Repaired Lake Ferry Road at Turanganui River bridge.Supplied
The South Wairarapa District Council is delivering supplies by helicopter to more than 200 people still cut off on the southern coastline.
The bridge to Lake Ferry was reopened Wednesday evening, freeing roughly 70 people who had been cut off by storms.
Wairarapa emergency management controller Simon Taylor estimated another 200 people were still cut off in Ngawi, and another 30 were stuck in Whāngaimoana.
“We’re actually using helicopters to get the food in, and some of it is just estimates because we’re talking to people within these areas but there are a couple of areas, like Whāngaimoana, that I believe don’t have mobile coverage at the moment,” he told RNZ shortly after helicopters had left to deliver food on Wednesday evening.
“We’re just trying to get in there and start the process of understanding their welfare needs, but we are bringing food with us.”
Once council staff got into the cut off areas, he expected the number of damaged properties to spike.
“While the number seems small at the moment, we’re talking less than a dozen [damaged homes], we still haven’t had access to a number of our communities and that’s where we believe the number is going to increase,” he said.
“We’re still concerned there’s a number of homes that are damaged but we just can’t get to them.”
Taylor said an engineer had visited the bridge to Ngawi and the council was waiting on a report.
“We had an engineer in [Wednesday morning] looking at the bridge leading in Ngawi … We are still waiting just to confirm the structural integrity of the bridge before we can make a decision on whether it reopens or not,” he said.
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The Chief Victims Advisor says there needs to be an independent investigation into historical allegations of sexual abuse at St Bede’s College.
The Christchurch boys’ school is conducting its own investigation, but Ruth Money says that is like marking its own homework.
A man who was sexually abused by a priest at the school says he doesn’t see how the college can conduct its own internal investigation.
RNZ earlier revealed that former priest Rowan Donoghue had admitted sexually abusing four boys at the school between 1996 and 2000.
On Wednesday, RNZ revealed that another priest, former rector Fr Brian Cummings, was also accused of abuse by three different complainants in 1996, 2014 and 2023. Cummings, who died in 2022, “strenuously denied” the allegations.
* Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz
The school has confirmed to RNZ it is investigating what was known historically and how the matters were addressed. That work is being led by the current board and rector Jon McDowall.
Chief Victims Advisor Ruth Money told RNZ there should be an independent investigation.
“What concerns me the most is the fact that people do not take this issue seriously, and they continue to think that they can investigate themselves.
“There should be a specialist investigation with safeguarding principles applied, not me marking my own homework.”
She said the school had “lost the trust and confidence of the community and certainly the victims and survivors.”
“There should be sexual violence experts involved to help the community through it, as well as the school through it.
“For me, as the Chief Victim Advisor to the government, I see this time and time again in education, and this is what I am worried about at a system level.
“Sexual violence is an epidemic, and we need to do whatever we can to prevent it as a community, and that’s my concern… certainly best practice is that an expert is involved. It is independently investigated, but also support for the survivors, for the ex pupils and current pupils, for the school community, that needs to be done by experts, and that is not the school’s job.”
A man who was sexually abused by Donoghue told RNZ he also believed there should be an independent investigation.
“Due to the information that has come out in the media over the last few weeks, I can’t see how either St Bedes or the Society of Mary believe they have the remit to conduct their own internal investigation.
“If they had a genuine commitment to supporting the victims, as they’ve stated in every single comment they’ve released, then I would expect nothing less than an external inquiry. I personally wouldn’t believe any of the findings from an internal investigation, and doing so would no doubt discourage other potential victims who’ve not yet come forward, from doing so”.
RNZ asked McDowall for comment on the calls for an independent investigation.
He said he understood why there were “strong views about how this should be addressed”.
“Trust in this process matters.
“I was not at the College when these matters arose and had no involvement in the decisions of that period. That allows me to approach this work independently. My highest priority is ensuring we fully understand what occurred, support those impacted, and respond appropriately.”
The college has, for many years, had established processes for responding to complaints concerning clergy at the college, McDowall said.
“Some of those matters are subject to ongoing legal proceedings, and we are therefore limited in what we can say publicly.
“It is important to me that anyone who may have been impacted feels heard and supported. I have written directly to our Old Boys and publicly extended an open invitation for any person who may have been affected to contact me personally. Concerns raised will be addressed in accordance with school policy.
“Any form of abuse and any failure to address it is simply wrong. As Rector of St Bede’s, I continue to invite anyone who is impacted by this matter, or who has concerns, to contact me directly.”
A Society of Mary spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday it had records of three complaints of sexual abuse against Cummings from three complainants.
“They were received in 1996, 2014 and in 2023; the third came after he had died. All related to his time at St Bede’s College. Cummings strenuously denied the accusations in 1996 and 2014.
“The first two complaints were investigated by police and the Society of Mary. Police took no action on either complaint. The third complaint was investigated by the Church.”
McDowall earlier told RNZ the school was aware of allegations against Cummings.
“Those allegations are working through a process and we are not able to offer any further comment at this time.”
He said he found the matters “distressing”.
“Any form of abuse is unacceptable, regardless of when it occurred or whether it involved one individual or many.
“I was not in this role at the time these matters arose. My responsibility now is to ensure we respond with clarity, care and integrity.”
He said work was under way to understand what was known historically and how those matters were addressed.
“That work is being led by the current boards and myself.
“Some historical allegations were previously subject to investigation. Where new information comes to light, we encourage it to be brought forward and addressed through the appropriate channels.
“What matters most is that anyone impacted feels supported and heard. We are committed to ensuring concerns are addressed appropriately, with care, integrity and accountability.”
He said the school today operated with “clear safeguarding expectations, strong oversight, and a culture where student well-being comes first”.
“Abuse has no place at St Bede’s – past, present or future.”
New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott reacts in the snowboard women’s slopestyle final run 3 during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park, in Livigno (Valtellina), on February 18, 2026.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has won silver in the women’s Snowboard Slopestyle event, in a final run that left viewers on the edges of their seats.
