Source: Radio New Zealand
If you’ve ever wanted to craft the perfect sausage, Texan Bill Dumas could make your dreams come true.
Known as the Sausage Sensei, Dumas is on his second visit to New Zealand for two sausage-making workshops.
And while sausages are a beloved barbeque staple in many parts of the world, for Dumas, they’re much, much more.
The sausage sensei’s creations.
Supplied
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: Radio New Zealand
Some of us remember having more energy in our 20s. We could work late, sleep badly, have a night out, recover quickly and still feel capable the next day. By our 40s, that ease has often gone. Fatigue feels harder to shake. It’s tempting to assume this is simply the ageing process – a one‑way decline.
The truth is that the 40s are often the most exhausting decade, not because we are old, but because several small biological changes converge at exactly the same time that life’s demands often peak. Crucially, and optimistically, there is no reason to assume that energy must continue to decline in the same way into our 60s.
Midlife is often a time of maximum cognitive load.
Unsplash
In early adulthood, multiple systems peak together.
Muscle mass is at its highest, even without deliberate training. As a metabolically active tissue, muscle helps regulate blood sugar and reduces the effort required for everyday tasks. Research shows that skeletal muscle is metabolically active even at rest and contributes substantially to basal metabolic rate (the energy your body uses just to keep you alive when you’re at rest). When you have more muscle, everything costs less energy.
At the cellular level, mitochondria – the structures that convert food into usable energy – are more numerous and more efficient. They produce energy with less waste and less inflammatory byproduct.
Sleep, too, is deeper. Even when sleep is shortened, the brain produces more slow‑wave sleep, the phase most strongly linked to physical restoration.
Hormonal rhythms are also more stable. Cortisol, often described as the body’s stress hormone, melatonin, growth hormone and sex hormones follow predictable daily patterns, making energy more reliable across the day.
Put simply, energy in your 20s is abundant and forgiving. You can mistreat it and still get away with it.
By midlife, none of these systems has collapsed, but small shifts start to matter.
Muscle mass begins to decline from the late 30s onwards unless you exercise to maintain it. This in itself is a top tip – do strength training. The loss of muscle is gradual, but its effects are not. Less muscle means everyday movement costs more energy, even if you don’t consciously notice it.
Mitochondria still produce energy, but less efficiently. In your 20s, poor sleep or stress could be buffered. In your 40s, inefficiency is exposed. Recovery becomes more “expensive”.
Sleep also changes. Many people still get enough hours, but sleep fragments. Less deep sleep means less repair. Fatigue feels cumulative rather than episodic.
Hormones don’t disappear in midlife – they fluctuate, particularly in women. Variability, not deficiency, disrupts temperature regulation, sleep timing and energy rhythms. The body copes better with low levels than with unpredictable ones.
Then there is the brain. Midlife is a period of maximum cognitive and emotional load: leadership, responsibility, vigilance and caring roles. The prefrontal cortex – responsible for planning, making decisions and inhibition – works harder for the same output. Mental multitasking drains energy as effectively as physical labour.
This is why the 40s feel so punishing. Biological efficiency is beginning to shift at exactly the moment when demand is highest.
Later life is often imagined as a continuation of midlife decline; however, many people report something different.
Hormonal systems often stabilise after periods of transition. Life roles may simplify. Cognitive load can reduce. Experience replaces constant active decision‑making.
Sleep doesn’t automatically worsen with age. When stress is lower and routines are protected, sleep efficiency can improve – even if total sleep time is shorter.
Crucially, muscle and mitochondria still adapt surprisingly well into later life. Strength training in people in their 60s, 70s and beyond can restore strength, improve metabolic health and increase subjective energy within months.
This doesn’t mean later life brings boundless energy, but it often brings something else: predictability.
Across adulthood, energy shifts in character rather than simply declining. The mistake we make is assuming that feeling tired in midlife reflects a personal failing, or that it marks the start of an unavoidable decline. Anatomically, it is neither.
Midlife fatigue is best understood as a mismatch between biology and demand: small shifts in efficiency occurring at precisely the point when cognitive, emotional and practical loads are at their highest.
The hopeful message is not that we can reclaim our 20-year-old selves. Rather, it is that energy in later life remains highly modifiable, and that the exhaustion so characteristic of the 40s is not the endpoint of the story. Fatigue at this stage is not a warning of inevitable decline; it is a signal that the rules have changed.
Michelle Spear is professor of anatomy at the University of Bristol.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: Radio New Zealand
Finance Minister Nicola Willis RNZ / Mark Papalii
National’s Nicola Willis says the government has not given any consideration to putting a $9 toll on both the Auckland Harbour Bridge and a new crossing, calling it a “completely hypothetical scenario”.
And Labour says any such move would have to be “thought through very carefully” given the cost of living.
