Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

With high prices dragging on, officials are being urged to consider putting off work set to shut down our biggest city’s train network for days at a time.

Several full closures on Auckland’s four lines are pencilled in for April.

One block is over the long Easter weekend, and another over the Anzac Day weekend, but there will be another multi-day closure in between those.

Interest in public transport in Auckland is surging as fuel prices do the same.

Councillor Richard Hills said last Tuesday was the city’s busiest day on public transport since 2019.

There were 7,000 more trips than the previous busiest day two days before.

“We’ve got March Madness right now, in April it’ll still be quite busy,” Public Transport Users Association national coordinator John Reeves said.

“Yes, there is an Easter holiday, and there is also Anzac weekend; however, with the petrol prices skyrocketing, I think maybe Auckland Transport and KiwiRail could delay the planned closures, even push it back to possibly May or even June,” he said.

But that would also cause delays down the line, as works continue to get ready for the multi-billion dollar, much delayed City Rail Link (CRL) set to open later this year.

“Yes, there will be a knock-on effect with the City Rail Link opening date, so it’s kind of a no-win situation here, and unfortunately, the passengers come off second best no matter what.”

Reeves said given the uptick in public transport use, it was “probably the worst time” to have line closures with trains replaced by “mediocre” rail replacement buses.

“I think every train user knows that when they see a rail replacement bus is on, you sort of feel quite disappointed, the problem is sometimes they don’t turn up,” he said.

“Personally myself, late at night, the rail replacement bus just has not come at all, and you’re left in the middle of somewhere in South Auckland, wondering how you’re going to get home.”

Reeves said Aucklanders were champing at the bit for the CRL to open, and it would be a game-changer for the city.

“There is a lot of works still required prior to that; then that will delay the City Rail Link opening; however, unfortunately, petrol prices are skyrocketing by the day, so people are wanting to jump on trains, and unfortunately, with line closures, it makes a very disappointing public transport service for them.”

KiwiRail and Auckland Transport have been approached for comment.

Auckland’s upcoming rail closures

Southern Line:

The line will be fully closed from 3-6 April. There will be a partial closure between Puhinui and Pukekohe from 7-12 April 2026.

The entire line will close again from 13-15 April.

On 25 April, trains will run until 2pm before the line shuts for the rest of the day, followed by another full closure from 26-27 April.

Eastern Line:

The line will be closed from 3-11 April, with trains running only to and from Manukau.

It will shut again from 13-15 April.

On 25 April, trains will run until 2pm before the line closes for the remainder of the day.

Another full closure is scheduled for 26-27 April.

Western Line:

The line will close from 3-6 April and again from 13-15 April.

On 25 April, services will run until 2pm before shutting for the rest of the day, followed by a full closure from 26-27 April.

Onehunga Line:

The line will close from 3-6 April and again from 13-15 April.

On 25 April, trains will run until 2pm before the line closes for the remainder of the day.

The line will then shut again from 26-27 April.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A technical fault has halted sailings on a Cook Strait ferry this weekend, disrupting travel between Wellington and Picton.

Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferries said a fault was identified on board the Connemara on Saturday morning.

The ferry will remain in port while the issue is investigated and repaired.

As a result, multiple sailings between Wellington and Picton have been cancelled on Saturday and Sunday.

Cancelled sailings include the 8.15am Wellington to Picton service on both days, as well as Picton to Wellington sailings scheduled for 2.30am and 2pm on Saturday, and 2pm on Sunday.

Bluebridge said affected passengers were being contacted by email and text message.

However, the company warned there were limited options available to rebook passengers on alternative sailings.

Standby lists will be available at both ports for affected customers hoping to travel on later sailings.

Customers could change their booking online or contact Bluebridge’s customer service team, although the company said its call centre was experiencing very high call volumes.

Sailings on the Connemara were also cancelled earlier this month due to a separate technical fault.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s likely 91 octane petrol will hit $4 a litre before long, but take care with Gaspy data showing it’s already there.

Gaspy spokesperson Mike Newton said while 91 was near that level in the more remote parts of the country or difficult to access stations, people marking empty petrol stations with a $4 price could be skewing the data in more central areas.

He said people were marking the price high so those stations moved to the bottom of the list.

There have been reports on the app of 91 hitting $4 in parts of Auckland, but the stations themselves said it was still selling at $3.29.

However Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said based on current spot prices, the price at the pumps could be significantly higher: “When you look at the current spot price for refined product in Singapore and Korea, that’s roughly equivalent to $3.80.”

There were already signs people were driving less than normal, he said.

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said a $4 per litre 91 price was looking much more likely.

Both Kiernan and Eaqub said the most pressing concern was what would happen when supply was disrupted, which may be in about five weeks’ time.

“There’s been so much disruption, it’s really that lack of supply, the feedstock into the refineries, that’s the big concern at the moment,” Eaqub said.

“Things are still on the way. It’s going to be the next lot of ships, because the ships from Hormuz have arrived in Korea and Singapore now, so there is no more new feedstock going in… that’s why we need to keep watching the ships that are sailing from Singapore and Korea for the next little while.”

He said it was likely to hit a crunch in May or June.

Diesel shortages were more of a concern, he said. “There’s disruption in fuel supplies, diesel supplies in the provinces already. It’s the unpredictability of it, because most of the logistics sector relies on contracts with preferred suppliers and they expect to be able to pull in and fill up.

“When they can’t it puts the whole network under pressure. That’s why I think it’s so important for us to have some kind of logistics strategy and coordination framework. The ports, the fuel companies and the logistics sectors need to figure out how to consolidate load. Even if there are not physical shortages in total we might not have enough diesel in the right places.”

He said if petrol was low in places people might not be able to get to work. “You run out of diesel on a truck, you’ve got a whole container, two containers full or couple of truckloads of animals stranded in the middle of nowhere… it’s much worse in terms of consequences.

“Individually, it’s bad when you get stuck out of petrol, but diesel is literally the lifeblood of the economy.”

Even if a ceasefire was announced now, and stock began to flow freely again, there would still be a period of disrupted flow.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

There have been flashbacks to the past on the roads around Nelson this week, with hundreds of veteran, vintage and classic cars hitting the streets as part of an international motoring festival.

The four-yearly Vero International Festival of Historic Motoring has drawn people in from all over the country, with some even shipping their beloved cars from as far as the US and Europe for the occasion. It was last held in Nelson in 1972.

The Auckland Veteran and Vintage Car Club brought a blue 1915 Renault Charabanc, known as Angelique, down for the event.

Club member John Stokes said vehicle was found and restored by the club in the 1960s. It had originally been used as a truck to haul timber, then as a speedway vehicle, before it became a farm hack and was left to disintegrate in a paddock.

“This type of vehicle was very common probably between about 1910, maybe earlier, and the Second World War. They largely disappeared after World War II.”

The crank start Renault was doing laps as part of a relay challenge at the festival on Friday, where teams of up to 30 vehicles compete to achieve the greatest collective distance over a four hour period.

Stokes said its comfortable cruising speed was somewhere between the 30 and 40 kilometre per hour range and it was maintained by a group of five to ten club members who met once a a month.

“Although it’s probably going to need a bit more maintenance after today when it gets back.”

Jim and Lynn Hefkey also made the trip down from Auckland in their 1975 Bricklin SV1 and Jim said didn’t want to think about how much the fuel had cost, given they still had to get home.

“I’m hoping they don’t start shutting the pumps off, you know, when you’ve got a big American V8, they’re fairly thirsty.

He said the Bricklin were built in Canada for the American market, and with their gull wings, bear a striking resemblance to the DMC DeLorean.

“They all say, oh, back to the future, but no…This is the back, the DeLorean is the future.”

Hefey said there were only two other Bricklin SV1’s in New Zealand, both in Christchurch and the couple would head there after Nelson to meet their owners.

Mike White is on the festival organising team and said there were around 1200 participants and 560 vehicles, with people travelling from as far as Czechoslovakia, Canada, the USA and the UK to take part.

“Not all of them have brought vehicles, but some have, some have shipped their Packard’s and the like out, it’s pretty amazing.”

The week-long event was tipped to inject $4.5 million dollars into the region.

Rally directors Jim and Kyra Wareing spent hundreds of hours compiling runs – so entrants had the chance to tour the region,

Their aim was to ensure festival-goers could see the region’s three national parks – Abel Tasman, Kahurangi and Nelson Lakes, travel on back roads, and visit places of interest like the Higgins Heritage Park, Gardens of the World and the Port Māpua Maritime Museum.

