Source: Radio New Zealand

A High Court Judge has won the right to have a dispute over a family bach heard in private, rather than open court.

In 2022, Justice Anne Hinton sold her share of the bach to two of her four sisters – but her other sister, Gillian Gatfield and niece, Emma Pearson (who inherited her mother’s share) argued Hinton had, years earlier, promised to transfer her share to them.

They took their case to the High Court, but Hinton successfully applied to have it referred to independent arbitration.

The plaintiffs appealed the arbitration referral in November – but the Court of Appeal dismissed that on Thursday.

Hinton wanted arbitration because it was faster and cheaper than going through the courts – and private.

Her lawyers argued any judge hearing Hinton’s case in court would be put in a difficult position: either risking the perception of favouring a colleague, or ruling against her which would effectively question her credibility.

But Gatfield and Pearson disagreed.

Lawyer Matanuku Mahuika said “significant weight” was placed on Hinton’s role as a judge in her request for arbitration, which was “not appropriate”.

He urged the judges to be mindful of open justice and warned them against being seen to give preference to a fellow judge.

Mahuika also pointed out arbitration had never been ordered – as opposed to agreed to – in a trust dispute.

But in Thursday’s decision, the judges said the Associate Judge who ordered the arbitration was following the correct procedure.

“We consider that the court has power to order that an arbitration take place and to appoint an arbitrator, even when there is no agreement to arbitrate.

“We also consider there is nothing inherently inappropriate in doing so.”

The Judges said it was “unnecessary” to explicitly address all the matters Gatfield and Pearson’s lawyers raised as reasons against private arbitration.

“We agree with the decision made by the High Court,” their judgement said.

Mediation and arbitration were appropriate options in a case involving “strongly felt personal allegations”, it said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

One person has escaped a house fire in North Auckland this afternoon.

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) crews are extinguishing a fire at a two-storey house on Balmain Road in Chatswood.

A FENZ spokesperson said they were called to the scene at about half past 12, and the house was well involved on arrival.

One person who was inside the house was able to get out and wasn’t injured.

FENZ said the fire isn’t being treated as suspicious, but a fire investigator is on site.

Locals have shared photos of billowing black smoke coming from the area on Thursday afternoon.

A section of Balmain Road has been cordoned off.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Former prison officer Moeaia Tuai, who enslaved two young people in Auckland over several years will spend more than 16 years in jail.

Tuai raped and sexually assaulted one of them.

Tuai, 63, was found guilty by a jury last year of two charges of slavery, two counts of rape and a string of other sexual assaults.

In a victim statement, one of the complainants said her youthful happiness, and her voice, have been taken from her.

Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith said Tuai felt entitled to the money the two earned, controlling their finances to fund his lifestyle and threatening them with deportation.

Investigation and prosecution numbers were hard to track down, but Tuai’s slave dealing convictions are believed to be the fifth in New Zealand history.

More to come…

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington’s Mayor says suggested terms of reference for an expected Crown review into the failure of the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant are with the government.

It comes as Wellington Water crews enter the plant to begin assessing the damage from its massive meltdown last week.

Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said he’d given Local Government Minister Simon Watts his proposal for a terms of reference for any inquiry.

He expected the review would examine the mechanical cause of the breakdown and the environmental impact and the damage to the plant.

“…In terms of any governance issues, the contractual arrangements between the various parties, reporting to the various bodies, including the council, the information that was shared, was that adequate, was that appropriate? Should anybody have seen something that might have led to an earlier and preventative response? All those questions are contained in that,” Little said.

There were concerns at a Cabinet level about a full ministerial inquiry, which could be formalistic and expensive, he said.

“I had a discussion with David Seymour about it. He had expressed some supportive views, but also some concerning views earlier in the week. We had a good discussion about it. I think he understood what I was saying. So, I expect it will be a Crown review.”

Watts and Seymour have been approached for comment.

Little said it was important that any review was independent and had the powers to compel documents if needed.

While court action couldn’t be ruled out, the immediate focus was restoring a safe, functioning treatment plant, he said.

Little said the Moa Point plant was likely facing a major rebuild, with costs expected to fall at least initially on Wellington City Council.

Early indications suggested a significant reinstallation of equipment would be needed, but there was no price tag, he said.

“We just don’t know what the cost is going to be, but you’d expect, from all of the accounts so far, you’d have to anticipate this is a major rebuild, at least a reinstallation of equipment, and that doesn’t come cheap.”