The win secures New Zealand’s third medal of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
After topping the qualifying round, Sadowski-Synnott was up last in the line-up of 12 women. Her run one score of 73.01 immediately took her to third place, despite coming off early on one of the rails.
She dropped to fourth during round two, where she remained after her 77.61-scoring run when, despite some impressive jumps, she again came off early on the second rail.
However, the 24-year-old managed to turn the competition around in her last attempt, with a clean run bringing her up to second place with a score of 87.48 – just 0.35 points behind Japan’s Mari Fukada, who took home gold.
The win marks Sadowski-Synnott’s fifth Olympic medal.
New Zealand’s Dane Menzies falls as he competes in the snowboard men’s slopestyle final run 2 during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park, in Livigno (Valtellina), on February 18, 2026.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Earlier, Dane Menzies missed out on a medal in the men’s Snowboard Slopestyle final.
The 20-year-old from Wanaka was also 12th in the line-up after placing first in the qualifier, and got off to a strong start.
Run one earned him a solid score of 76.10, his best in the event, but run two saw him drop to fifth place with a score of 21.03.
Menzies was unable to up his score with a clean run on his last attempt, scoring 34.61, leading to a seventh place finish.
He only needed another three points to crack the top three.
China’s Su Yiming won the event with a top score of 82.41.
New Zealand has now secured three medals in this year’s games.
Winston Peters has been accused of “pure racism” in Parliament by Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who has called out National ministers for failing to combat or challenge it.
The Greens say Peters is scapegoating migrants, while ACT’s David Seymour — his own Cabinet colleague — says Peters is simply seeking attention.
The condemnation came following Parliament’s Question Time yesterday when the NZ First leader singled out a Green MP for his Rarotongan heritage.
Green MP Teanau Tuiono had used the word “Aotearoa” to refer to New Zealand while asking questions about climate aid in the Pacific.
It prompted Peters to interrupt: “Why is [the minister] answering a question from someone who comes from Rarotonga to a country called New Zealand . . . ”
Speaker Gerry Brownlee cut him off to object to noise from other MPs in the debating chamber.
Hipkins then leapt to his feet: “Members in this House are equal. For a member of the House to stand up and question whether someone is entitled to ask a question because of their country of origin is pure racism, and you should’ve stopped him in the beginning.”
Brownlee said he did not hear Peters’ remark, but would review the transcription later.
Peters then completed his question, asking why somebody from Rarotonga had decided “without any consultation with the New Zealand people” to change the country’s name.
In response, Brownlee said that was “not an acceptable question at all”.
“I want that to be the last time that those sort of questions are directed so personally at members of this House,” Brownlee said.
Tuiono has both Māori and Cook Islands Māori heritage but was born in New Zealand.
Hipkins calls out ‘ugly side’ to politics In a speech to Parliament shortly later, Hipkins decried an “ugly side to New Zealand politics”, calling out “outright race-baiting” and “direct racism” being expressed in the debating chamber.
“Attacks on our Chinese and Asian communities in New Zealand, attacks on our Indian communities in New Zealand, and just today, attacks on whether those who have Pasifika heritage are entitled to ask questions in this house.
“And what have we heard from the government side on those attacks? Absolutely nothing.”
Hipkins said National ministers needed to “combat and challenge that racism” during this year’s election campaign, saying it was “totally unacceptable” for them to “say nothing and do nothing”.
“They are quite happy to stand by while members of their own government attack our Chinese community, our Indian community, our Pasifika community, migrants to New Zealand who work damn hard and contribute to New Zealand, and it’s an absolute disgrace.”
Hipkins said government ministers should celebrate diversity and not cast aspersions on it.
Speaking to reporters later, Hipkins said Peters’ behaviour “had no place in government and Parliament” — but he still would not say whether Labour would be prepared to work with NZ First after the election.
“I’m going make judgements about those things closer to the election, but I’ll call out bad behaviour when I see it.”
Greens call Peters ‘Temu Trump’ Addressing reporters outside Parliament, Tuiono said Peters was using “culture wars” to distract from the real harm he was causing New Zealanders.
“Just like Trump, he’s not very good with geography,” he said. “He just needs to get an atlas. A bilingual one preferably.”
His Green colleague Ricardo Menéndez March said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had failed to show leadership by allowing Peters — “a Temu Trump” — to spread anti-migrant sentiment.
“It’s migrant scapegoating . . . it’s emboldens people outside of these four walls who wish to cause harm on our migrant communities,” Menéndez March said.
Speaking afterwards, ACT leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said he would never make such comments but would leave others to judge them for themselves.
“Do I like those comments? No. Would I make those comments? No. But I think if we all go on a 2019-style witch-hunt, we’re actually just fuelling it,” he said.
“If we all get ourselves in a lather, giving them the attention that they want, then that’s just as bad.”
‘Utter nonsense’ claim In response, Peters told reporters Hipkins was talking “utter nonsense” and he did not care about Seymour’s views.
“How can somebody from another country who’s come to New Zealand decide to change my country’s name?” Peters said.
When told that Tuiono was actually born in New Zealand, Peters said, regardless, the Green MP claimed to be a “Cook Islander”.
“I would never go to the Cook Islands and start changing their name, would I?”
Peters said he was regularly being “literally mobbed” by New Zealanders on matters like the use of the word Aotearoa.
“I’m not indulging fools here. Let me tell you something: stand back and watch the polls go.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
New Zealand’s Dane Menzies falls as he competes in the snowboard men’s slopestyle final run 2 during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park, in Livigno (Valtellina), on February 18, 2026.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Dane Menzies has missed out on a medal in the Snowboard Slopestyle final at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
The New Zealander was 12th in the line-up and got off to a strong start.
Run one earned him a solid score of 76.10, but run two saw him drop to fifth place.
Menzies was unable to up his score with a clean run on his last attempt, leading to a seventh place finish.
