Source: Radio New Zealand

A woman has been found dead at a Canterbury property.

Police have launched a homicide investigation over the the death of the woman in Burnham.

The woman was found early on Tuesday morning.

One person has been arrested.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Crews working on the Mount Maunganui recovery mission are hoping for sunshine on Tuesday, labelling moisture “the enemy”.

Work has resumed to recover six people presumed dead after a landslide at a Mount Maunganui campground last Thursday.

While the ground is slowly stablising, any rain risks further slips.

An independent review, announced by Tauranga City Council, will look at events leading up to the landslide. Meanwhile, WorkSafe says it will looking into the organisations that had a duty of care for everyone at the Mt Maunganui holiday park.

Follow the latest in RNZ’s live blog at the top of this page.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand First has climbed into third place in the latest RNZ poll, recording its strongest result in the Reid Research series in more than eight years.

The RNZ-Reid Research poll, published Tuesday, also showed NZ First’s Winston Peters leaping up the preferred prime minister ranks, closing the gap on the Labour and National leaders.

The results, if replicated on polling day, would return the coalition government to power with a narrow majority of 61 seats.

Follow the latest in RNZ’s politics blog at the top of this page.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A local council representative drove through the Mount Maunganui campground and directly past three slips about two hours before a deadly landslide, a camper who contacted emergency services at the time says.

The woman, who was woken by one of the victims, Lisa Maclennan, early that morning, has spoken to RNZ about efforts to raise emergency services earlier that morning, including her own call to police three hours before the landslide.

She has also provided the first images of the initial slips that caused the calls to emergency services.

The victims of the landslide have been named as Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said she had been at the campground for about three weeks and was staying right next to Maclennan and her husband.

She said she was woken shortly before 5am on Thursday morning to Maclennan banging on her window.

“She’s like ‘Oh I’m so sorry I’m waking you up’, but the slip had pushed her campervan about a metre forward, so she said, ‘I’m just waking everyone up because I think everyone should move’.”

The woman moved her campervan straight away and Maclennan’s campervan was moved parallel to the shower block.

The woman said the group then went to the office, but there was no one there.

She said Maclennan had tried ringing the emergency number at the campground and could not get hold of anybody.

The woman said Maclennan told her she was going to try call Civil Defence. It was at that moment the woman called police.

Shortly before calling police, the woman took some photos and video of one of three slips, including one right at her campsite. An image, supplied to RNZ, was timestamped at 6.15am and the video, which shows the slips, was taken a minute later.

A call log provided by the woman confirms she called police at 6.18am. The outgoing call lasted eight minutes.

“I explained to them about the slips. I said, ‘look, I understand that you guys will be really busy, and this might not be anything, but this is what’s happened here’. 

“It was enough to push the ladies’ campervan forward, and there’s a homeless man in the toilet block, and he was actually going crazy and sort of banging on the walls and smashing things.

“And so I said, maybe you should send someone to have a look at that, just in case. You know, there’s a lot of kids here… and they said, yeah, it is a really busy night. It’s been a busy night. It’s a busy morning, we’ll try and get a unit there.”

The woman said no-one arrived until about 7.45am, when she said she saw what she described as a ute that was sign-written with Tauranga City Council. The ute stopped and the woman says she called out, “Look, I don’t know if you can see them from where you are, but there’s these slips up here, I think, you know, someone should look at them.”

The woman was unsure the man heard her. The woman said the ute then drove through the Pilot Bay side of the campground slowly past the slips that she had filmed directly in front of several campsites.

“I figured, well, everything will be fine. Someone from the council’s come, they’ve seen the slips, he’s driven past them, he’s driven through the water that was coming down from that corner that collapsed. So I had no worries after that.”

The woman then had a shower and left the campground to visit her parents.

It was not until about an hour after the fatal landslide that she returned. She said the emergency services at the scene were “amazing”.

It was about midday that she discovered that Maclennan was missing.

“The group of people that was … camping in the area, were all in tears. There was an older couple that we were sitting with in there, and he was heartbroken. It was just terrible and so incredibly unfair.

“I don’t think there was many people that were in the surf club for the day that weren’t, you know, in tears. It was pretty difficult.”

She said Maclennan, who worked at Morrinsville Intermediate School was “being a teacher”.

“She took control. She was making sure everyone was safe. She was, you know, literally rounding people and making sure they were all safe, and being the organiser.

“Lisa [Maclennan] and her husband were amazing. And if it hadn’t been for them there, I would imagine that there would have been many more people.”

Looking back, the woman said she believed there should have been staff at the campground at all times, given the weather warnings.

“I know nothing about running camping grounds, but it seems like a no-brainer to have had people in the campground during a red rain watch and a state of emergency. 

“Either they should have evacuated the campground, which is great in hindsight, but at the very least somebody, there should have been a number of people that worked for the campground or the council on the ground during a state of emergency, because the fact that there was no one there made us all think maybe it’s not that bad.”

She said the days since the landslide had been “awful”.

“It’s dreadful, not sleeping. It’s terrible,” she said.

“I think it’s feeling extraordinarily lucky to not have been hurt and grateful that Lisa woke us up and then just incredibly sad for the families whose people didn’t get out.”

RNZ approached the Tauranga City Council and police for comment on Monday evening on the woman’s account.

“Once the recovery efforts are completed, we have secured the site and have geotechnical assessments that the landslide area is stable, there will be a process undertaken to examine the events that took place before and during this tragic event,” the council’s controller Tom McEntyre said.

“It would not be appropriate to make any comment now that could affect that process or pre-empt the outcome.”

In response to earlier questions from RNZ, Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler confirmed FENZ received a 111 call at 5.48am on Thursday, 22 January, from a person reporting a slip near the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.

“Our call takers made contact with the Tauranga City Council, the landowners of the camping ground, and notified them of this information at 5.51am.

“The landslip that was referenced in the 111 call received at 5.48am did not impact life or property and therefore Fire and Emergency did not respond firefighters to attend, instead we notified Tauranga City Council as the landowner responsible.”

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Tauranga City Council chief executive Marty Grenfell said there was no record of a 111 call being referred to the council.

However, a council statement released only hours later backtracked on this version of events.

“After further enquiries, we can confirm that the Tauranga City Council’s main Contact Centre received a call from Fire and Emergency New Zealand at around 5.50am on Thursday, 22 January.”

The council said the chief executive’s earlier comments referred specifically to information logged in the council’s Emergency Operations Centre, which did not receive a call.

At about 9.30am a slip came down at the Beachside Holiday Park at Mount Maunganui, smashing into campervans, tents, vehicles and an ablution block near the Mount Hot Pools.

WorkSafe’s head of inspectorate Rob Pope told RNZ’s Midday Report Tauranga City Council was one of the entities it needed to speak with and understand its part in the event.

When asked if it would be extraordinary for an investigation not to be launched given six people were presumed dead, Pope agreed but said they needed to understand the scope and context first before committing resources to a formal investigation.

A WorkSafe spokesperson told RNZ it was in the “very early stages” of assessing what its role may look like once the search and recovery phase was complete.

“We are currently bringing together a team of inspectors and will be working closely with New Zealand Police to determine next steps.

“We will be looking into the organisations that had a duty of care for everyone at the holiday park, and whether or not they were meeting their health and safety responsibilities.”

Currently, the focus needed to remain on the recovery efforts, the spokesperson said.

“When the time is right, our inspectors will begin engaging with witnesses and technical experts and gathering evidence from a range of sources including the organisations involved in the operation of the holiday park and the scene.

“In the meantime, our local inspectors have also extended an offer of support to Emergency Management Bay of Plenty and other agencies to ensure that workers involved in the response are kept safe and healthy.”

Pope told RNZ WorkSafe was working closely with police to coordinate their responses after the “incredibly tragic event”.

He did not have a timeframe for when a decision on a formal investigation would be made but said the inspectors would be working at pace and focused on providing the right level of confidence for the families who wanted answers.

“We will be committed to addressing this issue as quickly as we can.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Morning Report he supported Tauranga City Council’s decision to conduct a full, independent review into the landslide.

“There’s lots of concerns that people have about why they weren’t evacuated sooner. I think they are very legitimate, very good questions that need answers.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand First has climbed into third place in https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/poll/556774/rnz-reid-research-poll-view-all-results-and-charts the latest RNZ poll], recording its strongest result in the Reid Research series in more than eight years.

The RNZ-Reid Research poll, published Tuesday, also showed NZ First’s Winston Peters leaping up the preferred prime minister ranks, closing the gap on the Labour and National leaders.