The mayor said the parties involved, including the Wellington City Council and Wellington Water, had insurance.

But he said responsibility hadn’t been determined, and it was too early to say who would foot the bill.

Little said the planned transfer of assets to Metro Water in July may now need renegotiating.

Meanwhile, a week on from the failure, Wellington Water crews have been able to enter the Moa Point plant to begin properly taking stock of the damage.

The company said workers were following strict risk protocols including personal protective equipment and risk analysis for each task.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The Maritime Union of New Zealand is concerned about the well-being of seafarers on board the former Interislander ferry Aratere, now called the Vega, which is anchored in Tasman Bay waiting to sail to India.

Maritime NZ said it does not know how many crew are on board or where they are from and has no plans to carry out inspections or interventions to check on their welfare.

The Vega is waiting for consent to enter India, where it will be taken to a shipyard and dismantled.

Maritime Union NZ national secretary Carl Findlay said the Vega had been sitting at anchor in Tasman Bay for more than 50 days and the union had received reports about the well-being of crew members who had been on the ship for almost two months.

The union did not have any concerns about crew welfare on the Vega until it was contacted by RNZ.

Findlay said contracts obtained by the union showed the ship was registered to Jahaj Solutions (F.Z.E), which was based in the United Arab Emirates.

“This vessel was once the flagship of New Zealand’s ferry fleet. It is now sitting off our coast with a foreign crew who are cut off from shore and on contracts that pay well below International Labour Organisation (ILO) minimum standards,” he said.

Crew agreements viewed by the union showed an able seaman on board the ship was being paid a basic wage of $206USD ($340NZD) per month.

This was significantly below the ILO minimum basic wage for an able seafarer, which rose to $690USD ($1140NZD) per month on 1 January 2026, the union said.

Findlay said the total monthly pay for an able seaman is only $550USD ($909NZD), even with overtime and allowances, which was far below accepted international minimums.

He said the boat’s agents and master had reported the crew were in good health and that provisions were being supplied but that needed to be independently verified.

The union wants Maritime NZ to conduct an immediate, independent welfare check on all crew members on the Vega to ensure they were safe, correctly paid and had the option to be repatriated if they wanted to leave the vessel.

As the Port State Control authority, Maritime NZ is able to carry out crew welfare inspections or interventions.

A spokesperson said there was no action currently underway or planned for the Vega by Maritime NZ.

“As is the case for any other foreign ship in our waters, if people have concerns about crew welfare, Maritime NZ asks them to notify us,” they said.

Why hasn’t the Vega left New Zealand?

KiwiRail announced last October that it had agreed to sell the Aratere to a buyer that would deliver it to a specialist recycling shipyard in India.

At the time, Interislander’s executive general manager Duncan Roy said it had done due diligence and physical inspections of the shipyard in India.

“Once the buyer takes ownership of the ship it will be responsible for crewing its journey to the recycling yard subject to review by the Environmental Protection Authority,” he said.

An Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) spokesperson said the Vega was awaiting an import consent from the Indian Competent Authority and there was no timeline for how long that would take.

The EPA said the application for the ship’s export was complete and relevant application documents had been provided to the Indian Competent Authority.

“We cannot finalise the export application until the Indian Competent Authority has granted consent for import,” the spokesperson said.

“We have not been provided a timeline for this process, but it is not unusual for these applications to take some time. The EPA continues to actively follow up on progress with the Indian Competent Authority and provide additional information if/where needed.”

The ship remains the responsibility of the company that purchased it with the intention of exporting it to India.

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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

A Christchurch man has been arrested after crashing, stealing a vehicle he hit, then attempting to take another three vehicles.

Police were called to Queen Elizabeth II Drive after reports of a stolen vehicle following a three vehicle crash.

They said a 28-year-old man had forced a driver he crashed into from their car, before leaving the area.

He was later found on Papanui Road after attempting to steal another three vehicles.

Senior Sergeant Hamish Keer-Keer said there were no serious injuries.

He said police found “cannabis and items indicating supply” during a search of the man’s first vehicle.

The man due to appear in the District Court in Christchurch on Thursday charged with possession of cannabis for supply, careless driving, driving in a dangerous manner, two counts of failing to stop or ascertain injury and two counts of robbery.

Enquires into the events remain ongoing.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

You may need to keep your raincoats handy as the warm weather the North Island is experiencing may take a turn this weekend.