He only needed another three points to crack the top three.
The women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final, where Zoi Sadowski-Synnott will bid for another medal, is due to kick off at Thursday 2.30am NZT.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Designed as the next milestone in Infinix’s flagship journey, the NOTE 60 SERIES elevates the brand’s signature NOTE line with a sharper focus on flagship-class performance, expressive design, and immersive everyday experiences that go beyond expectations.
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 18 February 2026 – At its annual flagship showcase, Infinix today unveiled the NOTE 60 SERIES, featuring the NOTE 60 Pro and NOTE 60—demonstrating a new chapter in delivering premium technology experiences to global users.
Infinix NOTE 60 Pro
Advancing design and performance within its class, the NOTE 60 Pro marks a significant milestone as Infinix’s first smartphone built on the Snapdragon® 7s Gen 4 Mobile Platform, delivering exceptional responsiveness and seamless multitasking that befits flagship-level performance.
It further elevates everyday experiences with an avant-garde Active Matrix Display that stays invisible when inactive, yet transforms into a dynamic interface for personalized interactivity, intelligent notifications, and on-screen entertainment—expanding what a smartphone can do in everyday life. Paired with a fluid 144Hz 1.5K Ultra HDR Cinematic Display and immersive SOUND BY JBL, the NOTE 60 Pro sets a new benchmark for premium multimedia experiences within its segment, proving that exceptional technology can be both powerful and pleasurable.
“NOTE 60 SERIES is our annual flagship showcase—an ‘all‑out’ blockbuster created with industry leaders,” said Tony Zhao, CEO of Infinix. “Embracing a whole-series 5G strategy, we are bringing together the best of performance, design, and entertainment—from our first NOTE powered by Snapdragon from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., to premium design craftsmanship with Pininfarina, and immersive SOUND BY JBL. This ensures we deliver a pleasurable, fun experience that lets our global consumers actively enjoy the best modern technology.”
Performance Without Compromise with Snapdragon
The NOTE 60 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon® 7s Gen 4 Mobile Platform, delivering robust multitasking and exceptional gaming efficiency with up to 75%¹ faster CPU performance and 210%¹ improved GPU rendering compared to the NOTE 50 Pro. Infinix and Qualcomm Technologies have collaborated for the NOTE 60 Pro, integrating Infinix’s proprietary performance engine to fully harness the hardware’s capabilities. These optimizations deliver up to 25%¹ enhancement in multitasking performance, significantly faster app launch speeds, and a smoother, more stable experience when switching between apps during heavy use.
Powered by its strong Snapdragon chipset, the NOTE 60 Pro takes gaming performance even further, delivering smooth high‑frame‑rate gameplay across popular titles. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Honor of Kings run up to 120 FPS, ensuring ultra‑responsive, fluid action even during intense team battles. To maintain consistent performance, the NOTE 60 Pro also introduces an upgraded 3D IceCore Vapor Chamber cooling system featuring a 0.36 mm copper sheet that directs heat from the chipset to the vapor chamber, reducing temperature by up to 3 °C¹ during intense gaming for stable, sustained performance.
Active Matrix Display: Functionality Through Design
Featured on the back of the NOTE 60 Pro, the all-new Active Matrix Display represents a major design innovation for the NOTE SERIES.
This miniature, interactive LED interface stays invisible until activated, then instantly lights up to show smart notifications, animated pets, or mini-games. It enables at-a-glance information, versatile alerts, and moments of playful interaction. Users can personalize it with custom signatures, emojis, or dynamic patterns, giving users a creative outlet to express their personality and emotions, and turning the phone into a more emotionally connected personal companion.
Built around a robust one-piece frame of high-strength aluminum alloy with a refined micro-matte texture, the NOTE 60 Pro delivers a sophisticated, high-end feel while offering durable practicality and dependable IP64 protection² against dust, splashes, and everyday wear. Infinix NOTE 60 SERIES introduces multiple practical functions on the robust middle frame, including the new One‑Tap Button providing instant, customizable activation of Silent Mode or tools like the flashlight. It also features an industry-exclusive Advanced Health Monitor, providing proactive wellness tracking of key vitals like heart rate, blood oxygen, and long-term HRV to deliver actionable health insights.
Immersive Entertainment: A Stunning 1.5K Display Paired with SOUND BY JBL
The NOTE 60 Pro is engineered for an immersive, all-day comfortable audiovisual experience. It features a vivid 1.5K display with ultra-slim bezels, reaching 4500 nits peak brightness for visibility in any light and a 144Hz refresh rate for ultra-smooth visuals. The display is designed for extended viewing comfort, featuring motion sickness prevention technology, which helps users stay comfortable while reading, watching videos, or gaming when commuting or traveling. Last but not least, NOTE 60 Pro is protected by durable Corning® Gorilla® Glass 7i, and this visual excellence is complemented by a high-fidelity stereo sound system with SOUND BY JBL, to complete a truly compelling entertainment experience.
Capture Anything, Day or Night: The Pro-Grade Camera Setup
At the core of the Infinix NOTE 60 Pro’s imaging system is the exclusive 50MP OIS Night Master Camera, engineered to deliver crystal-clear photos and stable videos even in low light. Paired with a 112° ultrawide sensor, the system effortlessly captures everything from expansive landscapes to group portraits.
The device marks a major leap in imaging with Infinix’s first Ultra HDR pipeline, enabling full-chain HDR imaging, from capture and processing to display for brilliant, true-to-life photos. This high-end shooting mode preserves details in shadows and highlights that standard shots often miss, resulting in greater dynamic contrast range and rendering everything from daylight to neon with perfect clarity. Complementing this, the new Live Photo mode captures life as it happens and turns every photo into a vivid, pocket-sized memory.
Rounding out the professional imaging suite are intelligent features like 2x Lossless Portrait Zoom for studio-quality framing, 4K Ultra-Steady Video recording³ with creative filters, and the Infinix AI Studio for effortless, intelligent editing.
