Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

Crews searching for six people buried in a landslide at Mount Maunganui have so far had the weather they’ve been hoping for today.

It’s warm – 20 degrees – and sunny, with some cloud cover and a very gentle breeze.

Officials yesterday labelled moisture “the enemy” – because with it, the clay-like ground they’re working with could become unstable and risk further slips.

The rain has held off so far, however showers are forecast late afternoon and early evening.

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.

See how the day unfolded in RNZ’s blog at the top of this page.

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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/2026/01/27/as-it-happened-criminal-liability-to-be-probed-after-mount-maunganui-landslip/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A nail-biting, mostly single-lane gravel road will remain the key lifeline linking a storm-battered Northland town with the outside world for the next eight to 14 weeks.

That’s how long the Whangārei District Council expects it will take to clear a monster slip at Helena Bay Hill on Russell Road, the main road between Ōakura and Whangārei.

The slip came down on Wednesday at the end of a four-day deluge that soaked the district’s northeast coast.

The tiny settlement of Punaruku, for example, recorded as much rain each hour between 3am and 5am on 18 January as most places in Northland get in the entire month.

A washed-out bridge on the road from Ōakura north to Russell reopened after temporary repairs on Saturday night, but the only direct link to Whangārei – via Pigs Head Road and Kaiikanui Road – is a back route open to local residents, recovery workers and emergency services only.

‘Lifeline road’ remains steep, narrow and unsealed

Nena Rogers, owner of Ōakura Bay Store, said the closure of the main road to Whangārei would hit the business hard.

“It’ll definitely slow us down. People won’t be able to come here for fishing on the weekends and things like that. It’s our busy season, so it will have a huge impact on us further down the track. We have to make money in the summertime to get through the winter, so we can carry on the service we’ve provided for the past 30 years.”

Rogers said the past year had already been tough due to the economic climate and a drop in visitors in the lead-up to Christmas.

However, she said the town, and the store, had survived without the main access road in the past.

In 2007 a huge chunk of road fell away at Helena Bay Hill – not far from the current slip – leaving Ōakura cut off for almost four months.

“So we’ve been there before,” she said.

Since last week’s slip, council contractors had urgently cleared and graded Kaiikanui Road, and installed traffic lights on a particularly nerve-racking 800-metre section.

However, the “lifeline road” remained steep, narrow and unsealed, with sheer drop-offs in many places.

Rogers said it was fortunate the shop was stocked up for summer when the storm hit, though she was now starting to see serious gaps in her supplies.

Flour, tea, coffee and even chocolate were among the essentials starting to run low.

Her wholesaler had pledged a big delivery this week, using small trucks that could get through Kaiikanui Road.

Rogers said Ōakura had seen huge support from suppliers, the council and tradies, many of whom had baches in the settlement.

She had lost very little stock to the flood, mostly because she had spent the past 30 years preparing.

That included improving drainage, ensuring nothing was stored at ground level, and sandbagging.

The biggest problem was sewage backing up when the treatment plant failed.

Unclear how isolated Ōakura will fare for medical services

Rogers said it was not yet clear how Ōakura, which was isolated even in normal times, would fare for medical services.

Before the deluge a health clinic operated once a fortnight with a doctor visiting once a month.

“During the storm we had a lady who needed staples removed from an operation, and they were going to fly the staple remover out from Whangārei because there was no road at that time. But they did manage to get her out in an ambulance,” Rogers said.

“We’ve got a couple of nurses living out here, so that makes a difference, and I do minor stuff. I fixed up a man’s hand who’d taken a great lump out of it. We couldn’t get hold of anybody but my mother was a nurse, so I know what I’m doing.”

She said locals were “pretty resilient” and used to looking after themselves, but reality was starting to sink in.

“When something like this happens, you pick yourself up and you go and do things. But I’ve noticed people are looking drawn and tired. It’s pretty sad, really.”

Rogers welcomed the news that Ngaiotonga Bridge had reopened, restoring road access from the north.

However, for people heading to Whangārei, that was a long and costly detour, requiring either a trip on the Russell ferry – a car costs $18.50 each way plus a fee for each passenger – or braving the rugged and flood-prone Waikare Road.

Only essential vehicles, full-time residents can use Kaiikanui Road

Whangārei District Council has said it would only allow essential vehicles and full-time residents to use Kaiikanui Road.

Rogers agreed with keeping sightseers off the lifeline road, but believed bach owners should be allowed.

They needed to check and clean up their properties, and in some cases, salvage what was left.

“But if you’re just coming out here because you want to have a look, turn around, because you just might end up at the bottom of one of those slips.”

Just down the road from the shop, Sunday’s flash flood rose to chest-height in the ground floor of Donna Kerridge’s home.