“We’ve encouraged them to go to Marahau and get out of the car, walk across the boardwalk, and touch the [Abel Tasman] national park and same at St Arnaud, they were right at the [Nelson Lakes], so we encouraged them to go for a walk in the bush,” Jim Wareing said.

He said there were several runs each day, short ones to cater for small veteran cars which were over 100 years old, and longer runs to cater for newer models.

Nelson man Jared Dacombe is one of the younger festival attendees, at the age of 28. He owns several vintage cars and said his 1989 Nissan Skyline GTR was also among the newer vehicles.

“Anything 30 years old is club eligible. It’s kind of a bit controversial but it has its own in history as well and that’s that’s what this thing is about – cars in history.

Dacombe, who owns an automotive business, said his love of motoring came from his great grandfather.

“We we did a lot of touring together both in vintage and classic cars, but the first one was a big international rally down in Invercargill.

“It was just awesome, as a kid, six years old, cruising on the back of a 34 Dodge, it was great touring from Nelson down the coast route and staying in different accommodation, it was just a big buzz.”

Nelson man Stephen Caunter has a 1937 International D2 truck, a 20-year restoration project that he said cost a bit to run, given the increasing cost of fuel.

“There will be people that will go, is this an appropriate thing for the use of fuel at the moment? And, you know, this has been in the organisation stage for years, and did we know what the price of fuel was going to do the month before the event starts?”

He said some vehicles were more fuel efficient than others and a survey of fuel usage among those attending the rally was being done, in order to understand the total consumption.

Caunter said his truck had been in Nelson for years, it was used as a tow track during speedway racing and still had Tahuna Beach Auto Services painted on the side.

“Everyone takes an immense amount of pride in whatever sort of vehicle that they’ve got and I think their ability to share it with the public is one of the joys of vintage motoring.”

Festival director Ray Robertson said the event was several years in the planning and there had been a few recent curveballs – the fuel crisis, ferry cancellations and several car breakdowns.

“We’ve really had a lot of influence over what happens in the Middle East, you can’t do anything about it.

“Could we have postponed it? Sure, we could have, but why would we?”

The festival finishes tomorrow with a public vehicle show at the Richmond A&P Showgrounds.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Emergency services are responding to a boat explosion in Tauranga.

Police said they were called to the scene at the marina about 1.35pm.

One person suffered moderate injuries, police said.

Fire and Emergency said it heard from “another emergency service” that there was a fire on a boat, but there was only “a little bit of smoke”.

St John confirmed it had sent two ambulances and a manager.

“Our crews assessed and treated one patient who was transported in a moderate condition to Tauranga hospital.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Emergency services are responding to a boat explosion in Tauranga.

Police said they were called to the scene at the marina about 1.35pm.

One person suffered moderate injuries, police said.

Fire and Emergency said it heard from “another emergency service” that there was a fire on a boat, but there was only “a little bit of smoke”.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Got questions? RNZ has a podcast, Got questions? RNZ has a podcast, No Stupid Questions, with Susan Edmunds.

We’d love to hear more of your questions about money and the economy. You can send through written questions, like these ones, but – even better – you can drop us a voice memo to our email questions@rnz.co.nz

I was born in New Zealand in 1965 and moved to Australia when I was about 22 years old and have lived here since. I would like to retire back in NZ. If I moved back to New Zealand in the next two years, could I apply for the New Zealand pension at retirement age? Or have I missed the residency boat for living in NZ and applying for the NZ pension? Australia’s pension is means tested and I’m trying to avoid.

New Zealand has a social security agreement with Australia, which means you can use the time you spent living in that country to satisfy the residency requirements for the pension here.

If you do this, you can qualify for the pension from 67 in New Zealand – the age you’d be able to apply in Australia.

You may also need to test if you are eligible for anything from Australia and if so, that will be deducted from your NZ Super.

I would question whether this is an agreement that is working well for New Zealand because you’ve spent most of your working life paying tax in Australia but are proposing to come back here to be supported by New Zealand taxpayers. However these are the rules and maybe you’ve just caught me on a grumpy day.

I am 70 still working, because I love it and I need to. My question is I am not eligible for KiwiSaver so my employers do not have to contribute anything for me, neither do I. Why can’t I still join? I put money aside myself each pay instead.

