Author: MIL OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

Stormy weather has cut power to dairy sheds, brought down trees, shelter belts and wiped out vegetable and arable crops.

Ōtorohanga was one of five districts still under a state of emergency following the heavy rain and strong gusts over the weekend.

Michael Woodward, who runs a dairy and goat farm in south Ōtorohanga, said he had a blocked culvert and slips, but nearby farms were worse off.

“East of Ōtorohanga where the stepper country starts coming in, there’s been a lot of slips in those farms, fences have been taken out,” he said.

“There’s been a small amount of stock loss that we’ve heard of, but as a whole because the damage has been localised, nearby farmers who haven’t been affected are helping out.”

Woodward said farms along the banks of the Waipā River were most affected.

“Just where the water’s slowly backed up, a lot of damage towards the Ōtorohanga township as well, one of the local primary schools has gone under.”

Woodward said local families helped wash out silt from the school hall that was submerged by flood waters.

Ōtorohanga Primary School’s leadership team said on Facebook, initial investigations were now underway at the kura.

“Our absolute priority is returning to in-person learning as soon as it is safe to do so,” it read.

“However, current assessments indicate that the full school site is unlikely to be reoccupied for up to four weeks while remediation is completed. As each building is cleared and restored, we may be able to stage the return of classrooms to the site.”

Woodward said there was amazing community support for those most affected by the storms.

The wild weather has left thousands without power across the lower North Island.

Manawatū-Rangitīkei dairy farmer Hamish Easton who milked 500 cows near Foxton said most farmers were prepared for power cuts and had their own generators from previous events.

“We’ve had significant wind overnight, we lost power but it was back on by 5am which is good for the guys out milking early, but the wind has carried on, it’s pretty significant.”

Easton said there were road diversions across parts of the province due to fallen trees, and said farmers should stay local and avoid unnecessary travel or jobs if they could.

Fonterra said there were five farms in Manawatū they were unable to reach last night because of flood waters, but it was working to pick up that milk on Monday.

Vegetable and arable crops hit

Pirongia Mountain Vegetables said a major part of their winter root vegetable crop had been washed away.

Before photos show lush potato crops – now the same paddock is just a muddy mess.

On Facebook, the company said it was used to flooding and plants above historic high water marks but this time it was different.

Further south in Horowhenua, large scale commercial vegetable company Woodhaven Gardens has been affected by strong winds.

Owner Jay Clarke said it looked like the entire zuchinni crop had been wiped out.

“The wind escalated last night, it’s caused quite significant crop damage on some of our crops, especially some of the seasonal crops like zucchinis.

“The wind can snap the growing centre, meaning that you will lose that crop, so that’s quite a big hit on our income potentially because we won’t be able to harvest any of that crop now. That plant just won’t grow. It’ll die.”

Clarke said some other crops would be touch or go, “we’ll know in a week or so what the full impact will be”.

“We will just have to plough damaged crops back into the land, that has flow on effects for labour decisions and things like that.”

Clarke said the damage would have flow on effects for supply as well.

“There could be a lack of supply for some vegetables but it could take a few weeks for that to appear in the shops.”

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/fences-taken-out-crop-destroyed-rain-wind-hammers-north-island-farmers/

Source: Radio New Zealand

About 20 cars remain stranded by a slip in remote rural Taihape, with a Defence Force helicopter the only way to see how they are faring.

It may also be the only way to rescue them.

Rangitikei mayor Andy Watson said there was virtually no cellphone coverage.

He understood it was a local farmer who raised the alarm, calling emergency services to report what he could see.

It had been very hard to get information, he said.

It appears the cars took a back route after State Highway 1 was closed.

“They’ve found flood water that was too deep to drive through then slip has come down behind them and effectively blocked their path,” he said.

The helicopter from Ohakea would do a flyover to get a better idea of the situation and to rescue people if there was no other way.

The area had not been possible to reach by road yet, he said.

Residents in the wider district have told RNZ there are trees blocking may roads, with people not able to get to work.