All-Day Power, Intelligent Care
The NOTE 60 Pro features a battery capacity up to 6500mAh⁴, a substantial 25%¹ increase over its predecessor. This provides ample power to support all-day browsing, messaging, and gameplay. To ensure power and performance are maintained in the long run, Infinix combines the increased energy density with an industry-first active healing system that automatically repairs internal battery materials in the long term, extending the battery longevity up to 200 cycles over time and ensuring at least 6 years of effective, hassle-free battery performance. The NOTE 60 Pro keeps you charged with 90W wired and 30W wireless⁵ charging. For the fastest wireless experience, an Infinix MagCharge phone case⁵ is included to guarantee perfect alignment. This gives you both the speed and the flexible convenience to power up seamlessly throughout your day.
Infinix NOTE 60: Flagship Implementation with Greater Accessibility
A design similar in high-end refinement to the NOTE 60 Pro’s graces Infinix NOTE 60, another 5G phone featuring a premium metal frame, a 1.5K Ultra HDR display at up to 144Hz, and exceptional battery capacity with advanced charging and longevity management. It’s built around the ultra-efficient MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultimate 5G mobile platform and delivers true 5G performance. The NOTE 60 sports many of the quality features common to the latest NOTE lineup, including Active Halo notification lighting, highly optimized system-level software, and the 3D IceCore Vapor Chamber cooling system. It retains the 50MP OIS Night Master Cam and Live Photo mode of NOTE 60 Pro, promising fun memory capture, editing, organization, and sharing with family, friends, and more.
Beyond “Pro”: Expanding the NOTE 60 SERIES
As a key step in its flagship journey, Infinix also previewed the NOTE 60 Ultra, marking a bold move into the premium segment. Designed by Pininfarina, the NOTE 60 Ultra introduces breakthroughs in form and delivers comprehensive upgrades in imaging, performance, and connectivity—representing the pinnacle of performance and experience within the NOTE 60 SERIES. More details about the NOTE 60 Ultra will be announced at a later date.
Demonstrating Infinix’s commitment to long‑term user support, the entire NOTE 60 SERIES comes equipped with the upgraded XOS 16, offering three generations of XOS platform upgrades and five years of security patches⁶. In addition, the whole series also supports eSIM connectivity⁷, providing users with greater flexibility and convenience in managing their mobile network experience.
Product availability
NOTE 60 Pro is available in five colors:* Mist Titanium, Solar Orange, Deep Ocean Blue, Mocha Brown, Frost Silver, Torino Black (Design by Pininfarina)*
It will be available in three variants:* 8GB + 128GB, 8GB + 256GB, 12GB + 256GB
NOTE 60 is available in five colors:* Mist Titanium, Rose Gold, Fizz Blue, Midnight Black, Mocha Brown
It will be available in two variants:* 8GB + 128GB, 8GB + 256GB
*Availability may vary by country/region. The Turino Black (Design by Pininfarina) will be released at a later date. Please consult local retailers and third-party shopping websites for more purchasing options.
*Available storage and RAM are less than the total memory due to storage of the operating system and software pre-installed on the device.
Price and availability vary between markets and sales channels. Please refer to the Infinix Official website for product availability and detailed regional sales information.
Disclaimer
Snapdragon is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.
¹All data comes from Infinix laboratories. The testing data may vary slightly between different test versions and testing environments.
²The phone is dustproof and splash-proof under normal use. Under controlled laboratory conditions, its performance can reach IP64 level under IEC 60529 standard. Differences exist between real-life scenarios. Any damage caused to the phone by immersion in liquid is not covered under the warranty.
³Record at up to 4K 30 fps, with ultra-steady stabilization and a wide range of creative filters.
⁴Battery capacity and configurations may vary by market.
⁵MagCharge requires using the Infinix-branded magnetic attachment phone case.
⁶The specific XOS upgrade plan for each model will be announced separately. Please note that availability of this upgrade may be limited in certain countries.
⁷eSIM availability is carrier and region-dependent; it may not be supported in all countries.
Hashtag: #Infinix
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
The peninsula remained under a state of emergency although State Highway 75 from Christchurch to Akaroa reopened on Wednesday afternoon and telecommunications were restored after widespread outages.
About 120 properties remained without power and at least 15 local roads were closed because of slips and flooding.
Kinloch farmer Tom Power said the “mental” rain caused the worst flooding he had ever seen.
Kinloch Road farm in Little River was flooded.Nathan Mckinnon
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It was predicted to be 100 millimetres or so and we ended up tipping out 430 millimetres in this catchment. It was chaos,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything through Little River like that before and even up Okuti Valley, properties up there. It’s so widespread, it’s unbelievable.”
Power was dealing with stock losses as paddocks remained under water, with troughs and fences swept away and debris strewn across the property.
“We moved a lot of stock away to traditionally high areas that we’ve never seen go under water. We spent hours doing that beforehand and we were prepared for a lot of it, it was just the severity,” he said.
Flood damage in Little River.Nathan Mckinnon
“We’re still trying to get our head around what the damage is, to be fair, until the water goes away you don’t really know.
“People’s livelihoods have been well and truly affected by this, which is a crying shame.”
In Little River, Déjà New Preloved Goods owner Lisa Ashfield had cleared mud and silt from her shop with the help of firefighters – the second time her business had flooded in 12 months.
Flood damage at Deja New in Little River.Nathan Mckinnon
“I imagine this is probably the end of the shop,” she said.
“All of my furniture, my bookshelves, my storage units, people’s home-made jewellery, toys, books, clothes, furniture. Everything is just a mudbath,” she said.
“I was flooded in May last year, about 300 millimetres, over the top of your gumboots kind of level. This flood, unfortunately, was thigh-deep. All the preparation we did on Monday, raising everything off the floor, just wasn’t high enough,” she said.
Déjà New Preloved Goods Little River owner Lisa Ashfield said she’d been flooded twice in 12 months.Nathan Mckinnon/RNZ
Ashfield was now sorting through stock to work out what to throw in a skip.