You can join. The rules have changed so people of any age can join KiwiSaver. Once you’re 65 your employer might stop making contributions and you won’t get anything from the Government but there’s nothing to stop you joining the scheme.

We hear a lot about those who are asset rich but cash poor. But what is the best advice for those in the opposite situation: no assets, some cash (in my case because I was trying to save for a deposit but lost out to the huge increases in house prices up to and beyond Covid). Should we continue to scrimp and scrape in the remote chance the Lotto numbers come up? Or invest in silver and gold? KiwiSaver? Or just blow the savings on a lengthy cruise?

I asked Liz Koh, of Enrich Retirement for your help on this one.

Do you have the ability to buy a house anywhere in New Zealand, in which you would be happy to live? Having a freehold house in retirement makes a big difference.

Koh says if that is out of the question, you’ll need to use your money to cover your future living costs.

The asset threshold for the accommodation supplement, for example, is quite low and hasn’t been changed for a long time – your savings may mean you don’t qualify for this help.

“NZ Superannuation is simply not enough to cover rent or mortgage payments. Keep enough cash on hand to cover whatever you might need for an emergency fund and for essential living costs over the next two to five years. Invest the remainder for the medium and long term in a diversified portfolio or managed fund.

“Investment and speculation are two different things and if you are not asset rich, then speculation in high risk investments such as precious metals is not a good idea. A financial adviser can help choose the best investment options for you.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

It takes a village to raise a dotterel – because they can’t get by on their own nowadays.

“You can see how vulnerable they would be,” trap layer Ken Body said, standing over the remnants of a banded dotterel nest.

It’s not much to look at – a circular scattering of twigs on the Rakaia beach’s stony shore, fenced in by pieces of driftwood placed by Body.

“If we put some logs around it like this, most campers know there’s something there, and they won’t drive a motorbike in that area.”

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Body, a retired plumber, has trapped pests around the South Rakaia Huts since 2021.

He began trapping to protect the area’s shore-nesting birds, who have few defences against introduced hunters, like stoats and hedgehogs.

Since he started, more than 900 predators have been caught.

That’s brought back the birdlife in big ways: spoonbills, wrybills, native skinks and falcons have all been sighted in the area since then.

“I think we’ve got about 35 different bird species altogether.”

Body’s fellow bach-holders have noticed the birdsong too.

“Bellbirds would pop in occasionally, to this area, but never stay,” he said.

“Now we do have quite a few breeding pairs building up. Even the farmers next to the settlement are noticing bellbirds in their trees.

“It’s really made a difference.”

Further south on the coast, Sarah and Chris Rickard run a majority cropping farm on a beach near the Hakatere Huts.

They’re trapping to protect one of the country’s largest breeding populations of shags, which visit the Hakatere Ashburton river’s end.

Their eldest, Ella, 19, was inspired by her dad’s career with the Department of Conservation to set up traps on the farm.

“Chris has been back on the farm for 23 years,” Sarah said, “and [we] had no idea until we started trapping, that we had little weasels on the farm.”

Kate Rickard, 17, is hoping to cross the ditch and do conservation work in Australia.

“I’ve liked doing all the conservation work with Dad,” she said, having joined him for some work relating to kiwi birds in the past.

“If Australia doesn’t work out, I could do [some] kiwi trips in New Zealand, do some trapping even.”

Fifteen-year-old Rachel said her dream job would be conservation work in Africa.

“It’d be really interesting, with all the amazing animals.”

Sarah is excited to see what their children achieve in the world of conservation.

“Following their passions sounds like fun.

“If it’s involved with nature, that’s really, really neat. Because that’s what Chris and I are passionate about; it’s nice that our girls are too.”

Follow the river inland, and you might bump into Alastair Stewart and Ray Cossar.

The 4×4 enthusiasts trap around the local 4×4 park, nestled in the side of the river.

For Stewart, it’s a way to give back to the environment, and to clean up the often-muddied reputation which 4×4 drivers have online.

“Between September, and the end of February, we like to keep the four-wheel drives out while the black-billed gulls are nesting in the river.”

He said the time and consistency required for trapping made it an “old man’s game”.

“Retirees do it because they’re available during the week. A lot of younger people are working and have families, and they just can’t cope.”

Stewart will pass the baton to Cossar to lead the trapping operation when the time comes – but for now, he’s still a keen trucker and trapper.

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