Follow all the reactions and latest news on RNZ’s live politics blog

The results, if replicated on polling day, would return the coalition government to power with a narrow majority of 61 seats.

Labour remained out in front on 35 percent, up 0.7 points since September, while National slipped to 31.9 percent, down 0.6.

NZ First had the biggest bump in support, jumping 1.1 points, to hit 9.8 percent, its highest result with Reid Research since July 2017.

The Green Party fell 1.3 points to register 9.6 percent. ACT was on 7.6 percent, up 0.4 points.

And Te Pāti Māori continued its slide, falling to 3 percent, down 1.1 points.

Outside of Parliament, The Opportunity Party picked up support, climbing 0.9 points, to touch 2.3 percent.

The poll – which ran from 15-22 January – surveyed 1000 eligible voters online with a maximum margin of error of 3.1 percent. Undecided or non-voters made up 7.2 percent of those polled.

If those were the results on election day, National would bring in 40 MPs, NZ First 12 and ACT nine.

That would make 61 MPs between the current coalition parties, the slimmest possible majority in a 120-seat Parliament.

On the left, Labour would pick up 43 seats, the Greens 12 and Te Pāti Māori four. Together, that adds up to 59 MPs, not enough to claim power.

If Te Pāti Māori retained all six of its current seats, however, Parliament would have a two-seat overhang, resulting in a 61-61 deadlock.

NZ First’s lift in support was mirrored in Peters’ personal standing too.

On the preferred prime minister measure, Peters jumped a sizeable 3.7 points to hit 12.6 percent, his highest result in the series since January 2016.

His surge helped close the gap with the leaders of Labour and National, both of whom took a knock in support.

Labour’s Chris Hipkins remained the top choice of voters, receiving the backing of 21.1 percent of voters, down 1.9 points.

National’s Christopher Luxon dropped 0.2 points to 19.4 percent.

Almost 17 percent of voters declined to choose a prime ministerial candidate or said they did not know.

The poll also found an improvement in general sentiment since the lows of September, though it still remained deep in negative territory.

The results showed 36.3 percent (up 2.3) of respondents thought the country was heading in the right direction, compared to 46.6 percent (down 2.3) who thought the wrong direction.

That gives a net score of -10.3, an improvement of 3.3 points compared to the last poll in September.

Just over 15 percent of voters sat on the fence, while another 1.8 percent said they did not know.

National supporters were the most optimistic with a net score of +65.8, followed by ACT supporters on +28.2.

Notably, more NZ First voters thought the country was on the wrong track than the right track, recording a net score of -9.9.

The pessimism also showed up when voters were asked to consider their financial position compared to one year ago.

Asked about the cost of living, 57.5 percent of respondents said they were finding it harder to manage than this time last year. Just 6.4 percent said they were finding it easier and 34.8 percent said “about the same”.

Similarly, just 12.2 percent of voters said they felt better off financially compared to January 2025. More than 46 percent said they were worse off, while 40.1 percent said neither.

Politicians respond – or don’t

Both Luxon and Peters declined interview requests from RNZ. A spokesperson for Luxon said he was prioritising the weather event situation.

Te Pāti Māori also declined to be interviewed.

Speaking to RNZ, Hipkins said he was encouraged by Labour’s continued rise in the polls.

“This would suggest a neck-and-neck result,” he said. “We’ve got a lot more work to do… but being ahead of National, being the most popular party in New Zealand, that’s a good place to start election year.”

Hipkins said he would not read too much into Peters’ jump, saying NZ First’s support was always “very volatile”.

Greens’ co-leader Marama Davidson said, regardless of the polls, the party would stay focused on finding solutions.

“Understandably, people are exhausted and switched off, but this November, people get to use their power and agency to demand so much more.”

ACT leader David Seymour told RNZ his party started election year in a “very comfortable position” and he intended to build on it.

“We’ve shown that we can be effective and collegial in government… but we’re also prepared to say when the emperor has no clothes.”

This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 15-22 January 2026 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A homicide investigation is underway after the death of a woman in Canterbury.

Detective Senior Sergeant Karen Simmons said the woman was found dead at a property in Burnham in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“Emergency services were called to a Burnham School Road address about 3.05am after a report of disorder.

“After arriving at the property, police located the body of a woman.”

Simmons said one person has been arrested and is helping police with its inquiries.

“Cordons are in place and a scene examination has commenced at the property.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Geotechnical engineers told Tauranga City Council two decades ago that buildings should not be allowed in the “runout” zones of potential landslides unless they have specially constructed protection like a retaining wall.

The runout zone is the area at the base of a slope that might be inundated in a slip.

A motorcamp and hot pools were struck by a landslide at the base of Mauao last week, killing several people.

It is not clear how engineer runout calculations might apply to the area.

The advice in 2005 has been superseded in part by new science that has led to the adoption of smaller runout zone sizes in the Mt Maunganui and Papamoa neighbourhoods, but the thrust was obvious – to steer clear.

“Only in rare circumstances would it be prudent to violate” the zone criteria, wrote two geotechnical engineers in the study into 300-plus landslides across Tauranga triggered by a big storm.

“Because of this we believe that the following changes to the criteria would be appropriate: 1. Buildings are not to be located within the [zone]. Only if special measures are taken, such as construction of properly engineered structures (ie retaining walls, piled foundations and deflection bunds) can these criteria be exceeded.”

The old runout zones in Tauranga were calculated as ‘4H:1V’ – four times the vertical height of the slope (V), extending horizontally from the base (H). The new zone in 2025 was suggested as half that – 2H:1V.

The study on this for the city council last year by engineering consultants WSP covered all the Pacific seaside neighbourhoods except Mauao itself. RNZ has asked the council why Mauao was not mapped, and also for comment on runout zones.

‘Directed away from areas with an unacceptable risk’

Auckland Council has been sharing its country-leading work on landslides with Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty region. Tauranga was “unique” in how prone it was to rain-induced slips, WSP said in 2025.

Mayor Mahé Drysdale told Morning Report they were setting up an independent review into the “facts and events leading up to the landslide”.

Auckland Council said because of that review it was inappropriate for it to answer queries about landslide risk on Mt Maunganui.

But it laid out its own advances on landslide mapping that it said meant the information people could get about landslides on Land Information Memorandums, or LIMs, was more reliable, and its controls over what got built and where were better.

“Before our 2025 mapping, we didn’t have good regional maps showing landslide susceptibility because we didn’t have the data available to create them,” chief engineer Ross Roberts said in a statement.

“This meant that it was more difficult to identify where activities were taking place in areas potentially susceptible to landslides.”

It was also difficult and complex to apply controls to existing activities.

Since last year it could statistically model the landslide susceptibility, which was feeding into plans and LIMs.

“This means it can be used by people when choosing where to buy or rent a house, and by infrastructure and asset owners… Together, these mean that future development can be directed away from areas with an unacceptable risk, and existing assets can be assessed and their use modified if appropriate,” Roberts said.

Checks on individual sites were still sometimes needed, such as when protective structures had been built, earthworks had changed the land profile or underlying characteristics were unusual.

‘Avoid building in run-out areas’

Martin Brook, professor of applied geology at University of Auckland, said understanding landslide runout on Mauao was important because the maunga had a history of slips.

“Understanding and modelling the runout of landslides and where the detached material is going to run out and end up and possibly inundate is really important,” he said.

“You should avoid building in run-out areas. That’s sensible, and people would follow that advice in most parts of the Western world.”

But the light-detection (LIDAR) tech used to detect historical landslides was not so useful for runout and he was not aware of much research on it.

“Most of New Zealand is under-researched from a sort of a geological standpoint.”

The country had woken up recently to tsunami risk and signs and advice had sprung up, but had only begun waking up to the risk of landslides since 2023 though they were the country’s most deadly natural hazard, he added.

‘Reliant on outside advice’

Northland geotechnical engineer David Buxton said councils nationwide had really struggled since the 1990s – when they began shedding expertise – to get their own technical advice to back their decisions on the likes of runout zones.

“They’re reliant on outside advice to give these things, but then they’re reliant on in-house people without that depth of technical knowledge to make that decision-making, and I think it would be really good if councils were able to invest in that in-house technical ability.”

Buxton himself, as a consultant, benefited from the current set-up, he said – however it was not just expensive, but led to patchy follow-through sometimes.

Auckland Council had invested in-house and that was paying off in its response to floods, Buxton said.

The WPS study for Tauranga last year had some gaps – for instance, it did not look at the likely size or volume of likely slips.