A low-pressure system is lining up a soggy weekend, bringing warm, humid air and the risk of heavy rain, especially for parts of the North Island still recovering after January’s floods.

MetService issued a rain warning for the Bay of Plenty from Friday night until 10am on Saturday.

Between 80 to 100mm of rain was expected to accumulate with the chance of 130 to 150mm in one or two places.

MetService warned it could cause surface flooding, slips and dangerous driving conditions.

MetService meteorologist, Mmathapelo Makgabutlane told Morning Report the next few days will be warm and humid for the North Island.

Muggy overnight temperatures on the way for the second half of the week as a warm-moist airmass pushes over us

Parts of the upper North Island will have overnight low temperatures around 20°C.

Meanwhile, Southland could have maximum temperatures in the high 20s on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/GexGcCsgyY

— MetService NZ (@MetService) February 10, 2026

Makgabutlane said there are a couple of weather systems on the way this weekend.

On Friday, a front is expected to move across the South Island, bringing a period of heavy rain and strong winds.

However, it’s the weather system moving onto the North Island on Saturday that Makgabutlane said was the one of interest.

A trough over the northern Tasman Sea is likely to move onto the North Island, bringing very humid conditions with scattered showers and possible thunderstorms on Saturday through to Monday.

“The two main things to look out for with the system is that intensification. How deep that low-pressure system is will be one thing that tells us how strong or how much rain we will see,” Makgabutlane said.

“The other thing is the location of that weather system. So, if it forms a couple of hundred kilometres to to the east of us, [it’s] probably going to be a lovely weekend for most of us, but even if it forms just a little bit closer to us, then we could be in for quite a wet weekend.”

As things stand, it does look like it will be a wet couple of days ahead, she said.

At this point, the areas that look the most likely to bear the brunt of the weather are most of the North Island on Saturday, and the lower and eastern parts of the North Island on Sunday and into Monday.

“Over the next coming days, I would say certainly keep an eye out for those [weather] watches because they do look likely,” Makgabutlane said.

Along with the heavy rain warning, heavy rain watches were in place for much of the North Island on Friday and Saturday.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The government has confirmed it will launch an inquiry into the fatal landslide at Mount Maunganui last month.

Six people died after a portion of the maunga collapsed onto a section of a campground on 22 January.

Associate Emergency Management Minister Chris Penk was delegated responsibility for investigating whether the government would conduct an inquiry, separate from the Tauranga City Council’s inquiry.

Penk has confirmed to RNZ that Cabinet has agreed to the inquiry.

“It’s clear those directly affected by this tragic and unimaginable loss, alongside the wider community, want to understand how these events occurred, and whether anything could have been done to prevent them,” he said.

Penk said the next step would be to take a detailed paper to Cabinet, setting out the proposed scope, terms of reference, budget, and who will be appointed to lead it.

“Those responsible for the inquiry will be required to communicate with the families of the victims about its process and progress. It is my sincere hope that undertaking an Inquiry will help provide answers for all.”

The government has previously said there was a strong case for launching an independent inquiry, following conversations with the families of those who had lost their lives.

The Tauranga City Council has launched a separate independent review, focusing on the events leading up to the landslide at the base of Mauao.

The fact that the council owned the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park meant councillors had noted there was an inherent conflict, and so expected the Crown would order an inquiry as well.

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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

Transmission Gully will move to a 110km/h speed limit from next week.

The 27km stretch of State Highway 1 was opened in 2022, with the government saying it was designed and built to support higher-speed travel.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the road was a critical transport link for Wellington and Kāpiti, and carried around 22,000 vehicles a day.

“Since opening in 2022, Transmission Gully has recorded low crash rates, with no deaths despite more than 150 barrier strikes. Safety features, including two lanes in each direction and a flexible median barrier between opposing lanes help reduce the risk of death or serious injury in a crash,” he said.

Bishop said during public consultation in 2025, 92 percent of the 2061 submissions supported raising the speed limit.

The 4.6km Raumati Straights section of State Highway 1 will remain at 100km/h, before the speed limit returns to 110km/h at the Kāpiti Expressway.

Bishop said while Raumati Straights was consulted on, technical assessments showed the section did not meet the minimum safety and design requirements for raising the speed limits.

He did not rule out increasing the speed limit in the future, but it would require “significant investment in safety improvements.”

The changes will take effect from 12:01am on Monday, February 16.