The flood submerged priceless books and notes the rongoā Māori practitioner had collected over the years, as well as woven kete and cloaks.

Kerridge said the months-long closure of the main road would affect her financially.

“I’ll probably lose quite a bit of contract work, because I won’t be able to go backwards and forwards, but that’s just money. Also, we’ll lose conveniences, things like fresh milk, but conveniences are not important,” she said.

“I guess the challenge will be more for family who can’t come and see us, who are concerned about our welfare. It’s going to be hard for them.”

Kerridge said people had held up well so far but she expected the isolation would take a toll.

“After a while, we might start to get grumpy. Right now we’re very grateful. The mood is one of gratitude that nobody got hurt. I think we’re still very much in stunned mullet, grateful mode, but the shine will wear off shortly. I expect we’re going to have a slump in our emotions.”

Self-sufficiency, resilience essential skills for Ōakura residents

Key lessons for Ōakura residents from the storm included the need to be more self-sufficient and able to fend for themselves for extended periods of time.

If a disaster were to hit Whangārei as well, Ōakura would be well down the list of priorities for help – which Kerridge said was understandable, given Whangārei’s much greater population.

“So we need an extra element of resilience,” she said.

Emergency access routes also had to be considered, she said.

Whangaruru had its own Coastguard vessel, but in a storm like last week’s the sea was too rough to put it to use as emergency transport.

As for Kaiikanui Road, Kerridge said she wouldn’t be using it in a hurry.

“The stories I’ve heard are enough to make me say, if I had a baby that was unwell, I might use it. For anybody else, I’m sorry, but don’t ask me to take you out over that road.”

Around the corner, on the Ōakura waterfront, Tauranga’s Mark Seymour and daughter Victoria, 13, were scraping a sticky, stinky layer of silt from their front lawn.

Seymour said the bach had been in the family for 42 years, in a “magic” spot offering great views, good fishing, and a safe beach for the kids to swim and kayak.

He said the floodwaters had been about half a metre deep through the ground floor, trashing six beds, fridges, a washing machine, and other belongings.

Slips from the hillside behind the bach had blocked stormwater drains, turning waterfront properties into one large brown lake.

“The water itself is a problem, but it’s the silt that has washed down from the slips that’s been a really tricky thing to work with. Very, very sticky,” he said.

Seymour said even a high-pressure water blaster had little impact on the silt, so he was now scraping and shovelling by hand.

“I’ve probably dumped about 30 wheelbarrow loads now, and it’s just a sticky, goopy mess of silt.”

The town’s sewer network had been overwhelmed by floodwaters and septic tanks had overflowed, causing other problems.

“Now the sun’s out and the wind’s blowing, things are starting to heat up and dry out, and the stench is pretty hard to bear.”

However, he counted himself lucky – at least three nearby homes had been badly damaged by slips.

“These are families that have been here 60 years. That’s a long, long tenure, and it’s pretty hard to see people you’ve grown up with go through that.”

Seymour was not fazed by Kaiikanui Road, saying it was “definitely” a challenging, narrow, winding, metal road, but it was similar to the access road used in his grandparents’ day.

However, he urged people thinking about taking a tiki tour to Ōakura to leave the road to those who needed it most, such as recovery workers or locals trying to get to their jobs in Whangārei.

Like Rogers and Kerridge, Seymour said he’d been struck by Ōakura’s resilience.

“We’ll carry on and get stronger. We’ll learn from it, and next time, we’ll be even stronger. But I think it’s a good wake up call, to look at what’s happened and what could be done in future to avoid it, like maintenance on drains and roads, that kind of thing. It’s only going to get worse as time goes by with the storm intensities we’re seeing.”

Kerridge said continuing to live in a place like Ōakura, where access was fragile and beset by so many pinch points, would mean making compromises.

“And I think the people here are resigned to that. We don’t get to live the life that we did a week ago. It requires adjustment, and I think we’re adjusting really well.”

State of Emergency for Hikurangi-Coastal Ward extended

On Tuesday afternoon Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper extended the State of Emergency in the Hikurangi-Coastal Ward for another seven days – but lifted it for the rest of the Whangārei District.

Couper said a localised State of Emergency would allow the council to deploy extra support quickly, if needed.

The Hikurangi-Coastal Ward includes Ōakura and Whangaruru, the worst affected areas in Northland during last week’s storm.

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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/2026/01/27/oakura-locals-adjust-to-new-reality-as-main-road-blocked-for-months/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale says all relevant matters relating to the lead-up to the fatal Mount Maunganui landslide will be considered as part of an independent review.