Little River Cafe & Store owner Cameron Gordon also spent the day shovelling mud and silt from the building after water gushed in on Tuesday.
He said food from the chiller had to be thrown away and fridges and freezers would need replacing but he hoped to open the store by the end of the day and the cafe by the weekend.
Little River Cafe and Store.Nathan Mckinnon
Gordon was heartened by the support of locals who were helping to clean up the mess.
“They’re pretty keen to get the shop back going and get us up and running again. We got a lot of calls, a lot of messages overnight with people offering help, a lot of tools brought down, water blasters, squeegees and brooms and random people I haven’t met before. It’s great,” he said.
Gordon said the cafe had flooded five times, most recently last May when a foot of water washed through some businesses, but he had never seen flooding so bad in his 20 years living in the settlement.
He said water in Little River drained away quickly once Lake Forsyth was opened to the sea on Tuesday afternoon.
Outside the shop on Wednesday.Nathan Mckinnon
“If it was opened before this I think we would have had a lot less damage and probably a lower level through the building,” he said.
“[The council] seem to have their rules and their guidelines about how they monitor all that but it doesn’t seem to work for us. It seems to be the same story every year, with the same excuses every year as well.”
Living Streams Community Nursery co-ordinator Nicky Steinmetz said raging floodwaters had left a layer of silt over the plants, leaving a months-long clean-up job.
“Most of our volunteers will be really upset about what they see. It’s the small seedlings that will be most impacted, rather than the bigger plants. We’ll be able to wash those down, but it’s going to take forever,” she said.
Flood damage at Little River nursery.Nathan Mckinnon
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell and Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger visited Little River on Wednesday.
Mitchell told RNZ the flooding was worse than in May 2025.
“They’re in the middle of their summer season so we’ve got to do everything we can to support them and get them back on their feet as quickly as we can,” he said.
Boil water notices remained in place for Little River and Wainui.
Mauger said the water supply in Wainui was “absolute toast”.
The clean up inside the Little River Cafe and Store.Nathan Mckinnon
The council had sent Starlink WiFi devices to Akaroa and Wainui, although Chorus found and fixed a damaged fibre cable on a bridge that restored cell tower connections on Wednesday afternoon.
Students on two school trips who were stuck at Wainui and Ōnuku Marae had returned home.
Provisional figures from Earth Sciences New Zealand showed 243 millimetres of rain was recorded at its site in Akaroa in the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday morning.
That was the highest 24-hour rainfall total for Akaroa in the month of February since records began in 1977, the organisation said.
Earth Sciences said Akaroa had received 316 millimetres of rain so far this month, making it the wettest February on record.
A Wellington family has been forced out of their home after a large branch flattened their roof in this week’s vicious storm.
William Ray, an RNZ employee and Johnsonville resident, said his family were lucky to leave when they did, with the branch now precariously leaning against his house.
Ray said his neighbours have five big macrocarpa trees standing at the property’s boundary, and about six branches snapped in fierce winds on Sunday night or Monday morning.
The winds that struck Wellington were the strongest in a decade, tearing down power lines down across paddocks, roads, and over people’s cars and houses.
Wellington resident William Ray said a massive branch flattened the roof of his house during this week’s storm, forcing his family to evacuate.SUPPLIED
Ray said throughout the night he heard the branches overhanging his roof “smacking down” against the house.
“It was like having a machine gun constantly banging against the roof, and I was just lying awake, getting more and more nervous.”
He moved his wife and newborn into the lounge, fearing damage. Thirty minutes later, one massive branch came down.
“There was just this huge crash when it hit the house, the whole house shook.”
Ray said he considered escaping the house with his family during the night, but looked outside to see branches lying either side of the car, realising it would be too dangerous to even run to the car.
The branch went through the roof of the home.SUPPLIED
Waking on the Monday morning Ray found the big branch had flattened the roof over the bedroom, smashing up eaves on one side, and ripping off all the guttering.
Branches were still coming down as Ray inspected the house – including one lying on his front doorstep.
“It very nearly squished me, it was pretty spooky to see.”
An arborist he called in the aftermath inspected the tree and informed Ray the family can’t stay there while it was unstable.
The family would be out of their house for at least a few days.SUPPLIED
Ray said the family was likely out of their house until Monday, and while the incident had been disruptive with a five-month-old, he was thankful to be able to stay with family.
Insurance would likely cover the damage to the house, though Ray was still trying to confirm what would happen with the macrocarpa trees.
“I don’t really know how things work with tree law, I’ve been doing a lot of tree law googling, recently.
“It’s a shame to see the trees go, they’re lovely, beautiful trees but I’m not prepared to get squished by them.”
New integration adds data-centric protection to Temenos Transact, streamlining compliance, secure modernization, and AI analytics.
WIESBADEN, GERMANY – EQS Newswire – 18 February 2026 – comforte AG, a global leader in data-centric security, and ITSS Global, a premier Temenos delivery partner, have announced a collaboration to help retail, commercial and private banks using Temenos Transact eliminate the risks associated with clear-text personally identifiable information (PII) and payment data across core banking systems and their connected environments. As banks accelerate digital transformation and data-driven programs such as fraud prevention and AI, exposure of sensitive data across systems has become a growing concern. Regulators and industry standards worldwide are also raising the bar for how banks protect sensitive data and prove control across connected environments, including PCI DSS, privacy requirements, and resilience expectations. The comforte and ITSS collaboration addresses these challenges with a co-developed solution that extends data protection into Temenos Transact environments without complex customization. Delivered by ITSS as part of its Temenos services, the integration leverages comforte’s TAMUNIO technology for centralized policy management, tokenization, and controlled de-tokenization, keeping sensitive data protected across environments while still supporting reporting, analytics, and downstream processing, including fraud detection workflows and AI-driven insights built on Transact data.