The Infrastructure Commission this week suggested twin $9 tolls as way of funding a tunnel or a second bridge across Waitematā Harbour.
In response, Transport Minister Chris Bishop said any new crossing would be tolled, but the government was still seeking advice regarding the existing bridge.
Speaking on Morning Report‘s political panel, Willis played down the $9 figure.
“I just want to be really clear that that is a completely hypothetical scenario in the Infrastructure Commission’s plan. It’s not something that the government has given consideration to.”
Willis said both National and Labour faced a challenge in paying for the “essential” multi-billion dollar project as no funding had been put aside.
“How do you pay for it? And what the experts and advisers always say is, you should make sure that the users of roads are contributing the cost to them.
“And actually, that’s a road that would have so many vehicle movements a day that actually a toll to help pay for it would mean you could deliver it sooner.”
Labour’s deputy Carmel Sepuloni said her party was “not completely opposed” to the notion of tolling but said they needed to be “thought through very carefully”.
“For someone like me who doesn’t go over the the Harbour Bridge very often, and perhaps is in a better position to be able to pay the $9, it’s not a big deal, but for someone who’s travelling over that bridge every day and going to work and perhaps not on the highest income, that becomes quite a big deal.”
Sepuloni said the government needed to think about ways to ensure any tolls were affordable given the pressures of the cost of living.
“We need to make sure that any measure, including tolls, are fair and equitable.”
Willis said both political parties had made decisions in recent years to keep petrol taxes a bit lower, meaning that road funding had had to be topped up from general taxation.
But she said that also raised questions of fairness: “we used to have the concept that those who use the roads pay for them”.
Greater Auckland editor Matt Lowrie had told Morning Report that the estimated revenue from the toll is between $7 and $9 billion, while the projected costs of the crossing could exceed $20b.
He said while a second crossing is needed to provide more capacity, other payment options could be considered.
Lowrie agreed that tolling both crossings was necessary because just tolling the new one meant people would simply continue using the existing bridge, however he suggested a lower toll be implemented to see the impact of it.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
A Canterbury photographer, who has a project that turns portraits into time capsules, is inviting new faces into his lens at a Christchurch studio next week.
For more than a decade, Charlie Fox has been creating time-lapse portraits. The full-size versions are a towering 1.2 metres-tall and rendered at a staggering 150 megapixels. The detail, in full on his website, is to the point out that viewers can see skin follicles.
“I encourage people to put their noses up against the paper and just drink in the quality,” Fox told Nights.
“The eyes of the images especially, you can see the reflection of me in the catch light. That’s the level of detail that we’re playing with…
“I think the subjects are very brave to participate because they’re shown in such extreme levels of detail and quality that I haven’t really seen it anywhere else.”
The project, Panochron, began in 2013 and has since captured 30 people, including 12 repeat participants.
Fox hopes to reconnect with his earliest subjects and photograph them again, building what one friend described as a “longitudinal study” of the human face.
Some participants under 18 return annually, which Fox hopes will serve as a mini-movie of their journey into adulthood.
“In life, you have a lot of choice about things, but you don’t have any choice at all about the passage of time, that’s just a steady fact.”
Alongside the portraits, he now records brief interviews, asking subjects what they would say to their younger selves and inviting them to leave a message to be heard in a decade’s time.
“Some really interesting conversations will be had between them with themselves, I think, through this.”
Fox, who has spent 25 years behind the camera, traces his fascination with this portrait style back to a black-and-white 35mm portrait that first captivated him.
“Ever since then, I’ve just been sort of driven to keep capturing images in this style.”
Bookings with Fox for Sunday and Monday are available through the Photosynthesis Studio website.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: Radio New Zealand
Foo Fighters have announced two huge stadium shows for New Zealand in January 2027.
They will play in Christchurch on 19 January, before performing at Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium on 22 January.
Hawkins had been a member of the Foo Fighters since 1997. They have become one of rock’s most popular bands, winning 12 Grammy Awards including Best Rock Album four times.
The Foo Fighters – currently made up of Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee and Ilan Rubin – have visited New Zealand several times. They were last here in January 2024.
General tickets go on sale 25 February.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: New Zealand Police
Belmont Lane, Musselburgh, Dunedin, and surrounding roads are closed following a landslip this morning.
Police were notified of the slip around 10.50am. Thankfully, no one was injured.
Police are assisting Fire and Emergency New Zealand with evacuations of nearby residents.
The public is advised to avoid the area.
ENDS
Source: Radio New Zealand
The loan underwritten by Kainga Ora. RNZ
ASB has joined the Kāinga Ora First Home Loan scheme, which allows borrowers to buy a house with a deposit of only 5 percent.