It comes after a camper who contacted emergency services on the morning of the landslide told RNZ she saw a local council representative drove through the Mount Maunganui campground and directly past three slips about two hours before the deadly landslide.

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.

A woman, who was woken by Maclennan, spoke with RNZ on Monday about efforts to raise emergency services earlier that morning, including her own call to police three hours before the landslide.

Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz

She told RNZ that about 7.45am 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.”

RNZ asked Drysdale for comment on the woman’s account.

In a statement sent via the council’s media team, Drysdale said “all relevant matters relating to the lead-up to this tragic event will be considered as part of the independent review we are currently initiating”.

“This will be reported back to the community as quickly as possible.

“The detailed scope, timeframes and personnel involved in this independent review process are currently being worked through and will be communicated publicly as soon as finalised.”

It comes after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said there was a “strong case” for a government inquiry into the landslide.

He announced the possibility during a media conference on Tuesday afternoon, and said many questions about last Thursday’s slip were being asked, including whether there was a missed opportunity to evacuate people sooner.

“Six families are grieving the unimaginable loss of their loved ones, and they deserve answers. I acknowledge that the Tauranga City Council has ordered its own inquiry into the events leading up to the landslide at the campground.

“However, I do believe there is a strong case for an independent government inquiry, and we’ll be talking to Tauranga City Council about that.”

Luxon said it would be important not only for the grieving families but for helping to ensure lessons were learned to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

While an independent inquiry had already been announced by local council, Luxon said there were concerns it would not be impartial if it was conducted by the council.

“There’s a potentially an inherent conflict between the ownership of the campground and the council, but it’s also coming from conversations directly with the families that Mark and I had in the last 48 hours with people in Tauranga at the Mount, and their big desires to actually understand what did happen here.

“I think doing that dispassionately, being able to do that very objectively, through an independent government inquiry would be the way forward.”

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.

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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/2026/01/27/councils-mount-maunganui-landslide-review-to-consider-all-relevant-matters-drysdale/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Shipping containers in Rotorua that provide some of the only live firefighting training for new recruits are being replaced, after they were boycotted and shut on safety grounds months ago.

This week Fire and Emergency evaluated responses to a tender to replace the containers, saying this was better than trying to fix them, and until it had chosen a contractor it could not give a cost and timeframe.

Recruits have been shuttled to Auckland Airport’s live training site since trainers slapped a safety notice on the containers last September.

At the time, the acting manager who is also the union president, said the containers had warped over the years so were leaking toxic smoke during exercises that was a threat to recruits not kitted up outside.

FENZ said recruits had still been able to use two other live-fire facilities (compartments, and one to do with gas).

The Professional Firefighters’ Union said not having the container facilities “is currently hindering these safe systems of work for firefighters” and fixing them must be a priority.

“The fact that FENZ has allowed the current live fire training facilities to deteriorate so much, to the state that they are not working is yet another sign of the organisation failure to spend money on frontline services,” said national vice-president Martin Campbell.

The containers had been expected to last 15 years and were 13 years old “and are now approaching the end of their practical asset life”, said FENZ.

Design had been done to get new ones that balanced “functionality, safety, and durability”.

The union has regularly criticised the state of FENZ’s fire trucks, stations, pay and conditions in an industrial dispute stretching on for months.

The Rotorua national training centre set up almost 20 years ago, houses the containers in a bigger building meant to contain the smoke and make it cleaner in a ‘reburner’, though the acting manager in November said the reburner had never worked well.

The tender said other parts of the training centre, which includes classrooms, must be able to keep operating while the work went on.

FENZ had struggled not just with Rotorua but with trying to fix leaking smoke at its South Island live-fire training centre at Woolston in Christchurch.

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/01/27/rotoruas-live-firefighting-training-containers-to-be-replaced-after-reports-of-toxic-smoke-leaks/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The family of a child and grandmother killed when a landslide hit a house in Pāpāmoa say they’re “absolutely devastated” by the loss of a “treasured son” and his “beloved Nai Nai”.

Two bodies were recovered by police at the home on Welcome Bay Rd on Thursday.

On Tuesday, police named the pair as 10-year-old Austen Keith Richardson and his grandmother, 71-year-old Yao Fang.

Their deaths have been referred to the Coroner.

In a statement Austen’s parents, Keith and Angel, said he was the “much-loved” only child of the couple, and Fang’s only grandchild. Angel was Fang’s only child.

“Austen and his grandmother had an incredibly close relationship – with Austen affectionately calling her Nai Nai.”

Austen was born in Shanghai, China, and the family moved back to New Zealand with him when he was about eight months old.

Since Austen was born Fang had spent “extended periods” of time with the family in New Zealand.

