Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

Members of the lower North Island’s Riversdale community have come together in an outpouring of support for a teenager left paralysed after hitting a sand bank while swimming during the Summer holidays

His father, Stu Berkeley said he was humbled and “lost for words” after $62,000 was raised in one night to assist the young man’s recovery.

Noah Berkeley, 16, hit a sand bank as he dove into a wave while swimming between the flags on Riversdale beach on January 2.

The accident damaged two cervical vertebrae leaving him paralysed from the chest down.

He was able to move his shoulders and wrists but struggled to use his hands.

Stu Berkeley spoke to RNZ from Christchurch where he was staying with Noah at the Burwood spinal unit.

He said – in the weeks following the accident – his son was taking to his recovery physio sessions with the same determination and discipline he applied to his basketball training before the accident.

“He’s been absolutely amazing. We’re so proud of what he’s done. It’s insane to see how hard he’s working. He’s just unbelievable,” Berkeley said.

Since the accident Noah had some feeling return to his feet but Berkeley said it could be a long time before they learned how well Noah would recover.

Chantal Billington’s son was swimming with Noah when he was hurt.

She said her family was still reeling from the events but they immediately knew Noah’s family would need help.

A couple of days after the accident they approached a friend who owned a Newbold’s store in Masterton.

The store agreed to donate a television and offered them a discount to buy other items to raffle off.

The news spread and other contributions and donations started rolling in.

“It got to the point where we couldn’t do a raffle. We actually had to hold an auction. It just grew, and grew, and grew. The whole community got behind it and even to the moment that we were about to hold the auction we still had items being dropped off to us. Which is amazing. Riversdale just came together,” Billington said.

Last Friday 200 people packed out the Riversdale Golf Club and – by the end of the night – the event had raised $62,000.

Noah’s family were in the room while he and his dad watched a live stream from Christchurch.

“I was writing down the auction prices of what everything was selling for and I could see them crying. It was very overwhelming. A lot of people were just in awe of what was happening. [They] couldn’t believe what items were going for and how much people were really there to support Noah. It was amazing,” Billington said.

Billington said she was thrilled at the result but the money was small change compared to the challenges Noah and his family were facing.

“It’s not just a physical injury. There will be a lot of highs and lows with him. At the moment he’s doing really well but there will be lows that come and that’s part of it. It’s not just helping him heal physically but mentally and making sure he’s got his family there when he needs them,” Billington said.

Berkeley said he struggled to put into words how humbled his family were by the community’s response.

“These people that are willing to give up their time, offer donations, support the auction [even] do some washing for us. I honestly can’t explain how it feels and we can’t ever thank those people enough,” Berkeley said.

Berkeley said he was also hugely grateful to the local life savers, ambulance and Life Flight crews who helped Noah and worked to minimise the impact of his injuries.

“The work that they did immediately after the accident was absolutely exceptional. They gave him the best opportunity to make as best a recovery as he possibly can. How they immobilised him, how they were with him, how they talked with him. They had everything 100 percent under control. They were incredible,” Berkeley said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Locals in Te Araroa, north of Gisborne, fled for their lives as what’s proved to be a deadly storm ripped across the North Island.

The Gisborne District Council said communities around Te Araroa, Onepoto, and Wharekahika have been the worst hit, with the intense deluge that began on Wednesday evening necessitating evacuations.

It said more than 60 people remained in welfare centres and marae on Thursday afternoon, and more than 250 homes were bracing to be without power overnight.

Sections of State Highway 35 have begun to reopen, but coastal communities between Pōtaka near Hick’s Bay and Tikitiki remain cut off where the road has been damaged by widespread flooding and slips.

The closure leaves Tairawhiti with limited options for travelling north, forcing people onto an hours’ long detour on State Highway 2 to the south, after the connection to Whakatane, through Waioeka Gorge, was blocked by landslides last week.

The region remains under a State of Emergency, with Tairawhiti Emergency Management’s Ben Green saying the priority is to restore access to isolated communities.

Family forced onto roof to escape floodwaters

As floodwaters raged around them, Huia Ngatai was convinced that she and her five children, the youngest only three, were about to die.

The family of seven in the small settlement of Punaruku, Te Araroa, were forced to scramble onto their roof in the dead of night, huddling together for warmth, as torrential rain caused unprecedented flooding.

When Ngatai’s cousin, Lizzy Ngatai-Hawtin, learned of their plight she immediately video called.

“[They were] still on the roof in the dark, water was still running so violently and rapidly past them. It was so loud.”

She said the water surrounding the family was unbelievably high.

Ngatai-Hawtin said the family had been prepared to evacuate and was monitoring water levels. But after checking on their neighbours in the early hours of Thursday morning, noticed the small creek nearby had become a torrent.

The family made the call to leave, she said, only to watch their escape window rapidly close as their vehicles floated away.

“They tried all the exits possible, and everything was overwhelmed with water.

“Huia said at that point they heard this massive crash and it was very clearly a release and when they looked out, it was as if a tsunami was coming down the hill from behind them.

“She said it was the most horrendous noise and her children were screaming and crying, they were just so terrified.”

Ngatai-Hawtin said her cousin and husband, Bully, managed to get all the kids onto the roof around 2am, but not long after a section of the roof collapsed into the river.

“She was on the phone to people and begging for a chopper,” only to learn a rescue wasn’t possible, Ngatai-Hawtin said.

“She just held her kids and she truly believed that they wouldn’t survive this.”

Tash Wanoa, Te Araroa Community Link for Tairawhiti Civil Defencetold RNZ she and others did their best to comfort and reassure the family over the phone, that help would come as soon as possible.

Ngatai-Hawtin said by daybreak, the rain had eased, the floodwaters had subsided and the family was able to get down.

They’ve since been helicoptered out and are being looked after by whanau.

Ngatai-Hawtin said Huia and Bully’s actions saved their children, but the experience has been traumatising.

“It’s going to be a long road for them, and although it’s been a great outcome in terms of them surviving … they’ve lost absolutely everything.

“All they were able to leave with was the wet clothing that they were wearing.”

Ngatai-Hawtin said following the family’s evacuation a giant slip came down, hitting two homes.

Gisborne District Council’s Jade Lister-Baty said four homes and the Hicks Motel have been damaged in the storm.

It said formal building assessments were yet to be carried out, but hoped inspectors would be able to fly in on Friday.

Destruction takes locals by surprised

Residents in Te Araroa have described the thunderous sound of the hillside giving way following the intense overnight rain.

Kevin Brooking said he could hear more than a dozen slips coming down just a few hundred metres from his home.

“I just heard them eh, the loudest crash I’ve ever heard in the 30-odd years I’ve been home.”

He said the level of destruction has been shocking, and “20-times” worse than 2023’s Cyclone Gabrielle.

“We never got Gabrielle hard like they did down the way. This is the worst I’ve ever seen and I was born and bred here.

“We’ve had that many warnings and we’ve dodged the bullet so many times.

“We thought, ‘Oh, yeah another one that will skirt around the back of us or skirt around seaward,’ but the one where we didn’t listen – this happened.”

Te Whetu Waitoa said the storm hit way harder than anyone was expecting.

“There’s a few slips around and looks like we’ll be trapped in for a few months.”

He said most of the community lived off the land and he was preparing to wait it out.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Follow the RNZ liveblog above.

Search teams are still trying to find several people who were believed buried by landslides in the Tauranga area following this week’s devastating storms.

On Thursday morning at least two people – one of them a young girl – were missing after a landslide came down on several structures at campground at the base of Mauao, Mount Maunganui.

Meanwhile, a person was seriously hurt and two others killed after a landslide in Welcome Bay in Papamoa.

Follow the RNZ liveblog at the top of the page for the latest updates.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Follow the RNZ liveblog above.

Search teams are still trying to find several people who were believed buried by landslides in the Tauranga area following this week’s devastating storms.

On Thursday morning at least two people – one of them a young girl – were missing after a landslide came down on several structures at campground at the base of Mauao, Mount Maunganui.

Meanwhile, a person was seriously hurt and two others killed after a landslide in Welcome Bay in Papamoa.

Follow the RNZ liveblog at the top of the page for the latest updates.

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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 member of the police’s media team told a documentary crew about the incident that led to Tom Phillips death at least an hour before family were notified, RNZ can reveal.

Police have apologised in person to the family and said the decision was “ill-advised”.

Phillips died following a shootout with police after they were called to reports of a burglary in September 2025.

It was earlier revealed a film crew from Dunedin-founded NHNZ Productions had been following the hunt for fugitive Phillips and his children for more than a year, gaining exclusive access to the investigation.

In response to an Official Information Act (OIA) request from Mata police refused to say when the Phillips family and the mother of the children were notified about the incident. However, RNZ understands his family was not told until after 7.30am, and the mother was not told until after 8am.

Police did confirm a media statement was published on its website at about 7.15am notifying that police were responding to a “serious incident in Western Waikato”.

“Subsequent announcements confirmed that Tom Phillips had been fatally shot during the incident.”

Police also confirmed its director of media and strategic communications notified the CEO of the documentary production crew of the “critical incident” by text at about 6.15am.

RNZ asked police why the documentary crew were informed before relatives, and what the text message said.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers said it was only recently brought to her attention that a member of the crew was informed of the critical incident prior to family members.

“I became aware of the timing as a result of the OIA being compiled.”

She said it was “very regrettable and is not the way police usually handle such matters”.

“Wherever possible, family are always advised first. This did not meet our standards and NZ police executive director media communications Cas Carter has apologised in person on behalf of NZ police to the family members for this.”

Police on the investigations team working on the Phillips’ case were not aware of or involved in the decision to advise the documentary crew at the time, Rogers said.

“That was done by way of text message from a member of the police media and communications team.

“Those communications are currently being considered for release as part of separate OIA requests and those processes must be completed.”

Rogers said the message informed a member of the documentary crew there had been a critical incident relating to Tom Phillips.

“While it was ill-advised, the staff member who sent it has been the main point of contact for the documentary crew and did not act with any bad intent. It was done as part of the agreement and working relationship in place between Police and the production company.

“While the documentary production company has a contractual relationship with NZ police which included strict conditions, I acknowledge in this instance the notification of the event to media and the documentary team should have been made at the same time.

“We again offer our apologies to the family members.”

The documentary makers’ ‘access agreement’ – earlier released to RNZ under the OIA – outlined exactly what the filmmakers and police signed up to back in March last year.

Filmmakers got exclusive opportunities to view evidence, and attend and record police briefings, meetings and operations over the course of the year.

In exchange for this access, the police retained extensive control over the documentary project.

Details from the documentary’s final proposal:

• A focus on follow-footage following staff involved in Operation Curly and associated operations
• Interviews with key investigation and district staff
• Interviews with specialist police officers
• Footage of police visits to the Marokopa community and local stakeholders (subject to permissions being granted)
• Done footage during aerial operations
• Additional footage, audio recordings and still images held by the police
• Recordings or transcripts of interviews
• Access to stills, CCTV and trail camera footage being used as evidence (subject to permissions being granted)

The contract gave authorities the right to preview any broadcast and require edits or removals a range of grounds including security, sensitivity, privacy and relevant court orders.

The police also hold veto rights over replays or altered versions of the documentary, and the right to terminate filming access at any time.

Grounds for termination include the producer breaching any term of the access agreement and failing to remedy the breach within five working days.

The contract said if a breach can not be remedied, including where the producer or their staff disobey a police direction, authorities can terminate the agreement without notice.

The filmmakers could not use any material recorded for the documentary for any other purpose whatsoever, unless authorised by the police in writing.

The agreement also stated the filmmakers could not use photos of the children, with the exception of those already published in the media, without permission from their legal guardian and the police.

These provisions all exist within the context of heavy suppression orders made by the Family Court that remain in place today.