Turning Security into an Enabler “The modern threat landscape demands a shift from securing systems to securing the data itself,” said Henning Horst, CTO at comforte. “Today’s regulators and auditors expect readable data to stay out of places it doesn’t belong. Together with ITSS, we help banks prove that control and move faster on analytics, fraud initiatives, and AI programs using protected data.”
Safe Implementation into Temenos Transact “As banks modernize their Temenos environments, the real security challenge is no longer the perimeter. It is protecting sensitive data as it moves across core systems, analytics platforms, and the cloud,” said Somasundaram M, Regional Sales Director, MEA at ITSS. “Through our partnership with comforte, we enable Temenos clients to embed data-centric tokenization directly into their transformation journeys. This significantly reduces breach exposure, supports compliance with evolving regulatory mandates such as PCI DSS 4.0 and GDPR, and allows banks to adopt cloud, analytics, and AI-driven use cases without compromising data sovereignty or performance.”
To learn more or request a briefing, visit comforte.com. You can alsocontact us via email: sales@comforte.com / marketing@ITSSglobal.com.
Hashtag: #comforteAG
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Artist’s visualisation of a second Mt Victoria Tunnel in Wellington.NZTA / Waka Kotahi
The Transport Minister says holding off on a second Mount Victoria tunnel is something under consideration, if congestion charging shows it is not needed.
But the Finance Minister insists the project is “all go,” with work already underway.
A second tunnel through Mount Victoria was a key 2023 campaign promise from National, and the project made its way into the Roads of National Significance programme.
A second Terrace Tunnel has also been proposed, reserved solely for southbound traffic, while the existing three-lane tunnel would become a dedicated route for northbound traffic only.
The New Zealand Transport Agency estimated the costs of the new tunnels, along with removing parking on Vivian Street, would cost between $2.9 billion and $3.8 billion.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop says a question on whether the Mount Victoria tunnels would be tolled was “complicated” by potential time-of-use pricing.RNZ/Mark Papalii
The National Infrastructure Plan, released on Tuesday, said time of use charging for congested urban networks would encourage people to travel during less congested times or take public transport.
This, the plan said, would reduce delays and improve network performance, but also “defer the need for expensive capacity expansions”.
The government has legislated to implement time-of-use charging, establishing a framework to allow councils to set up a congestion charging scheme.
The plan said New Zealand ranked fourth to last in the OECD for asset management, or the practice of looking after existing infrastructure.
The commission said better understanding of existing assets would help avoiding diverting maintenance spending into new capital investment, to the cost of future generations.
“Reform is needed to better align transport investment with what users can fund, supported by clearer and
more independent oversight to ensure spending is focused on maintaining existing networks and delivering new projects only where they respond to demand and provide clear value for money.”
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said a question on whether the Mount Victoria tunnels would be tolled was “complicated” by potential time-of-use pricing.
“Which is why I’m not getting ahead of any of that. There’s a variety of quite complicated issues around tolling and time-of-use pricing in both Auckland and Wellington, which we’re working our way through, and any decision on that is a long time away.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis says the tunnel has not been cancelled.RNZ / Mark Papalii
Asked whether time of use charging should be used first before committing funds to two tunnels, Bishop said it was an option under consideration and he would have more to say soon.
“I’m not cancelling the tunnel, but we are giving active consideration to what time-of-use pricing might do to our transport projects. You have to factor these things in, because thay are a mechanism for demand management and making more efficient use of our infrastructure, which is exactly what the commission says.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the tunnel had not been cancelled.
“Mount Vic Tunnel is all go. And in fact, work is already underway on that project, which is to say there’s around I think $150 million of geotechnical work underway already, which has involved drills and spades in the ground.”
Willis was more ambiguous when asked whether the second Terrace Tunnel “all go” as well, referring questions back to Bishop.
She said the point the Infrastructure Commission was making was that when deciding how to prioritise, sequence, fund, and finance projects, one of the things to consider was the role of different financing tools like petrol taxes, tolls, and congestion charging.
Wellington mayor Andrew Little said the Mount Victoria tunnel was always the government’s project, so it decides what happens.
“From Wellington’s point of view, what matters most is we have good infrastructure that means people can move around and across the city,” he said.
“What we need most of all is certainty about what the government is doing so that the council and residents can plan with confidence.”
The head of Wellington’s new water entity says it’s still unclear how its takeover of the barely-functional Moa Point wastewater treatment plant will work.
Tiaki Wai replaces Wellington Water from 1 July, inheriting council-owned water assets including the Moa Point plant.
For two weeks, raw sewage has been spewing into the sea after a massive failure at the facility, which is extensively damaged and cannot treat wastewater.
It’s unclear what happened, and when the plant will be fixed. Officials say they can’t give much information, citing the impending Crown review and insurance processes.
During an “Introduction to Tiaki Wai” briefing to Wellington city councillors on Wednesday afternoon, Tiaki Wai chair Will Peet mentioned Moa Point within the first minute and a half of his address.
“The catastrophic failure of the plant is very significant for us as an organisation,” he said, adding that he looked forward to the Crown review.
“We’re very much supportive of getting some interim reporting as the inquiry progresses, I think we want to hear what we can do, and when we can do it.”
Councillor Ray Chung questioned whether Tiaki Wai would hold off taking over Moa Point “until we’ve solved all the problems”.
But Peet said that had not been top of mind.
“The main job is dealing right now with the response and immediate recovery steps, we’ve got four months to work through the particulars.”
Peet said he was confident Tiaki Wai had the “financial ability to work it through”, and he would continue to work with the mayor and council chief executive on a “sensible approach to that”.
“The main thing is that nobody should win or lose based on a change of ownership,” Peet said.
There was little discussion of Moa Point during the meeting – but at the beginning chairperson Nureddin Abdurahman had reminded councillors it was not the focus.
“Today’s focus is on Tiaki Wai, and if you want to ask any question beyond that, be aware of some of the ministerial inquiries that we have as well.”