“The factors that determine the volume and runout characteristics of the landslide, and the consequent impacts on infrastructure in proximity to the slope, could be considered when looking at specific slopes as part of site-specific studies,” said the short study, that sits alongside two longer engineering reports into landslides in the city and region.

“This should be carried out as part of considering the risk posed to infrastructure or property at particular sites.”

The landslip map showed small zones of “failure” and runout at several streets, the largest of which were around Hopukiore Reserve.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– 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

The slash debate heats up – again – in Gisborne as forestry operators urge the government to remove their legal accountability for the devastating discharge.

When the rain stops in Tairāwhiti, the damage doesn’t.

Because when the rain hits hard, it floods wood. Lots of it.

On beaches, whole trees lie tangled like matchsticks.

Rivers choke with debris; bridges are smashed; roads are closed; and communities are left staring at a costly and heartbreaking mess.

The debris has a name, slash. It is the branches, logs and waste left behind after commercial forestry harvesting.

And now, it’s been revealed the industry at the centre of it is asking the government to remove legal accountability when slash escapes.

Under current law, forestry companies can be held responsible if slash causes environmental harm or property damage.

And in recent years, slash in the area has caused widespread destruction of billions of dollars of public and private infrastructure.

So, three years after the devastation left by cyclones Hale and Gabrielle, The Detail speaks to Dr Mark Bloomberg, an adjunct senior fellow at the School of Forestry at Canterbury University, about forestry, slash and who should be accountable.

“The [forestry] companies came in and let’s say, I don’t like to use the word good faith, but in good faith, they went in, and where they hadn’t complied, they took their licks and set about to try and be compliant with the consents they were operating under and contributing to clean up,” Bloomberg said.

“But then the bills kept coming, and the council came back and said, ‘yeah, well, apart from any liability in terms of complying with consents, there’s a broader liability under the RMA [Resource Management Act] because you guys did the logging, you are it’.

“I think that issue has got to be resolved.

“In the short term, we have a problem arising from harvesting practices over the last decade.

“But in the medium term, we have got to solve the problem by stopping the discharges.”

He said slash had long been a feature of forestry landscapes, but in steep, erosion-prone regions like Gisborne, it had become a recurring hazard.

Heavy rain mobilises the debris, sending it downstream with devastating force. Cyclone Gabrielle made the consequences impossible to ignore.

“This is probably where I am a little bit tough on the forestry industry,” Bloomberg said.

“I think these large, clear fells – they should have seen it coming. It was pretty foreseeable, actually, that large volumes of sediment and the accompanying slash would be triggered in the next storm.”

He recommended replacing large-scale clear-felling with “smaller coupes” (a coupe refers to an area of felled trees, resulting from a forestry harvesting operation).

“It’s the scale of the clear-felling that caused a lot of the damage in terms of slash and sediment. We have got to get those coupes down to small sizes. This is, in fact, what happens overseas. If you look at difficult erodible land being harvested in Europe, they’ll be down to coupe sizes, sometimes one to two hectares.

“It’s recognised that big commercial clear felling, on this kind of land, is just not a goer. If you want one take-home message, then these big clear fells have to stop, and they have got to stop pronto.”

In recent years, slash has blocked access to beaches, affected business and tourism, destroyed infrastructure and threatened safety. In some cases, debris contributed to loss of life.

And it has returned in recent days, albeit on a much smaller scale, following heavy rain in Tairāwhiti and surrounding areas.

“Unless we grasp the nettle and sort this one out, any of the outcomes [environmentally and economically] will not be good. I’d be pretty confident there.”

At its heart, the slash debate is not about whether storms will come – they will.

But whether, next time, the responsibility is owned or quietly slips away.

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A survey from the Classifications Office shows two thirds of New Zealanders have seen extreme and potentially illegal content online.

The report Online Exposure: Experiences of Extreme or Illegal Content in Aotearoa was based on a survey of 1000 New Zealanders aged 18 and over.

The Classifications Office said it was believed to be the first of its kind to ask adults directly about their experiences with extreme or illegal content online.

It also found 49 percent of the population believed encountering extreme content online was unavoidable and 78 percent thought the likelihood of seeing it was increasing over time.

Chief censor Caroline Flora told RNZ it was essential people online understood the law.

“A big part of releasing this research is to communicate with the public – thank you we recognise your experience and we all have a part to play.

“Reporting this content is really important and understanding your rights and responsibilities when it comes to content is really important as well.”

Flora said it was necessary to note people were not incriminating themselves to have extreme content if they were obtaining it to provide to authorities.

“What I would say is if you come across something online to report it to the platform and to online safety organisations and law enforcement.”

She said it was important people did not create objectionable content – particularly given new technologies such as AI generated content.

“If you create objectionable content, it will still be objectionable even if it is synthetic or fake and the penalties for creating content are very severe.”

Research done by the Classifications Office last year found that young people had similar experiences to the findings in the latest survey, Flora said.

“The findings make it clear that exposure to extreme or illegal content can happen to anyone, but it is significantly more common amongst younger people.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Follow Our Changing World on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Our brains never touch the outside world.

We experience a perception of the world that the brain builds based on all the sensory inputs it receives, as well as existing knowledge.

This is how our sensory systems, like vision, work. We see things because light reflects off a surface and then bounces off the back of our eyeballs, but from there the brain does a lot of work to create an image and fill in the blanks.

These interactions of physical inputs, sensory systems and our brains allow us to develop our sense of self, and how we fit in the world. And this is why neuroscientist Professor Vincent Reid is totally fascinated about where and when this all begins.

Studying sight in the womb

Vincent, now head of the School of Psychological and Social Sciences at the University of Waikato, spent 25 years of his research career investigating how infants learn, including how infants perceive the world through sight. But he realised that he, and others in the field, were working off assumptions.

There was this idea that newborn abilities and preferences in the realm of vision were rapidly acquired directly after birth. But, Vincent thought, could it be possible that these visual abilities and preferences already existed in the womb?

“And so that’s when I started looking at the human foetus and realised that we really didn’t know very much at all about what was going on in the third trimester of pregnancy,” Vincent said.

“Specifically when you had sensory systems that are operational. But at the same time, we didn’t even understand the environment in which they were processing information.”

In 2017 Vincent, then based at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, did a world-first experiment to investigate whether foetuses would respond to certain light stimuli. He did this using lasers and ultrasound.

On ultrasound images a third trimester foetus’ eye in the womb appears as a large, round, dark circle. As the eye moves, light reflects off the lens – a bright disc on this dark ball. By tracking this movement, researchers can determine the direction in which a foetus in the womb is looking.

By shining a red laser with three dots against the womb, Vincent and his team were able to show that the foetuses displayed a preference for a “top-heavy” T shape, compared to the inverse.

At the time other researchers in the field challenged these results. But in 2025 a group in Italy saw the same response in their study.

It is an intriguing finding because newborn infants show a strong preference for looking at faces, thought to be one of these rapidly learned abilities post-birth.

However, if the preference for a “face-like” T shape already exists in the womb, this disrupts this idea of how the visual system develops.

Since those early findings, further work by Vincent’s group at the University of Waikato indicates that these third trimester foetuses also show an effect called “anticipation” where they react to a sound cue and look towards a light source before it switches on.

Part of the challenge in the field was that it remained unclear how much light actually gets into the womb, so Vincent set out to address this question by recruiting some mathematical colleagues.

A red moonlit night

Associate Professor Jacob Heerikhuisen’s research involves mathematical modelling of all sorts of different things. But modelling how light particles, called photons, would bounce, scatter and move through clothing and tissue to get into the womb was a new one for him and Dr Zac Isaac, who was doing his PhD research with Jacob at the time.

With Vincent’s help, the team fossicked around in various biology textbooks to find the light properties related to all the different layers – skin, fat, muscle, the wall of the uterus and the amniotic fluid.

Then they built a model to account for all these layers, set realistic parametres for each of them and investigated how much light would get through.

“The level of light is comparable to a night sky with a full moon,” Jacob said.

“So certainly when I go outside now, every time there’s a moon, I’m like, oh, yeah, this is like the amount of light that gets through to a foetus. It’s significant.”

Their model also revealed that the wavelength of light more likely to get through was in the red spectrum. Blue and green light did not appear to penetrate far enough.

The work has excited Vincent because of what it means for the environment within the womb that the visual system is already developing in.

According to this modelling the light that is getting through is enough for the foetus to have a visual experience, Vincent said, and he would like to know how that is shaping vision, even before birth.