The highway stretch has had a chequered history, with its completion date pushed out from 2020 to 2022.

The initial expected cost of $850 million also blew out to $1.25 billion.

Some sections of the highway have had to be rebuilt because the initial chip-sealing work was never completed

The road was built under a Public Private Partnership, with the builders of the road taking the New Zealand Transport Agency to court over a dispute about unfinished construction and quality checks. The matter was eventually settled out of court.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

You may need to keep your raincoats handy as the warm weather the North Island is experiencing may take a turn this weekend.

A low-pressure system is lining up a soggy weekend, bringing warm, humid air and the risk of heavy rain, especially for parts of the North Island still recovering after January’s floods.

MetService meteorologist, Mmathapelo Makgabutlane told Morning Report the next few days will be warm and humid for the North Island.

Muggy overnight temperatures on the way for the second half of the week as a warm-moist airmass pushes over us

Parts of the upper North Island will have overnight low temperatures around 20°C.

Meanwhile, Southland could have maximum temperatures in the high 20s on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/GexGcCsgyY

— MetService NZ (@MetService) February 10, 2026

Makgabutlane said there are a couple of weather systems on the way this weekend.

On Friday, a front is expected to move across the South Island, bringing a period of heavy rain and strong winds.

However, it’s the weather system moving onto the North Island on Saturday that Makgabutlane said was the one of interest.

A trough over the northern Tasman Sea is likely to move onto the North Island, bringing very humid conditions with scattered showers and possible thunderstorms on Saturday through to Monday.

“The two main things to look out for with the system is that intensification. How deep that low-pressure system is will be one thing that tells us how strong or how much rain we will see,” Makgabutlane said.

“The other thing is the location of that weather system. So, if it forms a couple of hundred kilometres to to the east of us, [it’s] probably going to be a lovely weekend for most of us, but even if it forms just a little bit closer to us, then we could be in for quite a wet weekend.”

As things stand, it does look like it will be a wet couple of days ahead, she said.

At this point, the areas that look the most likely to bear the brunt of the weather are most of the North Island on Saturday, and the lower and eastern parts of the North Island on Sunday and into Monday.

“Over the next coming days, I would say certainly keep an eye out for those [weather] watches because they do look likely,” Makgabutlane said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A man charged with murdering an elderly woman and attacking two family members at a rural Canterbury property is yet to enter a plea.

The woman’s body was found at a home in on Burnham School Rd, Burnham last month.

The 19-year-old, whose identity remains suppressed, appeared at the High Court at Christchurch on Thursday morning.

His next appearance would be in April.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Rubber goods manufacturer Skellerup has posted a record first half profit on the back of higher sales across the business.

Key numbers for the six months ended December compared with a year ago:

• Net profit $28.9m vs $24.2m
• Revenue $183.5m vs $165.3m
• Pre-tax earnings $40.6m vs $35m
• Forecast profit range $57-62m
• Interim dividend 10 cents per share vs 9 cps

Skellerup chief executive Graham Leaming called its record half year result an “excellent” start to the year, with growth in all its key divisions.

“The growth in revenue and earnings was broad-based with the most notable contributions coming from the key dairy, potable and wastewater applications.”

He said the company had met increased demand, brought new products to market and coped with the imposition of tariffs.

The industrial division, which makes products for water supplies and wastewater, foam for boats and roofing products, had a strong lift in sales to Australia and the US, as well as improved margins.

The agriculture division, which provides rubber components for dairying as well as the well known gumboots, also sold well overseas.

The company gets about 80 percent of revenue from overseas, and close to 40 percent from US sales, but revamped sources of supply and manufacture to reduce the impact of the US tariffs.

Leaming said despite continuing global uncertainty the company had a strong pipeline of work, and was expecting a full year profit between $57-$62m, compared to last year’s $54.5m.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

MetService is warning you may need to keep your raincoats handy as the warm weather the North Island is experiencing may take a turn this weekend.

A low-pressure system is lining up a soggy weekend, bringing warm, humid air and the risk of heavy rain, especially for parts of the North Island still recovering after January’s floods.

MetService meteorologist, Mmathapelo Makgabutlane told Morning Report the next few days will be warm and humid for the North Island.

Muggy overnight temperatures on the way for the second half of the week as a warm-moist airmass pushes over us

Parts of the upper North Island will have overnight low temperatures around 20°C.