The public was excluded for the second half hour of the meeting, because commercially sensitive information was being discussed.
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts has announced the appointment of Stuart Calman as New Zealand’s Climate Change Ambassador.
“I am pleased to welcome Stuart to this role, given his expertise in foreign policy, trade and development, along with strong climate policy experience,” Mr Watts says.
“Stuart brings an excellent understanding of opportunities for enhanced cooperation with the Pacific and Southeast Asia. A particular focus in 2026 will be supporting Australia in its role as chair of the UN Climate COP31 negotiations, in partnership with the Pacific. Stuart’s expertise will be beneficial in supporting New Zealand’s economic, trade, and climate goals.”
Mr Calman is a senior diplomat who served as New Zealand’s Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) based in Jakarta from 2022-24. He has held leadership roles in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade with a focus on energy, climate resilience and sustainable economic development in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining the Ministry in 2013, Mr Calman held management roles in the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry of Economic Development, responsible for climate change, energy and environmental policy.
Mr Calman studied Business, Economics and Development at Massey University and his whakapapa includes Ngāti Toa, Raukawa ki te Tonga and Kāi Tahu. He will take up his new, Wellington-based role effective immediately, replacing Stuart Horne who has taken up the role of New Zealand Consul-General in Honolulu.
Mr Calman’s appointment as Climate Change Ambassador starts on Monday 16 February 2026.
Spark saw a net after tax profit of $64 million for the six months ended December.RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
Telecommunications company Spark’s mobile and broadband businesses delivered slight revenue growth over the first half, contributing to an 83 percent increase in net profit.
“The first half of FY26 has delivered a clear step up in Spark’s performance, as we build momentum towards our SPK-30 strategy ambitions,” chair Justine Smyth said.
Key numbers for the six months ended December compared with a year ago:
Smyth said [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/569697/spark-to-sell-75-percent-stake-in-data-centre-to-pacific-equity-partners
proceeds from the sale] of 75 percent of its data centre business, completed 30 January 2026, will be used to reduce debt in the second half of the year ending in June.
The board also reaffirmed Spark’s underlying full year profit guidance in a range of $1.01 billion and and $1.07b.
Spark chief executive Jolie Hodson said growth of its mobile network was the core of its growth strategy, along with remaining competitive, while working to simplify its portfolio of products.
“What I’ve been really pleased about in this first half is the growth we’ve seen in mobile, and that’s core and central to our strategy ahead.
“And that includes both from an investment that we’re making the network, but also the work we’re doing around our customer experience. We’ve reset the business, and it was pleasing to be able to deliver the step-up of performance in first half.”
Amova portfolio manager Michael De Cesare said the result was largely in line with expectations, with the company’s cost cutting programme delivering substantial savings.
“Becoming a leaner operation with improved productivity effectively takes some pressure off the top line performance,” he said.
While Spark delivered slight revenue growth in mobile and broadband, De Cesare said the company had challenges ahead, including the decline of its traditional phone lines and older network services.
Forsyth Barr analyst Ben Crozier said the result was softer than expected though growth in mobile and broadband segments were broadly in line with expectations.
Crozier said the net profit growth was a “meaningful” step-up, but missed its $93m estimate.
Nepal’s government is looking at rules to ensure that only experienced climbers can climb Mount Everest.credit: Nirmal Purja
A Wanaka-based adventure consultant says she agrees that anyone wanting to climb Mount Everest should have previously summited a 7000 metre high mountain at least once.
Nepal’s government is considering the new rule that would require climbers to have previously summited a 7000m high mountain in Nepal before attempting Everest which is 8848m high.
New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people known to reach Everest’s summit in 1953.
But recently the mountain has been been in the spotlight over increasing pollution with discarded climbing gear, tents, oxygen canisters and human waste.
And the traffic jams with climbers literally nose to tail at dangerous pinch points as more people attempt Everest.
Wanaka-based Adventure Consultants takes climbers up Everest and its general manager Caroline Ogle said they had strict rules around who they took to Everest but there was a real mix of people on the mountain.
She said there were some operators, such as hers, which had been on the mountain for many years and ran well-resourced expeditions ensuring that only experienced climbers came onto Everest.
“Unfortunately there are a lot of teams that are a) quite large in size and b) their climbers don’t have necessary experience before heading onto the mountain and those factors combined can mean that people do get into trouble and that’s what you end up seeing in the headlines.”
Adventure Consultants advised anyone who wanted to climb Everest to follow a programme which started with a mountaineering course and to ensure they had a lot of climbing experience either in New Zealand, the European mountains or in the United States, she said.
“So building up experience on multiple 6000 to 7000m peaks and ideally another 8000m peak before going on to Everest.”
But often the climbers do not want to put in the preparation, she said.
“And we often see them turning up on other climbing teams who are just happy to accept their money for a place on their expeditions.”
A lot of people including influencers have been documenting their Everest trips on social media in the last few years with some willing to put in the work and some less so, she said.
Ogle said she agreed that climbers wanting to take on Everest should have climbed a 7000 metre peak at least once.
“But the key caveat here is the proposed regulations require climbers to have climbed that 7000m peak in Nepal, where as lots of climbers who are already on their Everest pathways, they may have climbed a 7000m peak in South America or Kyrgyzstan or even 7000m peaks in Tibet or Pakistan – but under these proposed regulations those would not be applicable.”
That requirement could set back climbers who were wanting to take on Everest and had already climbed a 7000m peak, but just not in Nepal, she said.
“Summiting Everest (is) definitely not a walk in the park, it’s an extremely serious and dangerous mountain and you need to have experience before doing that.”
A Wellington family has been forced out of their home after a large branch flattened their roof in this week’s vicious storm.
William Ray, an RNZ employee and Johnsonville resident, said his family were lucky to leave when they did, with the branch now precariously leaning against his house.
Ray said his neighbours have five big macrocarpa trees standing at the property’s boundary, and about six branches snapped in fierce winds on Sunday night or Monday morning.