From a psychology point of view, it was fascinating to think about, but the results have a practical application too, Vincent said, particularly in neonatal care units where pre-term babies are likely experiencing an environment very different to what they should be.

“This work can actually inform what those units should look like, what they should do… which then, in theory, would lead to downstream health benefits for those children.”

Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fundraising pages set up for some of the Mount Maunganui landslide victims’ families have raised thousands of dollars, with donors paying heartfelt tribute to those trapped by last week’s massive slip.

Six people were caught when a landslide came down at the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park, smashing into campervans, tents, vehicles and an ablution block at about 9.30am on Thursday, 22 January.

The victims have been named as Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.

A Givealittle page set up by Maclennan’s sister had raised almost $13,000 (12,876) within 13 hours for the Morrinsville teacher’s family.

“She lost her life trying to save everyone else,” the page said.

“We cannot put a value on the loss of a loved one but any donations will make a difference and help this whanau through this extremely difficult time.”

Many donors commented on Maclennan’s work with Morrinsville Intermediate School students over the years, while others paid tribute to the final acts of a “courageous, selfless woman”.

A separate page has also been set up “In Loving Memory” of Furse-Kee, with $35,435 donated to the teenager’s family in less than 15 hours.

Page creator and family friend Samuel Holliday wrote that he’d had the privilege “of seeing Max grow into the beautiful, much-loved child he is”, and said the family was “facing an unimaginable loss”.

“There are no words that can truly ease the pain of losing a child. Max was deeply loved, and his loss has left a hole in the hearts of his family, friends, and everyone who knew him.”

The funds raised would be used to help with immediate and ongoing costs, time away from work, and whatever support the family needed, the page said.

On Monday evening, about 100 people gathered at Auckland Domain to remember another Pakuranga College student and landslide victim, Sharon Maccanico.

Meanwhile, work has resumed to recover the six missing people, with tens of thousands of cubic metres of dirt to comb through.

Tauranga City Council is heading an independent review into the events leading up to the landslide and WorkSafe has announced it will look into the organisations involved in the holiday park.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Some of New Zealand’s least generous savings accounts are paying as little as 0.05 percent in interest.

A survey of bank rates showed the main banks have a number of products that offer very little return.

ASB’s Savings On Call account offers 0.1 percent.

ANZ has a Select account that pays 0.05 percent on balances over $5000 – there is a monthly account fee of $6 but that is waived if the monthly balance remains over $5000.

Westpac’s Simple Saver pays 0.05 percent – customers are sent “nudge” emails if they have higher balances to remind them of other options.

Co-Operative’s Smile On Call account pays 0.1 percent to balances over $4000.

Reserve Bank data shows the average rate across the market for unconditional savings accounts is just over 1 percent.

New Zealanders have almost $120 billion in savings accounts, a total that has increased over the past year.

Squirrel chief executive David Cunningham has previously said that people leaving money in low-paying accounts provide a lucrative income stream for the banks.

Banking expert at Massey University Claire Matthews said she had money in a Westpac Simple Saver account.

“I’ve just realised at the weekend how low the interest rate is. It changed substantially over 2025 as the OCR was cut and interest rates fell. I’m going to fix that shortly.”

Financial Markets Authority research showed across all age groups, people said that the highest interest rate was the most important factor in choosing a savings account.

But for those aged 65 to 74, the stability of the rate and how easy it was to access savings were equally important.

The FMA said the self-reported importance of finding a high interest rate peaked in midlife and declined thereafter as people began to attach more importance to other factors.

Lower-income earners also placed more importance on the ability to access savings than the rate they were getting.

The self-reported importance of a high interest rate increased with income, to a point, while the importance of access declined with income.

But Matthews said there could be a few reasons why people did not look for a better deal.

“Speaking personally, it is inertia – as far as I’m aware you can’t now open a Simple Saver with Westpac, so I don’t believe anyone would be actively choosing it. It’s possibly the same with similar accounts at other banks.

“So I think for most people it is likely to be historic, and they either haven’t looked at what interest rate they are receiving and the options available or they just haven’t worked up the energy to make a change.”

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said people might like the security of knowing they could access their money easily.

“People are clearly sometimes willing to compromise returns for access.

“There’s a wider conversation – people often talk about the lazy tax and how there’s all these people who pay the lazy tax because they don’t move their bank account, they don’t move their power bill or don’t move their internet or whatever. In dollar terms I completely understand it, but as someone who’s also tried to adjust some of these settings myself – it can sometimes take so much time.”

He said it could sometimes take a lot of effort to make a change.

Olsen said he kept some money in an account he was aware paid little interest.

“It’s a pretty small amount and so it is one of those things that it’s pretty minimal given I keep that as a bit of as emergency fund if I have to up and do something right now it’s always available.

“But if you’ve got half your savings or something in it and you’re hoarding that to buy a house or whatever and it’s not getting any interest, what’s the point there?”

Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make, spend and invest money.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Crews working on the Mount Maunganui recovery mission are hoping for sunshine on Tuesday, labelling moisture “the enemy”.

Work has resumed to recover six people presumed dead after a landslide at a Mount Maunganui campground last Thursday.

While the ground is slowly stablising, any rain risks further slips.

An independent review, announced by Tauranga City Council, will look at events leading up to the landslide. Meanwhile, WorkSafe says it will looking into the organisations that had a duty of care for everyone at the Mt Maunganui holiday park.

Follow the latest in RNZ’s live blog at the top of this page.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wild deer roaming the streets of suburban Whanganui are delighting some residents while raising concerns for others.

But authorities say there’s little they can do about the animals which are wandering off private farmland.

Paterson Street in the suburb of Aramoho borders steep farmland in East Whanganui.

Its manicured lawns and bountiful fruit trees have become a magnet for deer which have become a common sight in the neighbourhood.

Philippa Healy was a fan.

“We’re in Paterson Street just at the end of Kells Ave and very frequently we see the deer coming.

“It used to be just in the night time you’d catch them every so often, but now it’s even during the day they’re coming out and getting the plums off the trees and stuff like that, so it’s really quite cool.

“They’re just taking stuff that’s fallen on the ground and for us it’s not such a problem.”

Healey rushed to get her children every time she saw the deer, so they could see them too.

Near neighbour and evening worker Cherie Ball said deer numbers had been on the rise.

“When we do come home from work sometimes from 11.30pm until 1am we’ll just see them.

“They’ll be on the side of the road, so you’re always cautious when you come around the corner into Paterson Street anyway because sometimes they are in the middle of the road

“But they are babies at the moment and they don’t know any better.”

Jack Cade recently brought a house with down a right of way on Paterson Street which borders farmland.

“I didn’t know anything about the deer when I brought it, but soon to my amazement there was about 20 or 30 every morning.

“I’ve just kind of inherited them, but they’re quite good they keep the lawns down for everyone and it’s quite a unique characteristic for the place.”

Whanganui District Council said its animal management team only responded to reports of wild deer if they were creating a traffic hazard.

Operations manager regulatory and compliance, Jason Shailer, said in those instances it assisted, with police where appropriate, to reduce the risk to road users.

“Deer are classified as a pest species and management is the responsibility of the landowner when it becomes an issue.

“The council doesn’t have the authority to cull deer on private land and is not resourced to carry out pest control for private property owners.

Shailer said people concerned about deer on their property could consider altering their fences to keep them out

A couple of kilometres from Paterson Street, deer were also a common sight on Dehli Ave.

Hadi Gurton lived at the Dehli Village co-housing settlement.

They had tried fencing them out.

“We’ve been having the deer coming down quite a bit. My dog, Bella, love to chase them, but they do eat the trees.

“We’ve planted a lot of trees on the hillside there and they tend to browse the trees, so we discourage them.

“We’ve put deer-proof fencing all across the top of our section, but the come down and then go back up and actually get caught up there.”

He said every few years the settlement organised a hunter to cull deer on its land.

The Department of Conservation was responsible for wild animal management on conservation estate.

But there was no public conservation land within about 15km of Aramoho.

DOC referred RNZ to Horizons Regional Council.

Its team leader animal pests, Daniel Hurley, said it was similarly hamstrung.

“Horizons doesn’t have the authority to deal with deer on private land as they’re not included in our Regional Pest Management Plan, and controlling deer is up to the individual landowners or occupiers.

“If Aramoho residents do see deer requiring control within their suburb, they should contact the relevant landowner or occupier.”

Cherie Ball wouldn’t be reporting anyone, she’d like the deer to stay.

“We are getting quite a few deer now, but I actually quite like them. They don’t annoy us, they don’t bother our gardens or anything.

“It’s actually quite nice having the deer wandering around and a lot of people in this neighbourhood know about the deer, so they know at night time not to go speeding down the street and stuff like that.”

Hurley said the regional council was reviewing its pest management plan next year for the first time in a decade.

It would start collating community views on potential issues and possible solutions later this year, he said.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Dunedin mayor Jules Radich has been remembered as a passionate leader and a gentleman who always put his community first with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

Radich died earlier this month while starting his second term as a councillor after an unsuccessful bid to keep the top seat in last year’s election.

The Dunedin City Council held a special meeting to pay tribute to him on Monday.

Dunedin mayor Sophie Barker admitted it had been a tough few weeks to come to grips with the significant gap Radich left behind.

They joined the council at the same time in 2019 and shared good times and bad.

“Jules had the city in his heart and people loved him for it,” Barker said.

He strove for balance and consensus from the start with good humour, she said.

“He knew I loved my op shops finds or Mum’s hand-me-downs, and was nearly always spot on with what designer I was channelling on a day. It was almost a pop quiz for him.”

Barker treasured their fight to stop the Dunedin hospital from being downgraded.

“Wearing those t-shirts at every opportunity, even getting very told off for wearing them in front of the government at an LGNZ [Local Government New Zealand] meeting. But determinately sticking to his guns over our campaign,” she said.

Cherry Lucas, who Radich’s deputy and reclaimed the role this term, said he liked to solve the issues of the city himself and she was honoured to serve alongside him.

“Jules, you taught me so much. I valued your wisdom, your positivity and your intellect,” she said.

Council chief executive Sandy Graham said his death had been felt at all levels of council.

She fondly remembered discussing his many ideas and passions, including how to tackle erosion at St Clair beach.

“I spent a lot of time with him and a great many hours exploring topics as wide ranging as Japanese art, wine, groynes, pipe design, how to win at underwater hockey, travel hacks and groynes again,” she said.

Councillor Andrew Simms described getting an unusual call from a friend of Radich, saying they were meeting on Wednesday to discuss an art installation idea.

“The art installation that he’s proposing is a set of telegraph poles leading into the sea somewhere between Middle Beach and St Clair, and I think that’s got merit ’cause … wedding photos in Dunedin have not been the same since those poles disappeared,” Simms said.

He invited other councillors to join their determined quest.

Former councillor Andrew Whiley said his friend made time for everyone.

“Walking down the street could take you some time. I thought I knew a lot of people in Dunedin but Jules and I together, it took us longer to get to coffee than to enjoy it,” he said.

Former councillor Bill Acklin said he cared deeply for the community and was not afraid of putting in the mahi during the 2024 floods.

“Jules was hands on with contractors, community members, all hours of the day and night,” he said.

He wanted to understand what more could be done to protect the vulnerable areas of the city, Acklin said.

Radich recently secured funding for pipes and pumps to help protect South Dunedin in the long term plan.

Councillor Mandy Mayhem highlighted how he advocated for the city’s homeless.

“I would see Jules often speak to people in the street, to buy them food and simply have the time of day for everyone,” she said.

But she also spoke about his sense of humour.

“My mum had one funny story of their old student flat days, many, many moons ago. If you asked Jules if there was beer in the fridge, he would go over, pick up the whole fridge, shake it, put it back down. If no beer bottles rattled, there was no beer.”

Councillor Lee Vandervis said he always did what he thought was the best thing to do.

“He had his assumptions. He had his views. He did his absolute best and we are all lucky to have had a genuine and decent bloke like Jules to be our mayor,” Vandervis said.

His partner Pam Walker thanked his “work family” for their beautiful tributes after accepting his certificate of service.

“When Jules was no longer mayor and taking on the councillor role again, he was so excited to be doing that. He still said he had so much to do, ’cause I was constantly saying ‘are you sure you want to do this?’. But no, he was just so passionate,” she said.

A by-election for the now vacant seat will be held in May.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– 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

Officials are warning people of artificial images circulating online claiming to capture the fallout of last week’s weather, including the Mount Maunganui slip.

Images on TikTok show scenes of destruction with mud and wreckage not actually visible at the site – with captions like “Mount Maunganui Campground. Prayers for those possibly trapped”.

They depict destroyed tents and campervans – but also some seemingly completely unscathed amidst the ruin surrounding them – as well as a raging waterfall of brown water rushing down a mountain, and emergency workers digging.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it was aware some AI imagery “relating to the recent tragic weather events” was being shared online.

“It is important that the public has trust and confidence in reliable and accurate emergency information channels,” it said.

“In an emergency, our primary channel to get information out to the public is the media.”

NEMA worked closely with the media to ensure they provide verified, credible information to the public, it said.

“We encourage people to be vigilant, use trusted sources for their information, and find out if the source of information is credible before sharing it.

“We closely monitor what is being circulated during a response but we would encourage New Zealanders to call out suspicious images when they see them, or report them if there is a suitable way to do this.”

‘Check your sources’, AI expert says

Victoria University senior lecturer in AI, Dr Andrew Lensen, believed it was the first time AI images of a disaster in New Zealand had circulated online.

“But, and I always hate to say this, I’m not surprised,” he said.

“We’ve seen a lot of AI being used for all sorts of … image and video generation over the past year or so, most notably in things like politics, but I think disasters are unfortunately the sort of the next cab off the ranks.”

Lensen believed it would only get worse because it was so easy to create fake content.

“I think there’s also a question there, of course, as to why people do this. I think part of it is they get reactions, they … get clicks, they get engagement.

“But then there’s also of course some other people who have slightly more nefarious reasons as well.”

People who know Mount Maunganui or had seen the slip site would easily be able to tell some of the images were not real – but others, for example people who had never visited Aotearoa, may not.

Lensen said that had the opposite effect, too, with people from overseas seeing real images of the disaster online and believing them to be AI generated.

“My best advice is that we need to go back to those authoritative sources … what is NEMA reporting? What’s on the council’s Facebook page? What’s on the council’s website? What is Radio New Zealand or other public voices saying about this?” he said.

“You’ve got to check your sources, you can’t just rely on what someone you don’t know has posted, because it’s very hard to know whether or not it is real content.”

Netsafe, the online safety agency, had advice about how to spot AI-generated images and video, which includes looking for “strange details”, checking the source, and questioning who made it and why.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Mayor of Whangārei says the council will meet to discuss lifting the State of Emergency in the district.

Nearly twice the typical rainfall for the month of January fell on north eastern parts Northland over two hours last weekend.

Flooding and slips cut off communities and forced locals and stranded travellers to seek shelter in local marae and community centres.

Ken Couper said the council would hear advice from Fire and Emergency, police, Civil Defence and health care representatives.

“Part of [the] north east of our district has been really badly affected and for them it’s very, very real and we have to – and we will – look after them.

“For the rest of the district it’s been business as usual so maybe there’s an opportunity to shrink it down to the effected areas. We’ll have a look,” Couper said.

He said – on top of roading crews in the area – a team of about 25 people had come north from Auckland to assess buildings and the needs of the affected communities.

“We are making progress. Up till the end of Saturday there had been 34 assessments completed on houses. Five of them had been red stickered unfortunately – which means no access at all – 10 yellow with restricted access and 19 white ones – safe to enter but it would still pay the property owner to get them assessed,” Couper said.

Repairs to the Ngaiotonga Bridge – east of Kawakawa – had reconnected the towns of Ōakura, Punaruku to the rest of Northland, but a massive slip at Helena Bay hill was blocking access to Ōakura from the south and could take weeks to clear.

Couper said he was pleased that there was access – albeit restricted – about the district, but he said he was eager to see an outreach medical centre in Ōakura up and running to save people having to travel further in the difficult driving conditions.

Couper applauded the work of local marae in assisting locals and stranded travellers during and in the aftermath of the storm.

He said that this week the council would work towards restocking petrol and food for marae in the area – some of which were still hosting evacuated people.

“They’ve been outstanding. They look after the people, they’re open to everybody and they are well organised.

“After [cyclone] Gabrielle they went through an exercise of learning from that and they made sure they had provisions and the necessary things to cope and it stood them in good stead this time. They deserve a lot of credit,” Couper said.

Couper said the council was working closely with the Ngāti Wai iwi to make sure the marae were stocked with the supplies they needed.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A local council representative drove through the Mount Maunganui campground and directly past three slips about two hours before a deadly landslide, a camper who contacted emergency services at the time says.