“Austen had just finished at Arataki School where he thrived in the Montessori class. It perfectly suited his personality.”

Austen had been accepted to Bethlehem College and was due to start as a Year 7.

“A gifted musician, Austen loved piano, was extremely mechanically minded, loved building Lego, riding motorbikes, Pokémon and solving math equations.

“The weekend before the tragedy, we visited the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival before surprising him with his dream motocross bike from a mate on the way home.

“This will forever be a treasured memory.”

The family recently attended the Annual Honda Kids Camp at Lake Rotoiti.

“Austen spoke Mandarin fluently, was proud of his Chinese heritage and loved visiting China on our trips back.”

The family said they were “lucky” to have Fang spend so much time with them.

“She was a beautiful mother and grandmother, deeply caring, so generous and always prioritising looking after others ahead of herself.

“Fang worked as an architect in China while raising Angel as a solo parent.

“She loved the nature in New Zealand, helped us grow an incredible vegetable garden, looked after our chickens, and joined us at Chinese Methodist Church in Greerton.”

The family was grateful for the “amazing support” they had received.

“We are absolutely devastated by the loss of our treasured son and his beloved Nai Nai.

“Our thoughts are also with the other families impacted by the Mount Maunganui tragedy and what they are going through.”

‘Bright’, talented musician

St Peter’s Anglican Church director of music Chalium Poppy earlier told RNZ the boy was due to come to a piano lesson at the Mt Maunganui church on Thursday.

Poppy said he was contacted by a friend of the family to say the boy was missing in one of the slips.

“I’d been teaching all morning, so I hadn’t heard the news about the slips yet, and so I was a little bit caught off guard and on the back foot, but it became obvious during the day that it was a lot more serious,” he said.

“Then I found out again from a friend of the family, whose son also takes piano from me, that it was confirmed today that he was one of the two victims.”

Poppy said the boy had recently started taking piano lessons with him.

“He had only sort of just started, so he had a few lessons… but like with all my students, I always sort of do a meet and greet first and make sure that it’s going to be a right fit for the student and the parents and everything and so I got to know him through sort of the meet and greet more than his lessons, but he was just really bright and incredibly talkative… asked lots of really great questions, like a really cool, sort of inquisitive mind, and obviously talented

musically.”

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/01/27/family-mourn-treasured-son-and-beloved-nai-nai-killed-in-welcome-bay-landslide/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Foreign Affairs Minister says the US President’s invitation for Christopher Luxon to join the Board of Peace for Gaza is a “multi-faceted” issue and requires a “measured look”.

No decision has been made yet regarding the invite, but Winston Peters says advice from his ministry is being prepared “as we speak”.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said last week he welcomed the beginning of the next phase of the peace plan for Gaza and would give the invite “due consideration”.

Speaking to reporters on the first day of Parliament, Peters said there hadn’t been a chance yet for him to discuss the invite with Luxon.

But he said the government was going to sit down and “dispassionately discuss” the issue in its entirety and what it might mean.

“Because it’s not just a small issue, it’s a multi-faceted issue, and we need to take a quite measured look at it.”

Asked whether he’d requested advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peters said “of course, they’re busy working on it as we speak”.

“I’ve asked them for a comprehensive paper covering all issues they can imagine.”

A draft charter for the organisation, which will be chaired by Trump, has been sent to a number of world leaders – including Canada’s Mark Carney, Australia’s Anthony Albanese, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Opposition leaders have condemned the invite, with Labour leader Chris Hipkins labelling the government’s so-far refusal to rule out joining the Board an “absolute disgrace”.

He said the fact Luxon was leaving the possibility open was “embarrassing for New Zealand”.

Greens-co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick had written to the Prime Minister on Monday, urging Luxon to “publicly and unequivocally reject this invitation”.

“It is critical that New Zealand joins like-minded nations, such as France, in rejecting the Board and defending the United Nations framework,” the letter read.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Thames Coromandel’s local State of Emergency ends at noon tomorrow, and the mayor told RNZ at this point it is unlikely to be extended.

However, as the district tried to dry out it had challenges ahead, including two major slips on its main state highway and 63 storm-damaged homes.

Claire Steer, chair of Pāuanui Neighbourhood Support said the sun was shining today and things were getting back to normal after the recent storm.

“During the weather event last week we had a tremendous amount of rain, in fact probably more rain than we had at Gabrielle, but we were very very lucky we didn’t have the wind that accompanied Gabrielle, so the amount of damage wasn’t as bad initially,” she said.

Pāuanui was flooded in for a time, and three houses had been red stickered.

Steer said being a sandspit the water had drained away easily, roads were now open, and locals had shown up for each other.