The winds that struck Wellington were the strongest in a decade, tearing down power lines down across paddocks, roads, and over people’s cars and houses.
Wellington resident William Ray said a massive branch flattened the roof of his house during this week’s storm, forcing his family to evacuate.SUPPLIED
Ray said throughout the night he heard the branches overhanging his roof “smacking down” against the house.
“It was like having a machine gun constantly banging against the roof, and I was just lying awake, getting more and more nervous.”
He moved his wife and newborn into the lounge, fearing damage. Thirty minutes later, one massive branch came down.
“There was just this huge crash when it hit the house, the whole house shook.”
Ray said he considered escaping the house with his family during the night, but looked outside to see branches lying either side of the car, realising it would be too dangerous to even run to the car.
The branch went through the roof of the home.SUPPLIED
Waking on the Monday morning Ray found the big branch had flattened the roof over the bedroom, smashing up eaves on one side, and ripping off all the guttering.
Branches were still coming down as Ray inspected the house – including one lying on his front doorstep.
“It very nearly squished me, it was pretty spooky to see.”
An arborist he called in the aftermath inspected the tree and informed Ray the family can’t stay there while it was unstable.
The family would be out of their house for at least a few days.SUPPLIED
Ray said the family was likely out of their house until Monday, and while the incident had been disruptive with a five-month-old, he was thankful to be able to stay with family.
Insurance would likely cover the damage to the house, though Ray was still trying to confirm what would happen with the macrocarpa trees.
“I don’t really know how things work with tree law, I’ve been doing a lot of tree law googling, recently.
“It’s a shame to see the trees go, they’re lovely, beautiful trees but I’m not prepared to get squished by them.”
Frederick Wiseman, who died yesterday at the age of 96, was an American filmmaker whose carefully observed works changed documentary cinema forever, shedding light on institutions, individuals and everyday life.
Born into a Jewish family in Boston in 1930, Wiseman studied law at Yale and then taught law at Boston University. At the same time, he was fascinated by documentary cinema, producing The Cool World in 1963, a film directed by Shirley Clarke about a youth gang in Harlem.
While teaching legal medicine, he came across the subject of his first documentary: the Bridgewater State Hospital for the “criminally insane”. This film would eventually become Titicut Follies, released in 1967.
With unflinching realism, the film depicts the stark cells of the inmates, the practises of force feeding and the bullying and apathy of the hospital staff. The film was banned in the United States for 20 years but was shown in Europe to critical acclaim.
Honing an observational style
Titicut Follies kicked off what Wiseman described as his ongoing “institutional series”, which focused on the inner world of American institutions, with films like High School (1968), Law and Order (1969), Hospital (1970) and Welfare (1975).
These films established Wiseman’s trademark approach: no voice-over narration, no interviews, no talking-heads experts, no music and no overt reflections by the filmmaker. Instead, he adopted an observational style, preferring to sit back and watch, allowing the film’s subject matter to emerge organically on camera.
His films were described by critics at the time as “Direct Cinema”, the American wing of the cinema verité movement, a French term meaning “truthful cinema”. He was compared to Direct Cinema filmmakers like Robert Drew – best known for his film Primary (1960), about the Democratic Party primary which elected John F. Kennedy – and D.A. Pennebaker, famous for Don’t Look Back (1967) about Bob Dylan.
While Wiseman rejected the Direct Cinema label, his films shared one very important similarity with this movement. He was deeply influenced by the freedom of using small, lightweight, hand-held cameras and portable sound-recording equipment. This relatively unobtrusive gear allowed Wiseman and his crew to shoot in high-school classrooms and hospital waiting rooms, establishing his trademark “fly on the wall” style.
Wiseman was always aware of the tension between fact and fiction in documentary filmmaking. He described his films as “reality fictions”, insisting his movies had “a dramatic sequence and structure”.
This dramatic structure emerged by paying close attention to what was happening around him when the film was being shot and later in the careful process of editing. “The principal that governs the shooting is chance”, he once said.
His crew would shoot 100 to 150 hours of footage, which was then edited into films often two or three hours long. In the editing room, Wiseman developed the subtle rhythm of his films, rewatching footage for details and connections.
This painstaking editing process often took nine to ten months.
The viewer creates meaning
For most viewers the drama of Wiseman’s films is subtle but enthralling.
In High School, we watch students and teachers go about their daily tasks in the classroom, in detention, and on the sports field. In the final sequence, a teacher reads out a letter from a former student now serving in Vietnam.
This connection between the school and the military-industrial complex is all the more devastating given Wiseman’s lack of overt narration. It is the viewer who makes the connections, creating meaning from the carefully witnessed scenes.
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Unlike many documentarians, like Michael Moore, whose films start out with an explicit agenda, Wiseman’s films have a disarming sense of neutrality.
“I don’t go in with a thesis I try to prove or disprove. The shooting of the film is the research. My response to that experience is what the final film is about.”
Yet his work has a deeply political core, driven by a commitment to questioning the power structures within institutions and investigating their role in shaping American life.
Welfare (1975), considered by many to be his masterpiece, is a deeply moving portrayal of New Yorkers living in poverty, depicting the daily indignities of trying to access benefits and food stamps in the face of a complex unfeeling bureaucracy.
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Over the course of more than 50 films, he documented everything from Central Park, the Neiman Marcus department store, the ski resort town of Aspen, and a boxing gym in Austin, Texas.
His final film, Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (2023), made when he was 93, films the French restaurant Le Bois sans feuilles.
His influence on documentary cinema has been enormous, with directors from all over the world citing Wiseman as an inspiration. Two of the most recent are Alice Diop, a French filmmaker who chronicles immigrant life in the Parisian suburbs, and Wang Bing, whose Youth trilogy follows migrant workers in China.
Wiseman’s oeuvre is a testament to the power of documentary cinema as an art of the real. He has left us a series of works whose artistry and ethos deserve careful study, the same kind of attention he gave to everything he worked on.