The woman, who was woken by one of the victims, Lisa Maclennan, early that morning, has spoken to RNZ about efforts to raise emergency services earlier that morning, including her own call to police three hours before the landslide.

She has also provided the first images of the initial slips that caused the calls to emergency services.

The victims of the landslide have been named as Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said she had been at the campground for about three weeks and was staying right next to Maclennan and her husband.

She said she was woken shortly before 5am on Thursday morning to Maclennan banging on her window.

“She’s like ‘Oh I’m so sorry I’m waking you up’, but the slip had pushed her campervan about a metre forward, so she said, ‘I’m just waking everyone up because I think everyone should move’.”

The woman moved her campervan straight away and Maclennan’s campervan was moved parallel to the shower block.

The woman said the group then went to the office, but there was no one there.

She said Maclennan had tried ringing the emergency number at the campground and could not get hold of anybody.

The woman said Maclennan told her she was going to try call Civil Defence. It was at that moment the woman called police.

Shortly before calling police, the woman took some photos and video of one of three slips, including one right at her campsite. An image, supplied to RNZ, was timestamped at 6.15am and the video, which shows the slips, was taken a minute later.

A call log provided by the woman confirms she called police at 6.18am. The outgoing call lasted eight minutes.

“I explained to them about the slips. I said, ‘look, I understand that you guys will be really busy, and this might not be anything, but this is what’s happened here’. 

“It was enough to push the ladies’ campervan forward, and there’s a homeless man in the toilet block, and he was actually going crazy and sort of banging on the walls and smashing things.

“And so I said, maybe you should send someone to have a look at that, just in case. You know, there’s a lot of kids here… and they said, yeah, it is a really busy night. It’s been a busy night. It’s a busy morning, we’ll try and get a unit there.”

The woman said no-one arrived until about 7.45am, when she said she saw what she described as a ute that was sign-written with Tauranga City Council. The ute stopped and the woman says she called out, “Look, I don’t know if you can see them from where you are, but there’s these slips up here, I think, you know, someone should look at them.”

The woman was unsure the man heard her. The woman said the ute then drove through the Pilot Bay side of the campground slowly past the slips that she had filmed directly in front of several campsites.

“I figured, well, everything will be fine. Someone from the council’s come, they’ve seen the slips, he’s driven past them, he’s driven through the water that was coming down from that corner that collapsed. So I had no worries after that.”

The woman then had a shower and left the campground to visit her parents.

It was not until about an hour after the fatal landslide that she returned. She said the emergency services at the scene were “amazing”.

It was about midday that she discovered that Maclennan was missing.

“The group of people that was … camping in the area, were all in tears. There was an older couple that we were sitting with in there, and he was heartbroken. It was just terrible and so incredibly unfair.

“I don’t think there was many people that were in the surf club for the day that weren’t, you know, in tears. It was pretty difficult.”

She said Maclennan, who worked at Morrinsville Intermediate School was “being a teacher”.

“She took control. She was making sure everyone was safe. She was, you know, literally rounding people and making sure they were all safe, and being the organiser.

“Lisa [Maclennan] and her husband were amazing. And if it hadn’t been for them there, I would imagine that there would have been many more people.”

Looking back, the woman said she believed there should have been staff at the campground at all times, given the weather warnings.

“I know nothing about running camping grounds, but it seems like a no-brainer to have had people in the campground during a red rain watch and a state of emergency. 

“Either they should have evacuated the campground, which is great in hindsight, but at the very least somebody, there should have been a number of people that worked for the campground or the council on the ground during a state of emergency, because the fact that there was no one there made us all think maybe it’s not that bad.”

She said the days since the landslide had been “awful”.

“It’s dreadful, not sleeping. It’s terrible,” she said.

“I think it’s feeling extraordinarily lucky to not have been hurt and grateful that Lisa woke us up and then just incredibly sad for the families whose people didn’t get out.”

RNZ approached the Tauranga City Council and police for comment on Monday evening on the woman’s account.

“Once the recovery efforts are completed, we have secured the site and have geotechnical assessments that the landslide area is stable, there will be a process undertaken to examine the events that took place before and during this tragic event,” the council’s controller Tom McEntyre said.

“It would not be appropriate to make any comment now that could affect that process or pre-empt the outcome.”

In response to earlier questions from RNZ, Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler confirmed FENZ received a 111 call at 5.48am on Thursday, 22 January, from a person reporting a slip near the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.

“Our call takers made contact with the Tauranga City Council, the landowners of the camping ground, and notified them of this information at 5.51am.

“The landslip that was referenced in the 111 call received at 5.48am did not impact life or property and therefore Fire and Emergency did not respond firefighters to attend, instead we notified Tauranga City Council as the landowner responsible.”

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Tauranga City Council chief executive Marty Grenfell said there was no record of a 111 call being referred to the council.

However, a council statement released only hours later backtracked on this version of events.

“After further enquiries, we can confirm that the Tauranga City Council’s main Contact Centre received a call from Fire and Emergency New Zealand at around 5.50am on Thursday, 22 January.”

The council said the chief executive’s earlier comments referred specifically to information logged in the council’s Emergency Operations Centre, which did not receive a call.

At about 9.30am a slip came down at the Beachside Holiday Park at Mount Maunganui, smashing into campervans, tents, vehicles and an ablution block near the Mount Hot Pools.

WorkSafe’s head of inspectorate Rob Pope told RNZ’s Midday Report Tauranga City Council was one of the entities it needed to speak with and understand its part in the event.

When asked if it would be extraordinary for an investigation not to be launched given six people were presumed dead, Pope agreed but said they needed to understand the scope and context first before committing resources to a formal investigation.

A WorkSafe spokesperson told RNZ it was in the “very early stages” of assessing what its role may look like once the search and recovery phase was complete.

“We are currently bringing together a team of inspectors and will be working closely with New Zealand Police to determine next steps.

“We will be looking into the organisations that had a duty of care for everyone at the holiday park, and whether or not they were meeting their health and safety responsibilities.”

Currently, the focus needed to remain on the recovery efforts, the spokesperson said.

“When the time is right, our inspectors will begin engaging with witnesses and technical experts and gathering evidence from a range of sources including the organisations involved in the operation of the holiday park and the scene.

“In the meantime, our local inspectors have also extended an offer of support to Emergency Management Bay of Plenty and other agencies to ensure that workers involved in the response are kept safe and healthy.”

Pope told RNZ WorkSafe was working closely with police to coordinate their responses after the “incredibly tragic event”.

He did not have a timeframe for when a decision on a formal investigation would be made but said the inspectors would be working at pace and focused on providing the right level of confidence for the families who wanted answers.

“We will be committed to addressing this issue as quickly as we can.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Morning Report he supported Tauranga City Council’s decision to conduct a full, independent review into the landslide.

“There’s lots of concerns that people have about why they weren’t evacuated sooner. I think they are very legitimate, very good questions that need answers.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Just a day after performing a crude act in a social worker’s office, Everest Oketopa repeatedly groped a paramedic in the back of an ambulance.

He was so insistent that the healthcare professional had to move to the front of the vehicle to avoid him.

Recently, the Waikato man appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on charges of assaulting a probation officer, after punching him in the face, doing an indecent act, and indecent assault.

Judge Kim Saunders had to decide whether to hand down a prison term, which would likely see him freed on a time-served basis, or give intensive supervision to help with his rehabilitation.

The first incident, in October last year, involved Oketopa punching a probation officer in the face, without warning, while he spoke with him and his family.

The next day, he was in his social worker’s office speaking to her when he suddenly stood up and began playing with the drawstring of his pants.

He then performed an indecent act and was quickly asked to leave.

Later that same day, he called an ambulance to get a mental health assessment in hospital.

While on the journey, he touched the paramedic “a number of occasions” on her leg.

After telling him to stop and pushing his hand away, the victim ended up moving to the front passenger seat.

‘No one wants to see that’

Judge Saunders noted Oketopa had attended a restorative justice conference with all of the victims, “that seems to have been positive for all”.

He told them he was now committed to re-engaging in treatment programmes, focusing on his mental health, taking his medication, and respecting emergency and professional workers.

He also assured them that he would identify himself if he needed their help again so that the victim didn’t have to deal with him.

Oketopa was already serving a sentence of intensive supervision for charges of assault, shoplifting, threatening behaviour, and possession of an offensive weapon at the time of the recent offending.

“There’s no doubt that your offending, which began as it has in 2025, is a direct result of your deteriorating mental health.

“You have drug-induced psychosis and alcohol and poly-substance abuse disorder.