State Highway 1 has been closed around Taihape.

Watson said it some of the roads the cars took would normally only see “half a dozen” cars a day, he said.

Rangitikei District Council said contractors were working to clear debris, and it was working with Civil Defence on a response to the situation.

Police said they were notified at 12.30pm.

St John Ambulance said it had so far not been required.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/weather-20-vehicles-stuck-after-mudslide-in-taihape-defence-force-helicopter-assessing-situation/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Streets in the Lower Hutt suburb of Stokes Valley have become rivers after a watermain breakage.

The pipe broke underneath Kamahi Street sending thousands of litres of water onto the road.

It has ripped up the route, lifted manholes and sent rocks floating down the torrent.

Max Goddard-Winchester said it started about 12pm on Monday.

“I think all the stormwater that is supposed to be going under the road has just started pissing out the top of it.”

Goddard-Winchester said there was not much you could do to redirect the flow of the water.

“I think people down the road, people who had their garage door open it was just flooding into their front door.

“We had it going down our driveway earlier but we managed to stop it coming down that way.”

Carina said her home was just around the corner.

“In 1976 this happened, the same thing. I remember the roads all lifting, the water getting in underneath it, yeah it is not a quick fix neither.”

She said there would be quite a few people affected by the broken water main, given it was a large street.

Wellington Water and Hutt City Council have been approached for comment.

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/watermain-breakage-leaves-lower-hutt-streets-flooded/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Campers and some residents of the tiny coastal settlement of Herbertville rushed to the community hall in the early hours of this morning after the Wainui River burst its banks.

The evacuation came three years and two days after the river last burst its banks in the Tararua District township, southeast of Dannevirke, flooding the pub and campground during Cyclone Gabrielle.

On that occasion, a build up of slash at the road bridge into Herbertville’s entrance created a dam, which diverted the water.

Last night, there was no slash, but there was enough water in the river for it to rise fast.

Herbertville Campground manager Chris Cawsey said on Monday he’d had a sleepless night due to the storm.

“About 1.15am the river burst its banks about halfway down the campground,” he said.

“It rose about 4 1/2 feet in 49 minutes. The remaining campers who were in the campground, we got to evacuate.”

Six campers headed to the community hall and have since found other places to stay. Cawsey said his family spent the night at another house in the settlement away from the danger.

The river was still flowing quickly when RNZ visited at lunchtime on Monday, but had dropped from its peak.

Cawsey and his family were back at the campground and he said he’d keep an eye on the river’s level.

There was surface flooding near the campground entrance.

Cawsey said he was disappointed the town’s flood warning system didn’t activate, and that settlement residents didn’t receive any warning through their phones, although he did get a call from the council on Sunday night.

Herbertville Inn owners John and Miki Sedcole also evacuated to the community hall.

John Sedcole, who managed the campground when Cyclone Gabrielle hit, said this time the water did not funnel down the street like it did in 2023.

“We came back to the hotel about 5.30am after the high tide and the water had receded a bit,” he said.

“Now, power’s our biggest problem, but thank goodness we bought a generator and we’re able to have all our fridges on the generator, so we’re okay.”

Sedcole was not sure if he would open tonight, but said it might be a good idea so locals could have a place to gather and discuss what had happened.

He emptied his rain gauge this morning and it had 150 millilitres of water in it – Cawsey reported more than 120ml in his.

Gusts of more 200kmh were recorded at nearby Cape Turnagain. Although it was windy in Herbertville, Sedcole said it wasn’t at that level.

Cawsey said it was violent in the early hours of the morning, but the area was used to high winds.

Roads around the settlement had some fallen branches and debris from trees on them, but roading crews were in the area doing clearing the surfaces.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/campers-evacuate-overnight-after-wainui-river-burst-its-banks/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Local iwi Ngāti Manuhiri has welcomed the government’s two-year ban on harvesting rockpools in the north of Auckland.