“The community’s been amazing in that we’ve had just huge amounts of offers for temporary accommodation to help the local people,” she said.

Across the river mouth from Pāuanui, Mt Paku faced a bigger clean up with a major landslip taking out a home and cutting the main water pipe into the community.

Resident John Drummond lived two houses away and had been keeping a close eye on the slip.

“Over the last few days, the slip has pretty much remained where it was – although a few smaller bits of trees and land have slipped down the face,” he said.

Drummond said the council was very quick to get the water back on, clear a way through the road and make sure the community was ok.

“The road down below has been cleared, the neighbouring properties are busily tidying up their properties and with the sun coming out it’s all starting to look a whole lot better,” he said.

Higher up the Peninsula at Cooks Beach, water was still ponding and smaller slips were being cleared.

Mercury Bay South Residents and Ratepayers Association chair, Paul Hopkins, said he would like to see small communities given more authority and agency to clean up after events.

“I think every small centre should have a designated group that actually gets in and can help out, it should be communities that fix problems not necessarily relying on your local council,” he said.

Hopkins said what might seem like a small low-priority slip to council can really affect locals who currently were discouraged from clearing these themselves.

Thames Coromandel District mayor Peter Revell said all local roads were open and no community was still cut off.

But two major slips on the main road, Highway 25, remain and one was particularly challenging.

“The one south of Whangamata blocking the road between Whangamata and Waihi is massive and is going to take longer and at this stage I’m not sure NZTA is even putting an estimated date on when that might be cleared,” he said.

These slips would be causing problems for local residents who were no longer trapped but were inconvenienced.

“If you live in Whangamata and you were wanting to go for instance to Tauranga you can’t just drop down and go through Waihi you need to come up and go across State Highway 25A and then head your way back down,” he said.

Revell said it could take the rest of the week to complete rapid building inspections, checking in on storm-damaged homes.

As of today, nine homes had been red stickered (no one should enter), 24 yellow stickered (residents have limited supervised access only), and 30 white (safe to occupy).

He said everyone was out of those homes and were safe.

“The places which are being placarded are a mix of permanent residences and holiday homes, the impact would not be the same as if they were all residential properties,” said Revell.

Today, Prime Minister Chris Luxon announced the government was adding $1.2 million to the five mayoral relief funds in affected regions.

Revell encouraged people affected by the storm to look into applying.

“That fund is for people to be able to apply and just get a little bit of financial help that they might need at this stage,” he said.

As people take stock and the clean up continues, local MP Scott Simpson said everyone is hoping for a few dry weeks ahead.

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/01/27/coromandels-ongoing-recovery-as-state-of-emergency-comes-to-an-end/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The number of yellow-legged hornet queens found in Auckland has risen to 45 – 32 of them with nests.

Biosecurity New Zealand said it had an excellent response from the public, with 10,270 notifications of suspected sightings.

Even though only a small number of them were actually hornets, the organisation urged Aucklanders to stay on the lookout.

It expected to find more this summer and there were dozens of traps around the city, mostly on the North Shore.

Biosecurity teams were also attaching tiny trackers onto worker hornets to try to lead them to nests.

The hornets had only been found in Auckland.

Biosecurity NZ believed it was unlikely they were outside of the city.

The hornets were a risk to bee populations – they eat them but could also compete with them food if they became established.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Woolworths says its supermarket in Te Awamutu closed briefly on Tuesday afternoon after diesel fumes entered the rear storeroom while the sprinkler system and generator were being tested.

A spokesperson said staff working in the affected area were assessed by ambulance staff and no further treatment was required.

They said no customers were impacted and the store is now trading as usual.

“A full investigation will be conducted to prevent a recurrence of this type of incident. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience and any alarm caused,” the spokesperson said.

Fire and Emergency said two trucks attended the callout to the supermarket shortly after 2.30pm and cleared the store for re-opening by 3pm.

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/01/27/woolworths-te-awamutu-supermarket-closed-briefly-due-to-diesel-fumes/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A woman who arrived at Christchurch Hospital’s emergency department in acute pain died the next day after staff missed signs she had sepsis.

The 65-year-old patient died of urosepsis, a life-threatening complication of a urinary tract infection, in January 2022.

In a report released on Tuesday, deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Carolyn Cooper said the hospital failed to provide reasonable care, making “severe departures from standard practice”.

“I concur that there was a failure to recognise urosepsis in a timely way, which subsequently led to a lack of appropriate treatment being provided to [the woman],” she said.

Health NZ completed an adverse event review (AER) into the woman’s care and also found delays in the recognition and treatment of urosepsis.

The report said the woman had a history of high blood pressure and Crohn’s disease, with a previous bowel resection, small bowel obstructions and a kidney stone.