The loan is underwritten by Kāinga Ora, so borrowers are usually able to access the same interest rates as buyers with 20 percent deposit.
Previously it had only been available through Westpac, Kiwibank, The Co-Operative Bank, SBS, Unity, Nelson Building Society and NZHL.
ASB executive general manager personal banking Adam Boyd said home ownership was a “cornerstone of financial wellbeing and security for many New Zealanders”.
“This loan helps to get more people into their own homes without the challenge of saving a large deposit while managing everyday expenses, like rent.”
He said people using the scheme could also be eligible for ASB’s cash back offer.
Glen McLeod, head of Link Advisory, said it added another lending option for people thinking about buying a first home.
“The underlying criteria and approval process remain the same, as Kāinga Ora is still the gatekeeper for applications. More lender choice is positive, but the practical impact will depend on each client’s situation and how they meet Kāinga Ora’s existing requirements.”
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Source: Radio New Zealand
David Benbow was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non parole period of 17 years after a jury found him guilty of murder.
A former prison guard who murdered his childhood friend will have his appeal against conviction and sentence heard later this year.
David Benbow was sentenced in 2024 to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years after a jury found him guilty of murdering Michael McGrath.
McGrath was last seen alive in May 2017. Two years later, Benbow was charged with his murder – accused of fatally shooting his childhood friend.
Neither the gun, nor McGrath’s body, have been found despite extensive searches.
After his first trial, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. At his second trial, he was found guilty of murder.
The Court of Appeal confirmed to RNZ a hearing date for Benbow’s appeal on conviction and sentence had been set for November 9 and 10.
McGrath’s brother, Simon McGrath, told RNZ Benbow continued to show a “disturbing lack of empathy and remorse despite the clinically clear weight of evidence against him that has resulted in his unanimous murder conviction”.
At sentencing, Justice Jonathan Eaton described the murder as an execution style killing.
He said the high level of planning, including the fact that McGrath’s body has never been found, added to the length of the sentence.
Michael McGrath was last seen alive in May 2017. NZ Police
During the Christchurch High Court trial, the prosecution said that Benbow killed McGrath after learning that he was in a relationship with Benbow’s ex-partner of 17 years, Joanne Green.
McGrath’s mother, Adrienne McGrath, said she could not believe her son would never come home again.
In her victim impact statement, she said she still laid in bed some nights and hoped her son would come knocking at her window.
“I’ll never forget that first night when I realised that Michael was missing. That memory will haunt me forever.
“I still experience the pain of losing him every day, especially when I see or hear things that remind me of him.”
McGrath’s brother Simon, speaking after the guilty verdict, said the family still wanted to know where his brother’s body was.
Simon said he hoped the government considered legislative changes to stop killers who do not co-operate with police being eligible for parole.
“I believe New Zealand needs to strengthen the law to follow … what’s in many Australian states – no body, no parole.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: Radio New Zealand
Police said the man’s body was discovered in a secluded area of Wharepai Domain on Saturday. RNZ / Nate McKinnon
A homicide investigation has been launched after a man’s body was found in Wharepai Domain, Tauranga.
Detective Senior Sergeant Natalie Flowerdew-Brown, Western Bay of Plenty Area Investigations Manager, said the man’s body was discovered in a secluded area of the domain at about 2pm on Saturday 14 February.
“A post-mortem on Monday established the victim’s death is suspicious and we are now working to establish what happened and identify who was involved.
“An examination of the scene has now been completed”.
Detective Senior Sergeant Flowerdew-Brown said police would like to speak with anyone who has information that could help the investigation.
“We ask people to contact us if they saw unusual or suspicious behaviour around the Wharepai Domain prior to 2pm on Saturday.”
Police have urged anyone with information to contact Police online at 105.police.govt.nz, or by calling 105.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
On Monday, Police were notified of an aggravated robbery at a commercial premises on Charles Street RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Five young people have been arrested and charged after an aggravated robbery in Westshore, Napier.
They are due to appear in Napier Youth Court on Wednesday, jointly charged with aggravated robbery and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle. Further charges have not been ruled out.
On Monday 16 February, Police were notified of an aggravated robbery at a commercial premises on Charles Street about 4.40pm.
Police said three people allegedly entered and stole a number of items before fleeing in a vehicle containing two others and all had taken steps to conceal their identities.
“No injuries were reported however the owner of the premises is understandably shaken.
The vehicle was later located abandoned on Alexander Avenue, and has been seized for a forensic examination.”
Following enquiries into the incident, including information provided by members of the public, police said they identified five alleged offenders.
Following a search on Tuesday evening at a Napier address four alleged offenders were taken into custody.
During the search, police said they also located evidence relating to the aggravated robbery including clothing worn by the alleged offenders.
The fifth alleged offender was located and taken into custody not long after.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand