000, so if the policy had remained at $1300, it would have effectively left me without meaningful cover.

“However, AA are now requiring me to back-pay the premium difference for the period where the vehicle should have been insured at the higher agreed value. I’m a single mum on a very tight budget with existing debt, and I’ve been trying to resolve this since the 2nd of January while my car is still damaged and difficult to use. They have just agreed to let me repay the additional premium at $8 per fortnight.”

Karen Stevens, Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman, said she could not comment on specifics but had received a number of complaints in recent years from people who had not been aware that their vehicle’s value had been reduced by their insurer until they had an accident.

“We always remind people that it’s important to review the new policy schedule every year and, if they’re not happy with the value, to challenge it then rather than later. They can also get a valuation or PAV to show the vehicle is worth more than the insurer says it is.”

Rebecca Styles, Consumer NZ’s insurance specialist, said anyone who had not been advised about a drop in value should challenge it.,

“If someone is advised of a drop in the value of their vehicle and they disagree with it, they can ask for a revised valuation and provide evidence of what they consider to be fair market value.

“It’s also important to check the policy renewal details when they come through to make sure the insured value is appropriate, and to take the opportunity to check how the premium compares with other insurers to make sure you’re getting the best deal.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Rain is on the way for almost all of the North Island, including areas badly battered last month.

An orange heavy rain warning will take effect from 6pm Friday for Bay of Plenty east of Ōpōtiki, and Tai Rāwhiti north of Tolaga Bay.

Up to 100mm of rain is expected, with a chance of up to 150mm in one or two places.

Forecaster MetService said there was a low chance of it being upgraded to a red warning.

For most of the rest of the island there was a yellow heavy rain watch. It would begin in Northland, Auckland, Coromandel and Waikato at 9am, and make its way south through the middle of the day, with southern areas like Manawatū, Tararua District and Hawke’s Bay joining the watch at 3pm.

Wellington at this stage appeared to be spared.

East Coast residents were warned to expect up to 100mm or rain, with some localised areas getting up to 150mm.

“Peak rainfall rates are very dependent on localised downpours or thunderstorms, and may reach 25 to 40mm per hour during Saturday morning,” MetService warned.

There was a “low chance” the orange warning would be upgraded to red.

“Streams and rivers may rise rapidly. Surface flooding, slips, and difficult driving conditions [are] possible.”

Tauranga City Council urged residents to evacuate immediately if the ground moved or there was another landslide.

Periods of heavy rain or showers and a chance of thunderstorms were expected in the region from noon.

The council said there was a higher chance of landslides because of the rain that had already fallen in recent weeks.

Six people died in a slip at Mt Maunganui last month, and two at a home in Welcome Bay.

There were still 40 slips on Mauao, and recent monitoring had found unstable land.

As a precaution, the council on Friday morning said it would close Adams Avenue, between Pilot Bay and the Maunganui Road roundabout, from 8am.

“This is a precautionary approach following geotechnical advice about the current risks on Mauao from anticipated rainfall from Friday to Saturday.”

No timeframe was given, the council saying it would only reopen once the rain had finished and experts had seemed it safe. The footpath on the ‘shop side’ of Adams Ave would remain open.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Firefighters are responding to a fire at a factory in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga.

Up to eight crews were called to the two-storey building on Patrick Street at 2.15am on Friday, where they found the upper floor fully alight.

Fire and Emergency said the bulk of the blaze had been extinguished by 3am.

Two crews are still on site dampening down hotspots.

A fire investigator is heading to the scene this morning.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tai Rāwhiti locals isolated by January’s slips on the Waioweka Gorge and East Coast highway are anxious to have a reliable northern route out of Gisborne.

Convoys along State Highway 2 were stopped on Thursday night and have been cancelled this weekend, because of the threat of rain causing more slips in the gorge.

On State Highway 35 around East Cape, the storm-damaged road remained closed between Te Araroa and Pōtaka.

The months of disruption and hours-long detour had prompted calls for an alternative northern route out of Gisborne – but it was not something the government was currently considering.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the Waioweka Gorge was the main freight route out of Tai Rāwhiti therefore cleaning it up was the priority – until then, discussing the future of the network and other routes would have to wait.

“We need to make a determination as to the state of the network once we can actually see it. Clearly, there are issues on the [east] coast in terms of resilience and sustainability.

“State Highway 35 has been a long-running issue, so has the Waioweka Gorge and all the evidence is that it is going to continue to happen into the future.

“I’m just not going to pre-judge where we might get to until I’ve got information.”

Waioweka Gorge local Bob Redpath said the odd rockfall during heavy rain was nothing new and after weeks of closures felt frustrated by the cancellation of convoys due to forecast bad weather.

“Yes, it’s a bit fragile and tender at the moment, but they just need to be a bit kinder to the traffic, I think – [they] need to get it going.

“There’s a whole lot of people in Gisborne hurting.”

He said the uncertainty around the road’s status had put his farm stay operation on hold and dog trials due to be held Ōpōtiki next month had just been cancelled for the same reason.

Redpath backed the exploration of an alternative route but pinpointing its location was another matter.

“I tongue in cheek, jokingly said to someone recently, ‘If we were in China – China would build a bridge from Ōpōtiki to Matawai.”

Gisborne’s mayor, Rehette Stoltz, said unreliable roading infrastructure was hampering the region’s economic prospects by putting business confidence at risk.

She said with the cancellation of the convoys through the gorge, once again the only option to go north out of Gisborne was to first head south on State Highway 2, almost to Napier, before taking State Highway 5 – a detour which added between two and three hours.

For those north of Gisborne on the cape, the detour was even longer, creating a “huge time cost and huge money cost for our community”.

Stoltz said hard questions about the future of State Highway 2 would be asked once the region was back on its feet and hoped to sit down with the government in the first half of the year.

“Is it worth investing money constantly – and we are talking about nearly every year millions of dollars to build in, not even resilience into that route, but just to keep it available for us – or is it time for us to say we need to think bigger?

“What is the best option to either build resilience into State Highway 2 north? Or alternatively discuss a different route.”

However, she said the feasibility and location of a different route was best left to the roading engineers.

NZTA investigates resilience in current network

A 2020 National Resilence Programme Business Case prepared for the Transport Agency (NZTA) gave the Waioweka Gorge a 5VL rating – the highest level of “extreme risk” for likelihood of damage – and the only road in the country to receive it.

While NZTA had not investigated another northern route out of Tai Rāwhiti, three options for improving the gorge’s resilience were put forward in the SH2 Waioweka Gorge Corridor Resilience Single Stage Business Case.

NZTA regional manager of system design Lisa Faulknor said the options cost between $70 million and $200m as at 2024 and the agency had just completed work to address “weather-related risks” before the recent severe weather.

“The business case is complete and does not need any further work. So it can be utilitised without delay, subject to funding availability.”

However, the recommended option would only half weather-related road closures, she said.

“According to the business case, completing this option would result in a 53 percent reduction in closures – it would not fully eliminate the consequences of weather events or the subsequent closures.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fire and Emergency is pouring cold water on a claim from the firefighters’ union that four cities are without life-saving high-reach ladder trucks.

On Thursday, the Professional Firefighters’ Union (NZPFU) said the specialised trucks in four cities were broken and communities faced hours of waiting for back-up if needed.

However, Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) said the claims were untrue and that it could provide alternative vehicles whenever they were needed.

It comes as union members are set to strike again today, stopping work for an hour at midday over their collective employment agreement.

What the union says

NZPFU said the Rotorua aerial truck broke down at a fire at Taupō-nui-a-Tia College on Sunday, resulting in an almost two-hour delay for back-up from Hamilton.

It said New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Gisborne’s aerial trucks were also all broken.

The union pointed to a national aerial strategy, which was meant to come off the back of a 2019 fire at Auckland’s International Convention Centre.

“Seven years later, that strategy is still to be completed. Instead, the organisation has prioritised corporate restructuring, cost-cutting, and the elimination of frontline emergency services to communities,” it said.

FENZ responds

However, FENZ said it was “not true that four Type 4 aerial trucks are out of action”.

It said Rotorua’s appliance was now back in service, and Gisborne’s was available despite being in the workshop for a minor issue.

Palmerston North’s truck was having a scheduled service and would be available again on Friday, while New Plymouth’s aerial truck was also in the workshop getting an intermittent electrical issue diagnosed and repaired.

“For scheduled services and minor repairs, we generally make arrangements that if a truck [is] in the workshop overnight it will be left in an operational state so the station can use it if needed. Similarly, if they need it during the day the workshop will endeavour to stop what they are doing and make it available,” a spokesperson said.

“It’s important to understand that we have 16 operational aerial appliances the same type as the Rotorua aerial, that get a proactive service 4 times a year. These services typically take 1-3 days each, plus any time for repairs. This means on average there is a Type 4 in the workshop for a proactive service for about 2.5 days for every week of the year. This is good maintenance practice, and demonstrates our investment in looking after our fleet.”

FENZ had a fleet of about 1300 trucks, the spokesperson said, and the agency was investing more than $20 million per year over the next three years to upgrade its fleet, plus an additional $12.5m on new heavy aerial trucks.

“Our firefighters are trained to use a range of tactics for different types of incidents. This means that if one particular type of fire truck is unavailable, they can adapt their tactics to the resources that they have.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Finance Minister Nicola Willis is urging the previous Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr to front up to the inquiry into the economic responses to Covid-19.

The government announced the independent review on Wednesday, saying it would identify key lessons from the spike in inflation and house prices.

The central bank’s actions – including official cash rate cuts and money printing – as well as its interaction with government policy, will all be in scope.

Willis said it was up to Orr whether he appeared, but had a message for him.

“Put New Zealand’s interests at the heart of your decision,” she said.

“It’s in New Zealand’s interests that you are candid about the decisions the Reserve Bank made in response to the Covid pandemic so that our country can learn from any mistakes that you made.”

Willis said she would still be going ahead with the inquiry whether Orr was still governor or not.

“Yes. I first sought advice on the shape of a potential inquiry when we first came into government. The decision I made at that time was to first focus on the legislating of a singular inflation-fighting target; the renegotiation of a funding agreement,” she said.

“At the point of Adrian Orr’s resignation, which occurred of course just a few months into our term as government, I determined it wouldn’t be appropriate while we were recruiting for a new governor to initiate the review, but the appointment of Dr Anna Breman has provided an appropriate juncture.”

Opposition parties have criticised the timing of the review – with the findings set to be released in September, just weeks before the 7 November election – labelling it a politically motivated hit-job and an attack on the central bank’s independence.

Willis said the reviewers – former Cyprus central banker Athanasios Orphanides and former RBNZ assistant governor David Archer – would be travelling to New Zealand to carry out their work including conducting interviews.

They would have access to all Reserve Bank information, she said, and she expected it would also look at wealth inequality.

Orr led the bank during the pandemic but resigned unexpectedly last March over a lack of funding for the central bank.

His resignation came more than a year after the government took office.

Messy handling of his exit later led chair Neil Quigley to resign too, putting Willis under pressure over what she knew and when.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Imported liquified natural gas could be a stopgap insurance policy against dry years – or an expensive, dirty fuel that will hit Kiwis in the pocket

The Government’s proposed plan to import liquefied natural gas detonated a political fight this week – not over energy, but over whether Kiwis are about to be hit with a new “gas tax”.

“If it looks like a tax and it quacks like a tax, it’s a tax,” was the echo throughout parliament, and fiercely debated on talkback radio.

But behind the rhetoric sits a serious problem: New Zealand’s domestic gas supply is shrinking, electricity demand is rising, and officials warn the country risks shortages without backup fuel.

So imported LNG, most likely from Australia, is being pitched as that backup.

The plan would see New Zealand import super-cooled natural gas, shipped in from overseas, stored and regasified for use in electricity generation and industry.

Newsroom senior political reporter Marc Daalder tells The Detail it’s a proposed stopgap – insurance against dry years, dwindling gas reserves, and rising demand.

“Every once in a while, it rains less than you’d like it to, particularly in autumn and winter.

“That means our hydro lakes run low, and we can’t necessarily rely on things like wind, [as] it tends to be less windy when it’s less rainy; or solar in the winter when the sun isn’t shining, the sun’s gone down at the time we have our peak power demand, which is usually around 6 pm in July or August when people get home and turn on the heat and start cooking dinner, and suddenly the country’s power demand spikes.

“So renewables on their own aren’t able to fill that gap. We burn fossil fuels instead in dry years … but the problem is that we don’t have quite enough fossil fuel generation and quite enough supply, particularly of gas, to be able to reliably access it when you need it in a dry year.

“And that’s because of the second problem that’s going on, which is that our gas reserves are dwindling. They have essentially fallen off a cliff in the last few years.”

Not for want of trying, he says, with $1.5 billion spent on drilling 53 different exploration wells.

“A few of them have had small successes, but it’s turned out that the big, big fields that we have relied on for quite a long time have just started coming up empty.”

He says LNG is more expensive than domestic gas – about double the price.

“The theory is, on the government’s part, this is a backstop. The gas is available if we need it in a dry year, yes it’s more expensive, so it won’t be used otherwise.”

Daalder warns that, potentially, LNG could be dirtier than coal.

“There has been some research recently to suggest when you account for the emissions that go into producing the gas, into converting it to LNG, the leakages that occur while it’s being shipped across the ocean, and then it has to be regasified, and then distributed around a country like New Zealand, then actually LNG is potentially as dirty or dirtier than coal when you take that full supply chain into account.”

Questions remain

Martin Gummer, managing director of Optima, which looks at energy management solutions, tells The Detail that he largely supports the move, saying gas remains critical for manufacturing, food processing, and electricity reliability.

“You’ve got heavy industry, major manufacturers, steel, wood processors but also a wide spectrum of intermediate-sized businesses such as food products,” says Gummer. Schools and hospitals are also big gas users.

Gummer wrote an open letter to the prime minister that was published in the NZ Herald last December which was critical of the government’s handling of the energy problem and called for an urgent “bold, decisive” strategy.

As the country fast runs out of natural gas, Gummer says the LNG announcement won’t address all the concerns and there are still questions over the date of opening of a new plant and the price customers pay for the gas.

“While LNG is not a perfect answer, there is no perfect answer, it is probably the next best and most sensible interim step that needs to be taken.”

A missing part of the jigsaw is a funding stream – or subsidy – to assist industry to transition to renewable energy sources.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A spooky image described a “grim reaper” has shown up in a medical scan of someone who’d just be in a car accident.

The person was actually unharmed, but the New Zealand Medical Journal has highlighted the case an an example of pareidolia.

That was the tendency of humans to see faces or figures in objects.

The image in the journal was from a radiograph of the atlas bone of the neck.

It looked like a skull surrounded by a black hood although, on closer inspection, it could also be perceived as a friendly skeleton.

The report, by Stephen Rowlands, said the tendency to spot faces in objects was evolutionarily advantageous but the interpretations could sometimes be humorous or eerie.

“Cases of pareidolia in medicine are rare but not unprecedented, with reported examples including the Star Wars “Baby Yoda” character being seen in sacral magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scans,” it said.

The image was in fact created by a cluster of cysts in the neck.

Even though the patient was not seriously injured, the cysts could make them more susceptible to a neck injury.

The image was a good chance to reinforce anatomical knowledge but also to show the “cognitive pitfalls” that could come with radiology, the report said.

“Awareness of pareidolia is important for radiologists and clinicians alike, as it underscores the influence of subconscious visual biases on image.”

A University of Sydney study in 2021 concluded being good at spotting faces was part of human evolution – and that was why they tended to see them in objects.

Facial recognition happened in a few hundred milliseconds.

It was beneficial to be able to spot and assess a face quickly and the benefit of never missing a face outweighed sometimes getting it wrong, the study found.

Social media is full of examples of faces in gherkins or trees or power sockets and more.

More than 20 years ago a Florida woman made headlines when she sold a cheese sandwich for US$28,000 because it looked like an image of the Virgin Mary.

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