The woman was diagnosed with renal colic after being assessed in the ED and given pain relief.

She was then transferred to the hospital’s urology unit.

The report said the woman was experiencing prolonged hypotension by the next morning.

“Throughout the day, [the woman] received intravenous fluid boluses as the primary intervention for her hypotension. However, her [blood pressure] did not respond to this adequately,” the report said.

“The AER found that a lack of response or improvement from the fluid should have triggered a challenge of the diagnosis and consideration of other possible differential diagnoses or causes. However, this did not occur.”

Medical reviews at the time suggested the woman’s hypotension may have been due to the effects of the pain relief.

Clinicians noted the woman was “chirpy and chatty” throughout the day and that she did not have a fever but clinical notes also recorded instances of the woman shivering, a symptom of sepsis, the report said.

“The AER found that clinical staff exhibited anchoring bias – that is, there was an over-reliance on the absence of a fever, which normally is present in urosepsis, despite the lack of improvement over the day,” the report said.

“While the nurse in charge, the house officer, and the registrar were informed of [the woman’s] deterioration, there is no evidence of a senior medical officer consultation (after the initial ward round at 8am), consideration of involvement of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) team, or a rapid response call being made when [the woman’s] observations were in the red and blue zone, as required by the mandatory escalation pathway.”

The deputy commissioner found an “early warning score” chart had several incomplete observations throughout the day, with the total score also not recorded, which was not in line with Health NZ policy.

Cooper criticised Health NZ’s failure to follow its mandatory escalation and urosepsis policies and the renal colic protocol.

“Had these policies been adhered to, the delay in the diagnosis of urosepsis may have been avoided,” she said.

Cooper recommended Health NZ Waitaha Canterbury apologise to the woman’s family.

She also recommended developing an education and training plan for staff around diagnosing urosepsis and the importance of medical documentation.

Health NZ told the commissioner it had changed its renal colic protocols to highlight the need to consider an alternative diagnosis, run an education refresher on sepsis and run an education session for urology nurses.

In a statement, Health New Zealand chief medical officer Te Waipounamu Alan Pithie said patient safety and quality of care was a top priority.

“On behalf of Health New Zealand, we would like to say how sorry we are for what happened and extend our sincerest condolences to the patient’s family and friends for the loss of their loved one. We are deeply sorry for the distress caused and recognise that the patient’s death in 2022 has had, and continues to have, a profound and long-lasting impact,” he said.

“We acknowledge the deputy commissioner’s findings and have provided the family with a written apology. We have also implemented changes to improve our services including amending the renal colic clinical pathway for care, rolling out a national sepsis action plan, and updating processes for recording clinical information on deteriorating patients.

“Work is also underway to implement refresher education for urology nursing staff on early warning scores (EWS) and adding more functionality to the digital adult EWS pathway.”

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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/2026/01/27/woman-dies-after-christchurch-hospital-staff-missed-signs-of-sepsis-hdc-report-says/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A cordon is up and armed police are in the suburb of Awapuni in Palmerston North while armed officers search for person who fled police after their vehicle’s tyres were spiked.

The police said they were told about a stolen vehicle on Main Street, Roslyn, at about midday.

It was spotted on a nearby street and officers watched the vehicle before deploying road spikes.

The driver then fled on foot, and police are trying to find them.

A gun was found in the abandoned vehicle.

A cordon is up on Alexander Street, and the public is being asked to avoid the area.

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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/2026/01/27/avoid-the-area-armed-police-search-for-driver-who-fled-stolen-vehicle/

Source: Radio New Zealand

More than 10,000 more withdrawals were made from KiwiSaver for hardship reasons last year than in 2024, and providers say there’s no sign of the rate slowing.

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

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

In 2024, there were 47,390 hardship withdrawals to a total of $403.8m

Dean Anderson, founder of Kernel, said it showed the two-speed economic recovery that New Zealand was experiencing.

The level of first-home withdrawals up a third year-on-year for the month in December, while hardship withdrawals were up 12 percent.

“On one end, sustained economic pressures, both at the household level and business level – such as in the hospitality sector – have forced Kiwis who’ve exhausted other means to tap their retirement savings just to get by,” he said.

“On the other end, three years of falling house prices, plus price stabilisation through 2025, and falling interest rates have opened the door for first-home buyers – many now in their mid-to-late 30s with a decade-plus in the workforce and substantial KiwiSaver balances built up.

“Combined with government first-home support, KiwiSaver is proving a key deposit tool, and we should expect these withdrawals to keep rising as balances grow… The data underlines that KiwiSaver is serving a dual role – supporting home ownership and acting as a financial release valve for those under pressure – but that growth masks a deeper trade-off: every dollar withdrawn today is a dollar not compounding for retirement.”

Pie Funds’ chief executive Ana-Marie Lockyer said there had been no meaningful slowdown in hardship withdrawals.

“The number of approved applications has remained relatively static over the past year rather than trending down.

“That suggests financial pressure is still present for a consistent group of members, even as broader economic indicators begin to stabilise. While we’re not seeing an acceleration, we also aren’t seeing clear signs of easing yet.”

Koura founder Rupert Carlyon said he expected the rate of withdrawals to continue.

“I think there’s three things. There’s clearly the economic climate, which is making life difficult for people. I think you’ve got larger balances, which mean that people all of a sudden are starting to think about it a whole lot more.

“And then the third thing is there’s a greater awareness that you can actually make withdrawals.”

He said a big question would be whether, if there was a shift to make KiwiSaver compulsory or add incentives, the rules on withdrawals had to be tightened.

“At the moment it’s a voluntary saving scheme without any incentive, so you kind of go ‘it’s people’s money’. It’s kind of hard to argue that they can’t get it out for all this stuff. If we move into a different type of scheme, which I think is what a lot of people are starting to talk about, then yeah, what happens to all these withdrawals?”

Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson said the data showed that more New Zealanders were having to dip into KiwiSaver to deal with immediate financial pressure.

“Households are clearly under strain, but early withdrawals come at a real long-term cost because people lose the compounding investment gains that help fund a decent retirement. KiwiSaver is designed to support people later in life, so accessing it early should remain a last resort.

“Our 2025 Review of Retirement Income Policies highlighted that New Zealand still lacks consistent data on the range of reasons why these withdrawals are happening. Without better information, it’s difficult to design targeted solutions to try to reduce hardship withdrawals and improve financial resilience. Better data collection is essential if we’re to protect New Zealanders’ long-term retirement outcomes.”

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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/2026/01/27/kiwisaver-withdrawals-surge-in-2025/

Source: Radio New Zealand

The health watchdog has criticised inadequate staffing at Ōamaru Hospital’s emergency department after investigating the death of an elderly woman.

The 93-year-old was given the wrong amount of saline as a result of a prescribing error in November 2023.

Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Carolyn Cooper said while she was concerned about the care provided to the woman after multiple errors by different staff, a postmortem found the prescribing error did not cause her death.

“While I acknowledge that individual staff were involved, I consider that the workload at the time meant that staff could not carry out their respective roles adequately,” she said.

Cooper found Waitaki District Health Services, which managed the hospital at the time, bore the responsibility of ensuring safe staffing and had breached the woman’s right to health care that minimised the potential harm and optimised her quality of life.

“I am critical that the ED (emergency department) did not have adequate staffing levels to manage high patient numbers and that this had an impact on the standard of care provided to Mrs A by multiple staff,” she said.

Cooper recommended Waitaki District Health Services apologise to the woman’s family and noted the organisation had continued to recruit and employ more staff and boosted training for nursing staff on the infusion of IV fluids.

She said Waitaki had guidelines in place relating to saline but steps had been taken to make the information more widely available.

A sole doctor on a busy emergency department night shift

The woman was seen by a hospital doctor who diagnosed her with pneumonia, urinary retention and severe hyponatraemia, or abnormally low sodium levels in her blood, in November 2023.

He prescribed her 100ml of three per cent saline at a rate of 200ml per hour before his shift finished and a different doctor took over her care.

Waitaki District Health Services acknowledged to the commissioner that the emergency department was busy.

“Dr C was the sole doctor covering Ōamaru Hospital on night shift and was responsible for all ED patients, the acute medical/ward patients, arranging transfers, speaking to consultants at Dunedin Hospital, and taking phone calls from nursing homes, as Ōamaru Hospital provides all urgent care to the region after hours,” the report said.

A registered nurse found a 1000ml bag and showed it to a nursing student, who told him the chart was wrong and it should read 1000ml not 100ml.

The night shift doctor prescribed a 1000ml bag to run over 10 hours because he believed it was a more cautious approach and asked for her levels to be checked in a few hours.

The doctor acknowledged he was not overly familiar with prescribing the saline solution and told the commissioner that there were no hospital guidelines and staff had not raised any concerns about his decision.

Staff noted there was an audible crackle while she was breathing but her condition did not appear to have deteriorated and she was alert.

It was not until the night shift doctor checked her sodium levels just before the morning handover that he realised the rise was too rapid, telling nurses to stop her fluids immediately.

When her original doctor arrived at work, he realised the error and started reversing the sodium correction but the woman soon became unresponsive and died.

A postmortem found she died from pneumonia and sepsis and the sodium correction had not been too rapid.

Cooper raised concerns about the night shift doctor’s actions because he prescribed the larger saline bag despite being unfamiliar with the solution and did not look up the hospital’s guidelines.

“Severe hyponatraemia in a severely ill elderly respiratory patient is such a red flag, and ultimately Mrs A’s care was the responsibility of Dr C despite his suggestion that staff did not raise concerns on reading his prescription,” she said.

Cooper said the woman’s treatment was a moderate departure for the accepted standard of care because the prescribing error was not responsible for her death and the workload was “at the limit of what can be considered safe”.

She also criticised the shift leader and nursing student who administered the dose despite concerns the prescription was incorrect, saying the shift leader did not adequately supervise the student.

Cooper found the woman’s deteriorating condition might have been noticed earlier if her vitals had been better assessed and documented.

She recommended Health New Zealand Southern, which took over operations at Ōamaru Hospital in July 2024, provide training for emergency department staff and rural hospitals on managing abnormally low sodium levels, update the commissioner on staffing levels, confirm different saline bags were kept in separate places and show it was improving its documentation.

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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/2026/01/27/poor-staffing-criticised-for-death-of-elderly-woman-in-oamaru/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Conservation lovers glued to a black and white livestream from a remote island off the coast of New Zealand on Sunday can safely claim to be the only people to have seen a critically endangered kākāpō lay an egg in real time.

The images beamed to the world from a large cavity beneath a rātā tree on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island showed 23-year-old Rakiura laying her second egg of the season, the product of a dalliance with Kōmaru a week earlier.

The pair are among just 236 of the flightless parrots alive.

More than than 20,000 people have tuned in to watch Rakiura in her nest since the feed went live on 23 January.

Kākāpō only breed every two to four years and this year’s season could the best yet following a bumper mast, or mass fruiting of rimu berries.

They are predominately based on Whenua Hou, three kilometres west of Stewart Island/Rakiura, with two other breeding populations on Fiordland’s Pukenui/Anchor Island and Te Kākāhu/Chalky Island.

Department of Conservation (DOC) ranger Jake Osborne told RNZ’s Kākāpō Files podcast that monitoring technology allowed experts to keep an eye on the eggs and learn more about the elusive parrot’s nesting behaviour.

While Rakiura has returned to the same nest in each of the past seven breeding seasons, the only way to confirm she would commit this year was to wait to see if she would lay her first egg there.

He said DOC staff and volunteers were able to watch that happen on 22 January.

“We’ve all been quite thrilled to be able sit and watch her in her natural nesting behaviour and for the first time we think for anyone alive today, [watch her] lay a couple of eggs. It’s pretty cool to see in full high definition,” he said.

Rakiura’s livestream did not go live until the following day, though the footage of her first egg can be seen here.

She laid another egg on on 25 January.

Kākāpō have been known to lay five eggs but Rakiura has more commonly had two to four egg clutches, usually laid about three days apart.

After mating with Kōmaru on 15 January, she was artificially inseminated on 21 January.

Osborne said getting the monitoring and streaming equipment to the remote island sanctuary was no easy task and involved a lot of effort and trial and error.

“It’s one thing to get a camera to work, it’s another thing to keep the camera working in an environment like that, with a stable connection to get enough power to run it all night and all day requires a lot of solar power, some pretty big batteries, some computers, routers, all sorts of things that let us monitor it remotely,” he said.

Osborne said Rakiura’s nest is down a dark valley, making solar power impossible, so the equipment is powered from a hill top 300 metres away.

This year’s live stream set up involved four solar panels, 26kg of batteries, 300m of cable, satellite internet, routers, voltage converters and more.

Kākāpō have also been transferred to Pukenui/Anchor Island and Te Kākāhu/Chalky Island in southwest Fiordland, Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari in Waikato, North Island, and Coal Island/Te Puka-Hereka. Once abundant, by the late 1800s the birds had come under attack from humans and pests.

An early bid to preserve the kākāpō saw several hundred relocated to predator-free Resolution Island in Fiordland, then wiped out when stoats arrived just years later.

By the mid-1900s, only a few birds survived in the most isolated parts of the country, according to a DOC history of efforts to save the world’s heaviest parrot.

By the late 1970s, multiple expeditions had turned up just two dozen of the birds in Fiordland, all male, but the discovery of a large population on Rakiura Stewart Island in 1977 has formed the basis of conservation efforts since.

The birds were initially evacuated to three offshore island sanctuaries, Codfish Island/Whenua Hou, Te Hoiere/Maud Island and Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island to stem attacks from feral cats which were decimating the colony.

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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/2026/01/27/endangered-kakapo-lays-eggs-in-anticipated-livestream-2/