Meanwhile, Southland could have maximum temperatures in the high 20s on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/GexGcCsgyY

— MetService NZ (@MetService) February 10, 2026

Makgabutlane said there are a couple of weather systems on the way this weekend.

On Friday, a front is expected to move across the South Island, bringing a period of heavy rain and strong winds.

However, it’s the weather system moving onto the North Island on Saturday that Makgabutlane said was the one of interest.

A trough over the northern Tasman Sea is likely to move onto the North Island, bringing very humid conditions with scattered showers and possible thunderstorms on Saturday through to Monday.

“The two main things to look out for with the system is that intensification. How deep that low-pressure system is will be one thing that tells us how strong or how much rain we will see,” Makgabutlane said.

“The other thing is the location of that weather system. So, if it forms a couple of hundred kilometres to to the east of us, [it’s] probably going to be a lovely weekend for most of us, but even if it forms just a little bit closer to us, then we could be in for quite a wet weekend.”

As things stand, it does look like it will be a wet couple of days ahead, she said.

At this point, the areas that look the most likely to bear the brunt of the weather are most of the North Island on Saturday, and the lower and eastern parts of the North Island on Sunday and into Monday.

“Over the next coming days, I would say certainly keep an eye out for those [weather] watches because they do look likely,” Makgabutlane said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Teaching Council’s penalties for dodgy teachers may be too light, an independent review says.

It also warned that incompetent teachers might be going under the radar.

The review commissioned by the council’s governing board and provided to media this week called for a major overhaul of the organisation with a greater focus on child safety and quality teaching.

The council registers teachers and also receives complaints about their conduct, many of which end up before a disciplinary tribunal.

The report highlighted multiple short-comings in the disciplinary process and called for improvements, including enforceable financial penalties.

The review was highly critical of the practice of asking teachers to agree not to teach if there were risks associated with continuing in their job or they might come into contact with complainants.

It said asking for a voluntary undertaking to stop teaching was troubling.

“Either the matter is such on its face that the teacher warrants formal suspension or not, pending the investigation. Once such an undertaking or suspension is in place, one would also think that these high risk cases would be fast tracked. It is not clear to me that this is consistently the case,” the report said.

It also questioned whether the penalties imposed by the Disciplinary Tribunal were too light.

“…some interviewees were not certain that the penalties being applied in some cases were proportionate to the risks or harm entailed. Some wondered if the rehabilitative view that guides competency decisions leaked into the conduct work,” the report said.

It warned that serious child predators were “manipulative, skilled at going under the radar and almost never rehabilitated” and suggested an audit of recent cases to check its decisions aligned with those made in courts.

“Such an audit should encompass both conduct and competence, and should also test all stages of the Council’s processes for compliance with relevant legislation and with child safeguarding principles.”

The report said interviewees spoken to during the review criticised the high cost to the council of the disciplinary process and its slow progress.

They also said support for victims and complainants seemed to be ad hoc and vary by investigator.

The review said not all of the council’s investigators were formally trained and the proportion of police-trained investigators had dropped.

It said that was not appropriate, especially in situations involving vulnerable victims.

“I would instead see formal training and external experience as mandatory, giving the sensitivity of the matters under investigation and the risk of traumatisation to vulnerable children or witnesses,” the report said.

It said the Disciplinary Tribunal’s penalties appeared to be unenforceable and appeared in the council’s accounts as doubtful debtors at a rate of 80 percent.

“In summary, there are significant opportunities to improve the targeting to risk, urgency, efficiency and timeliness of the conduct process. Justice delayed is very often justice denied.”

Incompetent teachers

The review recommended the council investigate whether schools are failing to report incompetent teachers.

It said the council received an average of 30 competence complaints a year, which seemed too few given the size of the teaching workforce.

“This appears to be an area of significant under reporting, in that principals and leaders may performance manage these cases out, or teachers may resign when competence is called into question,” the review said.

“Anecdotally, respondents suggested that such is the current teacher shortage, some of these teachers can dodge accountability by shifting between schools. ‘Some schools are just desperate’ one said, ‘…and they can’t afford to look too closely at performance’.”

The report said if schools were under-reporting, it would be of considerable concern.

It suggested the council engage with schools and agencies such as the Education Review Office to evaluate the size of the problem and possible treatments.

“The purpose of the competence process is to support teachers to build in an area they are not meeting. Unlike the discipline area, the competence process is designed primarily to be rehabilitative,” the report said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Usually, there are only calm currents at Auckland’s Western Springs Lake.

