Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

A visit to Duntroon’s original Victorian-era blacksmith shop is a visit back in time. Nicol’s Blacksmith Shop has been around for 125 years and, while these days it is a tourist attraction, it is still a hub for the Duntroon community of 100 or so residents.

Rather than making horseshoes, today it makes metal knick knacks, pokers for outdoor fires and key rings for children’s school bags.

The ramshackle wooden structure includes the original earthen floor. There is no need for a wooden floor because that could catch fire.

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Chairperson of the Nicol’s Blacksmith Historic Trust, Jan Keeling, said the shop had been lovingly restored and rescued.

She said the community had a dozen or so volunteers who kept the tourism industry going in the town and made sure the local businesses survived.

The pay off was locals were able to have a coffee and scone all year round.

She said there was much pride among locals at managing to keep the blacksmiths, built in 1900 featuring hand-pumped bellows, in working order.

“Prior to this building, a lot of the farms had their own forge, and the blacksmith would travel around working, shoeing horses or repairing or sharpening implements.”

Keeling remembers when Duntroon was well off the beaten track, but that all changed about a dozen years ago.

Cyclists started arriving as the Alps To Ocean Cycle Trail added Duntroon to its list of stops.

She said the cycle trail had been a game-changer and amazing for the community.

“We have volunteers working here, creating things to sell in our little shop because the shop still runs on the smell of coal dust.”

The Duntroon Heritage Trail was created to honour the 150th anniversary of Duntroon last year.

Keeling said the smithy’s recent history was as important as its original history, with four local farmers getting together to buy it in the 1960s when they realised the building might be demolished.

With its forge, anvil and bellows, everything was in place and ready to go, but it sat there until 2005 when newcomer Mike Gray saw the potential and formed a trust.

It found a well-known restoration builder, Dave Barkman, who offered to come and live in Duntroon for a year. He literally pulled it to bits and rebuilt it like a jigsaw puzzle.

Judy Waterstone was the present-day chief blacksmith at Nicol’s shop with 25 years experience.

As “bellows boy” Colin Martin pointed out, the blacksmiths was predominantly run by women.

“This is quite a unique blacksmith shop. When you look around, we’ve got two lady blacksmiths with Mary an apprentice, and I’m just a bellows boy,” he said.

“And there’s a reason for that old saying about too many irons in the fire,” Waterstone added.

“Many a time I’ll try and do two pieces at once, and it’s fine as long as you keep that momentum up, but the moment you don’t, one burns, and is ruined because there’s too many irons.”

Leaving the huff and puff of the blacksmith shop, I headed over the back fence to meet Steve Smith, who, at 74 is a Master Saddler, one of only six in New Zealand.

The former freezing worker loves Clydesdale horses and decided, after having trouble finding suitable riding tack, he would try and make the harnesses and saddles himself.

So he travelled to Salisbury in the United Kingdom and learned from the best saddlers in the business.

Just like a Savile Row suit-maker, Smith made each saddle to measure and it all started with a wooden tree or frame.

It was covered with heavy, bovine skirting leather, sheepskin padding and more softer leathers for the seat, skirts, and fenders or flaps.

Rather than using a sewing machine, Smith hand sews the leather onto the tree, finally stamping or carving designs into the leather and adding silver trim and stencilling his name on the flap.

Each saddle was worth around $3000 and took 50 hours to create.

Smith would like to retire.

“I’d love to be able to teach somebody, but nobody seems to be interested. For a young fellow or woman who had a bit of skill with their hands and motivation, it would be a pretty good sort of career.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

We’re all getting older – but we’re not all happy to admit it. The longevity trend has taken off, with some people paying six figures for protocols that promise to make them live longer.

The numbers on old age are only going in one direction, fuelling a global longevity industry worth billions of dollars as people search for more and more extreme ways to live longer.

“We are now realising that there are as many people over 85 as there are under 14,” says Dr Ngaire Kerse, GP and University of Auckland’s Joyce Cook Chair in Ageing Well.

“In the over-65 age group, it’s heading for one in five. So, older people are more prevalent and they’re more obvious and we have a very ageist society. Of course we want to avoid those negative stereotypes of ageing and we want to be the healthy, positive older person.”

But at the extreme end of obsession, people are paying tens of thousands of dollars or more for intense intervention from experts like Dr Peter Attia, a star of longevity medicine who has a best-selling book, a podcast with millions of followers and charges patients six figures.

Now there’s a backlash against Attia because of the content of his damning email exchanges with Jeffery Epstein. Attia has denied any criminal wrongdoing but apologised for the content of his “embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible emails”.

It’s not just Attia and the Epstein link. There’s been a growing wave of distrust in the messaging of many longevity influencers lately, including the likes of Bryan Johnson, the billionaire biohacker who wants to live forever.

He is reported to have chosen three people from 1500 who applied for his Immortals programme. The three are paying $1 million for access to the “longevity protocols” that he’s been following for the past five years.

Johnson’s pursuit of eternal life has included a plasma exchange between his teenage son, himself and his 70-year-old father.

But even Elon Musk, who declared at Davos that there will be a cure for old age, says there is a limit on our lives.

Kerse agrees and has the statistics to back that up.

“I don’t actually want to be 150. I almost have seen enough now,” she jokes.

“It’s challenging to me to think that people would want to live forever, you know, [to] 200 years. And there’s several novels written about what that might be like, challenging whether it’s a good thing or not.”

She says there’s a biological end point at 110 years, when “our cells run out of puff”.

“The maintenance and repair mechanisms don’t work any more and so they get clogged up with stuff and you get diseases that are associated with ageing.

“We’re pushing up against being healthy for as long as you can. It’s ideal to live a fulfilled and healthy and contributing life and then drop dead. Wouldn’t that be lovely.”

Kerse is more concerned with finding ways to make lives better for all old people. She has co-led a world-leading longitudinal study, called Life and Living in Advanced Age, which started in 2010 with groups of Māori and non-Māori born between 1920 and 1930.

Hundreds of people in the cohort were interviewed about their lives every year for five years and again at 10 years.

“Now we’re at 15, 16 years follow-up, most of them are gone of course, because they’d be over 100.”

Kerse sets out the study’s findings and the factors behind participants’ long, healthy lives in today’s podcast.

The Detail also talks to 89-year-old Garth Barfoot of the real estate dynasty about his passion for running and what keeps him healthy, happy and alert.

In 2024 he was the oldest runner to finish the New York Marathon and still takes part in events with his grandchildren.

Listen to the podcast to find out what he believes is the main reason for living long and well.

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

No more fruit flies have been spotted in Papatoetoe after a single male was found in a surveillance trap in the South Auckland suburb on Wednesday.

The new find comes as Biosecurity just wrapped up a six-week operation in Mount Roskill after a single male was found there.

Biosecurity Commissioner Mike Inglis said they had laid 114 additional traps in Papatoetoe since the latest fruit fly discovery, but there had not been further signs of the pest.

“At this stage, it’s just one single male fruit fly in that trap, so these additional traps are very important.

“These traps are very effective for the Oriental fruit fly; they attract the males extremely well.

“We have evidence of that from when we’ve dealt with this before, including about this time last year in Papatoetoe and the North Shore.”

He said biosecurity staff would be collecting fruit from residents for inspection this weekend.

“We’ve already collected some fruit. We’ll also be visiting high-risk businesses and talking to shopkeepers, and our team will be at local night markets providing flyers and information.

“We know from previous years that by getting in early, engaging the community, and putting controls in place, we’ll make sure it doesn’t impact the community too much and that this pest isn’t established.”

Legal controls on the movement of fruit and vegetables affecting roughly 10,000 properties would remain in place while Biosecurity investigated whether any more fruit flies could be hidden.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The chair of Lyall Bay Surf Lifesaving club says despite the partial lifting of a rahui on Wellington’s South Coast information on offshore conditions remains unavailable.

Mayor Andrew Little took a dip in the water on Wednesday to prove residents could swim again at southern beaches after a major sewage leak at the Moa Point Wastewater Plant earlier this month pumped thousands of litres of raw sewage into the sea, closing the beaches for weeks.

He did however caveat that people should follow advice on the Land, Air, Water Aotearoa website before they dive in.

Club chair Matt Flannery said he was delighted that lifesaving teams could resume training in the bay but said ocean swimmers, kayakers and divers were still in the dark.

“The LAWA website, unfortunately, doesn’t include tests beyond the shoreline. That’s probably okay when you’re looking at shoreline discharges from stormwater drains and contaminations but it’s inappropriate when your dealing with an ocean outfall that has the potential to be coming back into the bay,” Flannery said.

“We’ve had to already make some decisions as to the limits that we feel acceptable in the bay but we would truly benefit from the experts stepping up here and giving guidance.”

Flannery said the club’s teams had been training at swim spots within the harbour ahead of the upcoming national championships next month.

He said prior to the spill nearly 70 lifesavers a day were training in the waters off Lyall Bay.

“We’ve shuffled our training around to be using locations such as Scorching Bay, Worser Bay and Evans Bay [and] we’re delighted to have access back on the beach – that’s the most important thing – but we’d just like a bit more information to reflect actually what’s going on in the bay.

“I think it’s a little bit unfair in the sense that they put the risk back on the other users, declare the beach open, without actually giving all the information that’s necessary to make an informed decision,” Flannery said.

Flannery said he raised the point at a local meeting with councillors, experts and Wellington Water staff last week.

Greater Wellington director knowledge and insights David Hipkins said the advice on the LAWA website only reflected public health advice for near shore activities.