The ban is for all of the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, and further north at Kawau Bay and Ōmaha Bay and will take affect from 12 March.

All seaweed, invertebrate and shellfish were covered as well as sponges, starfish, anemone and sea cucumbers.

Spiny rock lobster and scallops were already covered by existing closures, sea urchin (kina) were also excluded and can still be taken within current recreational fishing limits.

Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement trust chief executive Nicola Rata-MacDonald said the announcement couldn’t have come fast enough.

“Every year we see a lot of people enjoying our beaches, fantastic, but what we also see is unprecedented harvesting and foraging of really vulnerable ecosystems and we just can’t take it anymore.”

The trust applied for a two-year prohibition on harvesting all shellfish and seaweeds from rockpools across the eastern coastline of the Rodney Local Board and Hibiscus Local Board areas, made under section 186A of the Fisheries Act.

As part of its formal application the Trust will also place a rāhui over the same area and species.

Rata-MacDonald said two years will be a start for shellfish to recover and the iwi will be working with Fisheries New Zealand, DOC and community groups to monitor the rockpools.

Whether they ask to extend the ban after two years will depend on whether there is a recovery of shellfish populations, she said.

“But one thing we will know is that you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll be going out to those beaches and checking up on them.”

Rata-MacDonald said she has spoken with Fisheries Officials who were keen to look at ways the local community can get involved.

“Our oceans are under serious pressure. The long term focus is can we actually recover species that are on the brink of decline, we’ve seen that in the Hauraki Gulf with koura with crayfish with scallops so we need to really look at how do we ensure the intertidal species don’t disappear, they are the very engineers of the ocean and without them everything collapses.”

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/iwi-welcomes-governments-two-year-ban-on-harvesting-rockpools-north-of-auckland/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wind gusts measuring up to 240km/h have been recorded on the east coast of the lower North Island with gusts of up to 190km/h hitting high parts of Wellington.

MetService said the strong winds and heavy rain were set to linger over the lower North Island before gradually heading southwards later on Monday and on Tuesday.

Gusts measuring up to 240km/h have been recorded at Cape Turnagain on the east coast of the lower North Island.

While in Wellington, winds have reached up to 190km/h in high parts – and about 130km/h in the city.

MetService meteorologist John Law said a low pressure system sitting to the east of the North Island was expected to track slowly southwards.

He said heavy rain and severe gales were expected to continue over central and southern parts of the North Island as well as reaching eastern parts of the South Island and Chatham Islands.

“The good news is – as we head through the day today – we should start to see those winds easing off – so we’ve probably seen the peak of those winds. But even by Wellington standards it’s a very windy start to the week,” Law said.

Law said “intense bursts of rain” had seen up to 200mm of rain fall over parts of Wairarapa overnight Monday.

“With that low pressure out to the east of the North Island it’s been pushing the rain in particularly across those lower parts. Cape Palliser has seen some of the highest rainfall. Intense bursts of rain through there and just prolonged rain through the night-time. As we saw In parts of the Hutt Valley that combination of strong winds and heavy rain are bringing all sorts of impacts,” Law said.

He said hard hit parts of southern Waikato, such as Otorohanga, should see clearing conditions over the oncoming days.

“The good news – as we head through today – this rain is clearing away down towards the south. Still a few showers possible but nowhere near the level we’ve seen in recent days. While a few showers are still possible for today things are getting better,” he said.

Law said that more weather warnings could be on the way as the low pressure system slowly headed southwards.

“This weather system is sticking with us. A big area of high pressure out to the east is blocking the movement of this low so it stays close by. It will sink southwards which will push that rain in towards parts of the South Island. So places like the Kaikōura Coast, parts of Canterbury particularly – places like Banks Peninsula – already have some severe weather watches and warnings. We may well find more issued for parts of those eastern areas of the South Island,” Law said.

Law said rain over the eastern side of the South Island was less likely to be as intense as the system migrated southwards over coming days and south westerly flows were expected to help clear the system during Tuesday and early Wednesday.