“You have a significant history of using alcohol and drugs, particularly cannabis and methamphetamine, since your early childhood.”

Judge Saunders said it was clear to her that there was a nexus between Oketopa’s drug use and his offending.

He also appeared remorseful.

She regarded his offending as spontaneous, but “determined conduct”.

“All indecent assaults are serious because you are touching someone who does not want to be touched.

“All she was doing was trying to make you as safe and comfortable as possible.”

As for his indecent act, “no one wants to see that”, she told him.

She convicted Oketopa, issued him a first strike warning on the indecent assault charge as it was a qualifying offence, and sentenced him to 18 months’ intensive supervision.

This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Regions across the North Island are recovering from last week’s deadly storms.

Homes were evacuated, floods covered districts, and slips blocked roads and took lives in the worst hit areas.

RNZ breaks down just how devastating last week’s storm was by the numbers.

Death toll

Nine people have been killed or are presumed dead after last week’s storms.

Police said some remains of victims had been found and six people were unaccounted for following the slip at a popular campground.

Two Auckland teenagers, a Swedish tourist and a Morrinsville teacher were among the missing.

In Pāpāmoa, a child was killed alongside his grandmother after a landslide struck a house in Welcome Bay.

The body of a 47-year-old man was found in Warkworth, North Auckland, after he was washed away while fording a river earlier last week.

In 2023, eight people were killed in Hawkes Bay during Cyclone Gabrielle. The total death toll in that storm was 11.

Rainfall

A number of places across the North Island saw their wettest day on record last week.

MetService said Tauranga, Whitianga, and Whakatāne all saw their records broken on Wednesday.

Tauranga received 274mm of rain, making it the wettest day on record, while Whitianga saw 247.6mm, and 114.2mm for Whakatāne.

From midnight on Wednesday to midday Thursday, Whitianga also saw a months’ worth of rain, 353mm.

Other places that faced a months’ rain in 36 hours Hicks Bay, Whakatāne, and Kerikeri, MetService said.

Slips

NZTA reported a number of slips across the roading network in storm hit regions.

There are 40 slip and debris sites now confirmed in the Waioweka Gorge, with seven severe sites.

“We estimate that in total a minimum of 1,000 more truck loads at of debris will need to be removed from the area.” said Rob Service, NZTA’s Controller for State Highway Two/Waioweka Gorge Response and Recovery.

Recovery work had also restarted at the Mount Maunganui slip on Monday morning.

Work was put on hold on Sunday due to the risk of further slips after a crack was spotted on the cliff face.

Property Damage

A number of buildings were badly hit during the wild weather.

In the Coromandel, ten properties had been red stickered, meaning they were unsafe to return to.

A further 16 had also been yellow stickered, while 16 others had been white stickered.

There been 115 properties damaged, however Thames Coromandel Civil Defence said that figure could change.

In the Bay of Plenty, four red placards and 11 yellow placards had been issued.

Tauranga City Council Controller Tom McEntyre said council conducted a number of rapid building assessments across the city.

“The assessed locations are dispersed across Tauranga, including Welcome Bay, Gate Pā, Bethlehem, and Ōtūmoetai,” he said.

Several properties in the Whangārei District had also been red and yellow stickered.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police have named the man who was found dead in the Mahurangi River near Warkworth as Tekanimaeu Arobati, 47, from Kiribati.

“Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time, and we are offering support to the family.”

Police had said earlier on Monday that a body was recovered after a driver was swept away in a car on Wednesday morning.

Searchers, including whitewater raft teams and drone operators had been scouring the area, as several North Island regions struggled with severe rain, flooding, landslides and storms this week.

Fire and Emergency earlier said two people had been in the car and attempted to cross a ford through the flooded river when they got into trouble. The passenger was able to escape, and seek help.

The death has been referred to the Coroner.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two people have been taken to Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital after a reported dog attack.

Emergency services were called to Caspar Road in the suburb of Papatoetoe at about 7:45pm Monday.

Police told RNZ it was believed the people were injured by a dog.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tearful mourners have gathered on Auckland’s domain this evening to remember one of the teens missing after a landslide at Mt Maunganui.

Sharon Maccanico, 15, is one of six people missing after the slip at a holiday park last week.

On Monday evening, about 100 people, many of them young, came together in mourning.

Many braved the early evening rain, to stand in quiet reflection.

Some sobbed as tearful prayers were said.

“Bring a light, a candle, or simply your presence. We’ll share music, quiet moments, and hold space to reflect on the joy, strength, and warmth [Sharon] brought into our lives,” an open invitation read.

During the vigil, two people shared a prayer with the crowd.

“Please take care of her, Lord,” one said through tears.

A shrine of candles and flowers had been set up in front of the crowd.

Pakuranga College confirmed Sharon was among two of its students who died in the tragedy, alongside Max Furse-Kee, also 15.

The school said it had been in close contact with both families and described the news as “deeply impacting” for staff and students.

Counselling and well-being support will be prioritised as the college community grapples with the loss under “incredibly sad circumstances.”

Maccanico was originally from southern Italy.

In attendance was the Honorary Consul to Italy in Auckland, Lindsey Jones, who said she could not imagine how Maccanico’s parents must be feeling.

She said every Italian in the country would be thinking of the Maccanico family.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A union representing Kiwi nurses has expressed “disgust” at the death of a fellow medical professional in the United States at the hands of government agents.

Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed by immigration officers during a protest in Minneapolis on Saturday (US time).

The government-employed intensive care nurse had been helping direct traffic during a protest against the Trump administration’s supposed immigration crackdown in the city.

Video showed he was assisting a woman who had been pushed to the ground by an agent when he was pinned to the ground, pepper-sprayed, disarmed and then shot 10 times by federal agents.

Government officials have said Pretti “approached” agents with a pistol and then “violently resisted” being disarmed.

While legally armed, video at the scene analysed by multiple media organisations shows Pretti did not draw his weapon during the confrontation.

Pretti was employed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, which looks after the needs of the country’s military veterans.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) said it was “increasingly concerned at the callous and aggressive attacks” by the US government on its own people. Pretti’s death came two weeks after a mother-of-three was shot dead by agents in the same city.

“It seems that nobody is safe, and when health workers are losing their lives on the street it is gravely concerning,” kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said.

In both shooting deaths, Trump administration officials made claims about the circumstances that were contradicted by video evidence.

Pretti’s parents said a government claims he was an “assassin” and a “domestic terrorist” were “sickening lies”.

NZNO said it stood with “health workers everywhere and… with all peoples aspiring for freedom from an oppressive system and unprovoked attacks”.

“Nurses are always at the forefront of ensuring the safety and well-being of their communities,” Nuku said. “We are appalled that health workers and communities in general in the US live in constant fear of being indiscriminately harassed, assaulted and even killed.

“Nurses in particular are carers and protectors. Alex was an ICU nurse, so cared for patients when they were at their most vulnerable.”

Those who worked with Pretti described him as a “kind-hearted soul” and a “good, kind person who lived to help”.

Minnesota state officials have called for an end to the federal government’s operation in the city.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are investigating the death of a man at a Tākaka property.

They said they were notified at about 3am that the 75-year-old had died.

Police are treating the death as unexplained.

A scene examination has been completed at the property.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Follow the latest in RNZ’s live blog above

Work has resumed to recover six missing people after the landslide at Mount Maunganui.

The victims have been named as Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15 and Max Furse-Kee, 15.

An independent review, led by Tauranga City Council, has been opened into the events leading up to the landslide. Meanwhile, WorkSafe has announced it will be looking into the organisations that had a duty of care for everyone at the Mt Maunganui holiday park.

Follow the latest in RNZ’s live blog at the top of this page

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Three of the five members of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Victims of Retail Crime have resigned in the past month.
• One of the three, Retail NZ chief executive, has cited the group’s “very unpleasant environment”.
• The group’s chairman says resignations reflect normal leadership changes
• Justice Minister says external commitments and job changes behind exodus.
• The group has faced criticism for its spending.

The chief executive of Retail NZ says she quit a ministerial advisory group because her relationship with its chairman became untenable.

Carolyn Young is one of three business leaders advising the government on how to combat retail crime to have walked away in the past month, leaving just two members to complete the work.

Young’s departure follows that of Foodstuffs North Island senior manager Lindsay Rowles and Michael Hill national retail manager Michael Bell, who quit late last year.

The group is led by Sunny Kaushal, who remains as chairman, with one other member remaining, Hamilton liquor retailer Ash Parmar.