“All samples have been taken close to the shore and not near the end of the long outfall pipe. This is why the advice from public health officials is that activities further from the shore are ‘to be conducted at people’s own risk’.”

He said the regional council was talking to the Department of Conservation and other research agencies about any additional monitoring that may be required further out to sea.

The LAWA website also advises people not to collect any kai moana from the area previously under the rahui.

“Testing of kai moana is not being undertaken by Greater Wellington and we are referring the public to advice from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), the agency responsible for the safety of food gathered from the wild,” Hipkins said.

“MPI recommends not gathering shellfish from densely populated urban areas, areas near pipes or culverts, areas near to where wastewater or stormwater is being discharged, and to wait a few days after heavy rain before gathering shellfish.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Highlanders have suffered another heartbreaking loss, after the Reds bounced back in style.

The Reds defeated the Highlanders by 17 points at Suncorp Stadium after leading by 12 at the break. It was a statement performance in front of a lively Brisbane crowd, the home side running in five tries to two and playing with far more clarity than they showed in Round 1.

The first half set the tone. Fraser McReight opened the scoring in the 18th minute after a stunning passage that started with Harry Wilson flicking a miracle ball through his legs to ignite the break, before a clever series of kicks ended with the flanker diving over beside the posts. Matt Faessler added another off a well-timed peel from a driving maul, and although the Highlanders hit back through Adam Lennox after spotting space around the ruck, the Reds struck again before the break. Slick hands left put Tim Ryan over in the corner, giving Queensland a deserved lead at half-time. It was high tempo, physical stuff, with the Reds well on top and the visitors guilty of too many costly errors.

The Highlanders showed some fight early in the second half. Lucas Casey powered through three tackles to score under the sticks in the 52nd minute and cut the margin, briefly shifting momentum. But just as quickly, the Reds responded. McReight pilfered possession at the breakdown, territory followed, and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto crashed over from close range to extend the lead. Moments later, a grubber forced panic at the back and Vaiuta Latu was on hand to dive on the loose ball for another Reds five-pointer.

From there, Queensland comfortably controlled the contest. The forwards went at it relentlessly, the backs continued to find space out wide, and the bench added real punch, with Filipo Daugunu especially lively. The Highlanders had patches of pressure but they lacked polish, their attack clunky at times and undermined by unforced errors. Jamie Joseph will be disappointed and know there were plenty of opportunities left out there.

Ryan brought real spark on the edge, Salakaia-Loto laid a strong platform, and McReight was a menace all night at the breakdown. For the Highlanders, Timoci Tavatavanawai impressed with his physicality and TK Howden worked tirelessly, but they lacked support at key moments.

This win lifts the Reds to 1-1 and restores confidence ahead of a trip to Canberra to face the Brumbies, while the Highlanders slip to 1-2 and return home to Dunedin to host the Force in Round 4, searching for a response.

See how the game unfolded in our blog:

Highlanders: 1. Ethan de Groot. 2. Jack Taylor. 3. Rohan Wingham. 4. Will Stodart. 5. Mitch Dunshea. 6. Te Kamaka Howden. 7. Sean Withy (cc) 8. Lucas Casey. 9. Adam Lennox. 10. Cameron Millar. 11. Jona Nareki. 12. Timoci Tavatavanawai (cc) 13. Jonah Lowe. 14. Caleb Tangitau. 15. Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens.

Impact: 16. Soane Vikena. 17. Daniel Lienert-Brown. 18. Sosefo Kautai. 19. Oliver Haig. 20. Veveni Lasaqa. 21. Folau Fakatava. 22. Reesjan Pasitoa. 23. Tanielu Tele’a.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Taranaki Police have laid charges against two people after encountering what they described as a “hostile” group of people at a car meet in Oaonui.

Police attended a callout to a group of “antisocial road users” gathering at Kina Road at about 1am last Saturday. However, they soon retreated, later saying, “Due to the hostile nature of the group, it was determined that the safest course of action was to monitor the meet from nearby and gather information.”

A video posted on YouTube showed about a dozen people approaching a police car, which then reversed as people ran after it. Another car then proceeded to do burnouts.

Taranaki Area Commander Inspector Mark Miller said two men had now been charged with reckless driving.

An 18-year-old was arrested and is due to appear in Hāwera District Court on 3 March. Another man was summoned to appear at the court a week later, on 10 March.

“This is in addition to impounding one vehicle, and 14 infringement notices that have been issued for driver licence breaches – nine of which were issued on the night of the incident, and five during our investigation phase,” Miller said.

“The investigation remains ongoing, and Police are appealing for any information on the whereabouts of a silver or light-coloured Toyota Estima – or its driver – that was involved in Saturday night’s activities.”

He urged anyone with information to contact Police, referencing file number 260221/1417.

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