“That’s when we finally say good-bye to this weather system,” Law said.

Other notable MetService weather stats:

• Gisborne, Taupō, Waiouru, Wellington, Whanganui and Kaikōura have already exceeded the amount of rainfall they would typically expect to receive in February.
• The Baring Head buoy in Wellington Harbour recorded a significant wave height of 7.54 metres at 11.06pm on Sunday. A significant wave height is the average height of the highest one-third of waves.
• Mt Kaukau and Wellington Airport measured 193 km/h and 128 km/h, their strongest winds since June 2013, when they reached 202 km/h and 143 km/h respectively.
• The Kelburn weather station recorded 133 km/h, its strongest winds from a southerly direction since June 2013, when a southerly wind of 141 km/h was measured.

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/winds-gust-to-240km-h-on-lower-north-islands-east-coast/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The deaths of four young people in separate motocross accidents over a two-year span will be the focus of a joint Coronial inquest, placing the safety of the sport under scrutiny.

At a case management hearing in Auckland on Monday, Coroner Ian Telford ordered a joint inquest into the deaths of Jack Willson, 10, Luke Ngeru, 15, Eli Hankins, 12, and Wai’aryn Mills, 14. The boys died in accidents between April 2023 and September 2025 at tracks around the North Island.

Telford said that while each case was individually challenging, taken together they presented “a very complex matrix of issues” that required careful and coordinated examination.

The precise scope of the inquest is yet to be determined.

“At this stage it is impossible to say what the scope of the inquest will be …I’m conscious that a lot of work needs to be undertaken before we are at that stage,” he said.

Telford said he anticipated one of the key issues for the inquest to determine is whether “the public interest would be served by these matters being investigated by other authorities”.

Motorcycling New Zealand and the four boys’ respective clubs will be interested parties to the inquest.

Telford acknowledged the weight of the proceedings for the families involved.

“It is without question an extraordinarily difficult day for everybody involved, and particularly the parents of Jack, Luke, Eli and Wai’aryn,” he said.

“No parent would wish to find themselves in a coroner’s court speaking about their children in such dreadful circumstances.”

The joint inquest builds on earlier proceedings into Jack Willson’s death. The Cambridge 10-year-old died after a crash while racing at the Digger McEwen Motocross Park in Taupō in April 2023.

Telford had previously issued findings on the specific circumstances of Jack’s death, with a second stage planned for October last year to examine how similar serious crashes might be prevented.

That hearing was paused after Telford became the responsible coroner for three other young riders who died in what he described as “broadly similar circumstances”.

Details of those cases were temporarily suppressed to allow their families to be informed of the process. The suppression order was lifted on Monday.

The additional cases to be considered involve Luke Ngeru, who died in September 2023 following a motocross accident in Whanganui; Eli Hankins, who died in February 2025 after sustaining a serious head injury during a club day at Auckland’s Pukekohe Motorcycle track; and Wai’aryn Mills, of Pirongia, who died in September last year after a training accident on a Huntly track.

The inquest will seek to establish the circumstances of each death and to consider whether any broader recommendations can be drawn.

A timetable for the inquest is yet to be set.

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

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/youth-motocross-in-focus-as-coroner-orders-joint-inquest-into-four-fatalities/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two separate assaults in the Auckland CBD over the weekend are being investigated by police.

Police received a report of a person being assaulted in Quay Street by a group of men unknown to them at about 11.40pm on Saturday.

The victim’s phone and bag were also stolen, and they were taken to hospital with moderate injuries.

Police said they were making inquiries to identify those responsible.

Just after midnight on Sunday, another person was injured under the Nelson Street off-ramp overbridge and was taken to hospital with an apparent stab wound.

Police said they were determining the exact circumstances of the incident and who was involved.

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/two-assaults-in-central-auckland-over-the-weekend/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A district court judge has told a judicial conduct panel she was her normal self and not affected by alcohol, as she fights an accusation she disrupted a New Zealand First event.