But this week, electrocurrents are being used to stun pest fish and turtles so they can be scooped up, brought to land and killed.

Associate Professor in Biodiversity and Ecology at the University of Waikato’s School of Science, Nicolas Ling, is one of the specialists scooping up hundreds of koi carp, including goldfish and brown bullhead catfish, on New Zealand’s only electrofishing boat.

He said no native species would be harmed by the electrofishing process.

“It puts a pulsed electric current into the water, and it temporarily stuns the fish, which means we can recover them. The native species, we can recover those, and we can put them back in the lake unharmed, and the pest species, we can humanely euthanise them.”

Ling said catfish were most likely released into the lake more than a hundred years ago. Koi were believed to have been introduced into New Zealand in the 1960s.

But he said most of the goldfish and turtles in the lake were people’s unwanted pets.

“People think they’re doing the right thing, you know, when they don’t want their pet anymore, they go and release it into the local lake. And it’s actually the worst thing you can do. If you want to take on a pet, then take it on for the course of its natural life.”

He said they were also removing red-eared slider turtles from the lake.

“Again, these are pets that people have released when they no longer want them. The problem with the turtle is, if you take that on as a pet, it’s a 50-year commitment. It’s a multi-generational pet. They get huge and it becomes very expensive to provide the habitat for an adult turtle. And so people just go and release them, which is a sad thing.”

All of the pests collected were brought back to shore to be killed and then taken off-site to be turned into compost or rendered down to produce natural gas.

While killing the pests was not a pretty sight, Ling said it was necessary.

“These particular species are known to cause negative impacts on water quality. The lake should be nice and clean, but it’s not, and the fish are definitely contributing to that. They stir up the bottom sediments, and that resuspends nutrients back into the water column, which can cause increases in algal growth and bacterial growth.

“The koi and the goldfish eat the plants in the lake, which also take out nutrients.

“Those challenges with water quality mean that it makes it potentially unsafe for recreation around the lake. You don’t want to be touching the water.

“There’s fantastic bird life around here. When the water quality is really poor, they can suffer from a disease called avian botulism.

“And of course, they’re competing with the native species as well. There are lots of eels in the lake, and that’s good to see. There are also īnanga, which are key whitebait species. There’s common smelt in the lake as well.”

The lake was home to three native eel species: the short-finned eel, the long-finned eel, and the Australian long-finned eel, and there are plans to declare the lake an eel sanctuary.

The Waikato University specialists would be at the lake for one week ending on Friday, 13 November, with the council saying there were plans for them to return in the near future to continue the pest removal operation.

Auckland Council Senior Freshwater Advisor, Matthew Bloxham, said the council had previously tried other techniques to remove pests from the lake, but this was the first time they had brought in an electrofishing boat.

He said so far it had been a success.

The team at Western Springs had caught Koi weighing up to 14kg. The largest Koi ever caught in New Zealand weighed 15kg.

“Not many people realise that they get so large,” Bloxham said.

We’ve found quite a few diseased goldfish in here recently. So, putting them in here doesn’t necessarily give them a better life. It’s actually passing on the problem to somebody else, in this case the environment.

“It’s far better to repurpose that goldfish or re-home it, reach out and see whether anybody’s prepared to take it on and there will be people out there, you know, people love goldfish, they are attractive things after all, but they’re a nuisance when they’re released into the wild.”

It was costing the council $20,000 to rent the electric fishing boat from Waikato University.

“The cost of this operation is not cheap. We’d prefer not to be spending the targeted rate on controlling pests. We’d rather spend it on direct biodiversity outcomes, such as planting trees, but it’s a necessary evil. We have to maintain these fish at really low numbers.”

“It only takes two fish, a male and a female, to breed up and to produce the sorts of volumes that we’re seeing here now. We’ve been fishing all week, and so far we’re just under 300 kilograms of fish. That’s hundreds of fish.”

Bloxham said eradication was the goal, but that wouldn’t happen if people kept putting their goldfish in the lake.

“If ever we do achieve eradication, and we’d really like to, that is our end goal, it’s so easily undone by somebody otherwise well-mannered person who thinks they’re doing their gold fish a favour and then just quietly, surreptitiously emptying them into the lake, and suddenly we’re back to square one.

“The big message that we’re trying to get out is that if you’re contemplating, you’ve reached the end of the year, and you’ve got a pet, you don’t know what to do with it, don’t release it into your waterway.”

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