Young said while Kaushal had the confidence of Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, he was not the right person to chair the group.

In an interview with Checkpoint on Monday, she told Lisa Owen about its “unpleasant environment”.

Goldsmith made the appointments to the group in mid-2024 and they were supposed to be for two years.

Since then, the MAG has faced criticism for its spending, including on catered meetings around New Zealand and for its inner-city Auckland office space.

It has also faced questions about its value for money after it was revealed that Kaushal invoiced more than $230,000 for work in its first 12 months.

Kaushal defends the group’s work, saying it operates under its $1.8 million annual budget, which comes from the proceeds of crime fund.

Ministerial advisory groups have been set up to provide expert advice to the government on issues such as aged-care funding and transnational crime.

The retail crime group was created after a sharp spike in crime in the sector. Members are appointed by the government.

‘Very unpleasant environment’

Young said her resignation was a difficult decision. It came after long conversations at the Retail NZ board level.

“We know that our members were really keen for me to stay on the group, but it really became untenable in terms of the relationship with the chair and just some of the ongoing communication that I’ve had from them and himself, really implicating my professionalism and who I am and how I work.

“I just didn’t think that was the right thing for me and a professional way to go about things.”

Young said the dairy owners sector group, previously led by Kaushal, had made a personal attack on her.

There were conversations within the MAG about that, which she described as “less than satisfactory”, as well as ongoing communication with Kaushal about engagement work by Young.

“It just felt like it was a continual battle to constantly be able to speak about what retailers are really looking for and how that plays out.

“It wasn’t wasn’t leading to getting good outcomes for retail, and that’s really the key thing that we’re after,” Young said.

“Certainly, it was a very unpleasant environment. It wasn’t a nice place to go and spend an afternoon in a meeting room, that’s for sure.”

She said the group’s effectiveness would be judged in time and, in her view, its key piece of work was about recommendations to strengthen trespass laws.

“But I’m not sure about anything else – whether it’s going to make a significant difference to retail crime and providing protections to retail workers.”

When asked about Kaushal, Young said it was important he was involved with the group.

“I’m not sure that he’s necessarily the right person as the chair, but the minister clearly has confidence in him and isn’t about to make a change – [that] is my understanding.”

On the group’s spending, Young said it was fine so long as it wasn’t out of kilter with other advisory groups.

She said the office space was significant for the group’s small number of people, and she was sure officials would make sure there was good accountability for what was spent.

Rowles and Bell were contacted for comment.

Resignations ‘reflect normal leadership movement’ – chairman

Kaushal said he was at the Indian Republic Day celebration event on Monday, so couldn’t be interviewed.

In a written response to questions from RNZ he said the changes “reflect normal leadership movement in any organisation”.

“Members hold other senior roles and when business demands increase, or people step into new appointments, they sometimes need to step back from external commitments,” he said.

“The work of the MAG continues. We have a busy year of new work ahead.

“The group remains focused on delivering practical, evidence-informed advice to improve safety for retailers and communities.”

He did not answer questions about whether, as chairman, he took any responsibility for the resignations; how the group worked together and if there was any conflict; and what work is in the pipeline for the group this year and if the resignations would affect that.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith was also unavailable for an interview.

“Due to external commitments and job changes, Carolyn Young, Michael Bell and Lindsay Rowles have recently resigned from the Ministerial Advisory Group,” the minister said in a statement.

“I thank them for their work and wish them well in their next endeavours.

“The MAG has been extremely busy over the last 12 months generating detailed policy proposals, including new citizens’ arrest powers, a shoplifting infringement regime and strengthening trespass laws.

“These were crucial in developing the Crimes Amendment Bill, which passed its first reading in December. We plan to pass this into law before the election.”

Goldsmith said the government was determined to give businesses more options, and to fix the basics in law and order.

“In order to achieve different outcomes, we need to try different things,” he said.

“We are now considering next steps.”

‘Clearly over-catered’

Just before Christmas RNZ revealed criticism of the group for its spending of almost $24,000 on a series of 22 well-catered stakeholder engagement meetings around New Zealand.

Two meetings in Auckland each cost more than $4000, while another cost more than $3000.

Rock melon, goat’s cheese and prosciutto crostini, mini chicken and leek savouries, and $9 bottles of Coke were among menu items around the country.

Kaushal said the meetings were an important part of his mission to fix retail crime in New Zealand.

After a select committee hearing, where the spending at one of the Auckland meetings came under fire, Goldsmith told the NZ Herald the event was “clearly over-catered” and “probably had too many scones”.

Labour MP Duncan Webb was critical of the cost of food at the meetings.

“It just sounds like he’s spending government funding lavishly,” he said.

RNZ has also revealed the Ministry of Justice, which provides back-office support to the group, has leased for it a central Auckland office space for $100,000 a year.

The ministry said the 389-square-metre space was used for meetings, video conferences and boardroom sessions, as well as having room for up to 70-80 people for engagements and events.

In his first year as the group’s chairman Kaushal billed $238,625, at a daily rate of $920.

Chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime, Steve Symon, received the same rate, while chief victims adviser Ruth Money is paid $850 for every day worked in the role.

Kaushal can work up to 250 days a year and invoiced for the maximum amount.

Among the staff supporting the group are three principal policy advisers.

RNZ has previously revealed that one position earns $1261 a day for a contract ending next month, another earns $1126 a day on a contract finishing in March, and the third is on $1036 a day on a contract ending in September.

RNZ has also revealed how ministry officials have provided advice to Goldsmith about concerns to do with Kaushal, however, the minister won’t release the information.

‘On a mission’

In December Kaushal said the group had delivered five “legislative-ready major policy papers” – addressing citizens’ arrests, strengthening trespass laws and allowing retailers to use pepper spray to defend themselves.

“I am on a mission. My focus is on the bigger goal, fixing retail crime in New Zealand, which is costing $2.7 billion per year,” he said.

The ministry and the minister’s office refused to release advice and recommendations from the group last year, including about trespass and “personal safety aides”, which included pepper spray.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Four days on from a devastating storm, pockets of whānau remain cut off from one another on the East Coast.

The communities were still isolated following widespread flooding and slips, with helicopters delivering supplies.

Te Araroa – one of the worst-hit areas – has just been reconnected to Gisborne via State Highway 35 to the south.

According to local Four Square duty manager Wiremu Henare, the opening of the road – three times a day to allow convoys into the township – could not have come soon enough.

“They let a truck through yesterday, so our supplies are real good at the moment. We were running low on some stuff like bread, eggs, and flour, but we are stocked up again.”

The store has been working alongside Civil Defence to help whānau still cut off.

“We probably supply close to… 20-30 families at the moment, that’s out Horoera ways, East Cape, because they’re trapped at the moment.

“We have a team on the ground that’s got four-wheeler buggies and they go round on low tide and supply families with groceries.”

He said it was a beautiful part of the coast, but the entrance – surrounded by hills – was vulnerable to slips.

They had been pulling some big shifts in the store, he said, with one half of his team still cut off in Hicks Bay.

Emergency management controller Ben Green said while the opening of the highway to Te Araroa was a win, it was a different story further north, with the Hicks Bay area likely to remain physically isolated for another week.

He said about 30-odd houses in nearby Onepoto – evacuated due to the risk of landslide over the weekend – were yet to be given the all-clear.

Local Civil Defence kaimahi Trudi Ngāwhare said communities on the East Coast were no strangers to extreme weather, but it still took its toll.

“You want to help, you want to get in there and help and do what you can, but all we could do was watch it happen – and that was horrible to be honest, and you really feel for our whānau.

“A few people woke up and… lost everything. And then we hear our Hicks Bay whānau’s cut off, cut off for days.”

She said the level of destruction has been surprising, leaving a nearby mountain range with “open gash wounds”.

With multiple slips in the area, there was “quite a bit of mess,” and Ngāwhare begged people not to go sight-seeing.

Since the torrential rain, Hinerupe Marae – the Civil Defence base and welfare centre in Te Araroa – had been humming, she said, hosting about 30-40 people at any one time.

“A lot of people to feed… even our kitchen crew has been going hard.”

Ngāwhare said the next few days would be more of the same, and responding to where the need was greatest.

“The needs change everyday depending on how long your power’s out, how long your road’s closed.

“Just keeping dynamic, I guess, and we’ll only know what we need as the day rolls on and plan for the next day.”

She said the support from people “all around the motu” had been heard and felt, and wanted to express “huge gratitude” for everyone’s kind words, karakia, and donations.

“We’ll get there.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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