Judge Ema Aitken is before the panel accused of yelling at Winston Peters during an event at Auckland’s Northern Club in November 2024, saying he was lying. She argues she did not yell, did not recognise Peters, and did not know it was a political event.

The panel continued to hear from Aitken on Monday, resuming her evidence from last week.

She told the panel about a statement released in the wake of the alleged disruption. It had been drafted as a response from Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu, who had emailed the judge for her input.

She was called by Taumaunu while drafting her response, and told him – and media advisors listening in – that she wanted the statement to include that she did not know who the speaker was or that it was a political event, when she made her remarks.

“The verbal response to me in that call was along the lines of, ‘No, we don’t want to put that in the statement, it’s just buying a fight with New Zealand First,’” Aitken said.

“It was explained that the point of the statement from the chief district court judge was to try and shut the whole thing down in the press.”

Aitken said by 18 December 2024, she had not sought or received legal advice.

“I genuinely did not appreciate the seriousness of the situation, in that it was being advanced as inappropriate conduct by a sitting district court judge which was intentionally and politically motivated,” she said.

Her lawyer, David Jones KC, had asked Aitken about a letter from the attorney-general to the chief justice, claiming she had called out Peters by name during the alleged disruption. That was something Aitken denied.

“I never referred to him by name,” she said. “I didn’t know who he was when I made my comments.”

The panel heard late last week from other district court judges who had been sitting at Aitken’s table during a function at the Northern Club that night. The NZ First event was happening in a separate part of the club.

Judges and others from the table had been called at the request of special counsel, but Jones asked Aitken if she had any issue with them coming to give evidence.

“If I had asked them to come along and give evidence, I have no doubt at all that they would have come,” she said. “But I also appreciated that this was likely to be a very public hearing, and I did not want to put my colleagues in the position of having to give evidence.”

Aitken said she did not want to drag her colleagues into what she called “my problem”.

“This was my conduct and not theirs.”

The panel was played a news clip of then Attorney-General Judith Collins reacting to the disruption.

Collins had said she was “appalled” by her behaviour, but Aitken said the attorney-general had the wrong information.

“I was shocked,” Aitken said. “The information the attorney is basing her comments on is incorrect. Disturbingly, this had been the tenor of media reports and commentary based on incorrect information.”

Aitken was cross-examined by special counsel Tim Stephens KC later on Monday morning.

He began by asking Aitken about the background of her legal career, her time working as a lawyer, and ultimately her appointment as a district court judge.

Stephens asked about her relationship with te ao Māori in the courts. Aitken said she kept her obligations as a judge in mind by acknowledging the crest of the New Zealand coat of arms that hung inside the courts.

“Our responsibility as Treaty partners, whether we’re pākeha or Māori, as judges is to give effect to the coat of arms, which has Māori and pākeha equally depicted in a balanced way in that coat of arms,” she said.

“So I always glance at it when I enter the court, and I do that to remind myself that I must judge without fear or favour, affection or ill will, whoever’s before the court.”

Stephens questioned the judge on what she had had to drink that night at the Northern Club. She recalled she had between one and two glasses of champagne.

It was suggested by Stephens she may have been “disinhibited” by the alcohol.

“You must have been affected to some extent?” he asked.

Aitken rejected that suggestion.

“I was not affected in any way that I felt or discerned at the time,” she said. “I was my normal, tired self.”

Stephens asked Aitken if she recalled saying Peters’ comments were lies or misinformation.

“I’ve never been able to remember the precise words that I used – I’ve maintained that from the outset because I don’t, but they would have been to that effect.”

She disputed calling the comments disgusting, saying she “did not use those words”.

“That’s just not a phrase that I would use, ‘this is disgusting’, in that context. I may have said ‘this is appalling’ – that would be the sort of phrase I might have used – but I did not use that expression.”

The hearing continues on Monday afternoon.

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/16/district-court-judge-accused-of-yelling-at-winston-peters-faces-cross-examination/