The producers’ employees, agents and contractors all had to be vetted by the police, and the producer signed off on liability limited to $1 million for the documentary.

The contract was signed by the police and Dunedin-Based NHNZ Worldwide, in partnership with London-based Grain Media Ltd, on March 20, 2025.

It was expected the documentary would be broadcast in 2027, though this was subject to court proceedings.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

La Nina conditions and background climate change trends combined to create the intense rainfall that devastated North Island communities, climate experts say.

Even before the most recent bout of heavy rain, monthly rainfall to date was sitting at between two to four times the usual amount in Northland, the Coromandel, East Cape and Gisborne.

Dr Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished scholar at the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research and an affiliate of the University of Auckland physics department, said sea surface temperatures globally had steadily increased,

“It’s only half a degree or so but that increases the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, largely through evaporation.

“When the flow of air out of the tropics targets New Zealand, that’s when we get these real inundations and suddenly the amount of rain that’s falling can be 20 to 30 percent more than we would have received in the 1970s.”

As well as background ocean warming, the sea north of New Zealand was particularly warm at the moment, with temperature spikes of one to two degrees above normal for this time of year, Trenberth said.

“Record high sea temperatures tends to attract convection, showery conditions, and anything weather-wise that’s heading in that direction tends to get amplified.”

There was often a seasonal pattern to where storms tended to track, he said.

“It doesn’t just occur once – it may occur two or three times because the storms tend to have a preferred track for a while.

“That can last for two or three months, and it’s the second storm and the third storm that really cause the problems because the ground is already saturated.”

Earth Sciences New Zealand chief climate scientist Sam Dean said New Zealand’s mountainous terrain did not help.

“You’ve got a lot of moisture being carried by the storms and then when they interact with those hills … you’re seeing a lot of rainfall being dropped.”

La Nina conditions had prevailed over the last decade, and it could be difficult to separate out that climate variability from longer-term patterns, Dean said.

“[But] we do believe we are seeing more extreme rainfall events occurring.

“Unfortunately that’s one of the consequences [of climate change] for a country like New Zealand.”

There was a particular risk summers could become wetter because of rising ocean temperatures.

“The planet has been very warm the last couple of years and it’s been a rapid warming… so it’s like getting a peek into the future.”

Victoria University climate science professor James Renwick said the kind of weather events New Zealand was experiencing on a regular basis had long been warned of.

“It gives me no pleasure to say, ‘I told you so,'” he said.

“As oceans warm we see these warmer sea surface conditions. Warmer air can hold more moisture so you tend to get heavier rainfall… That’s the climate change trend.”

The warming and sea level rise that had already occurred was locked in for centuries, but if the world could reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero, that could halt further changes, he said.

“It’s a big ask, and all we do then is just lock in the current conditions. To see a reversal back to the kind of climate we used to have … requires technology that doesn’t exist, to suck carbon out of the atmosphere.”

To cope with the changes that were already occurring, New Zealand needed to continue its efforts to adapt communities threatened by severe weather, he said.

“That’s happening in places and it’s very much down to individual regional authorities. But we have a National Adaptation Plan now… so hopefully we will see more adaptation responses over the next few years.”

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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 rural Pāpāmoa resident says his family is worried about living in fear of another slip after his neighbour’s property was flattened by a landslide early yesterday morning.

Two bodies have since been recovered from a house on Welcome Bay Road.

Lindsay Putt, who lives on Welcome Bay Road, evacuated with his wife Zoe Beck, who is 34 weeks pregnant and their three-year-old daughter Willow at about 5am on Thursday after the landslide damaged neighbouring properties.

“We heard what we thought was thunder coming from above the hill behind our house. But you could hear it moving towards the driveway, and we put it together that it was rocks and debris, and it was a landslide. It was pretty close to home.”

He estimated the falling debris missed them by about forty metres.

He said they did not know when they would be able to return to their home, and in the meantime, would be staying with family in Tauranga.

“We went back to the house and spoke to the cops who had cordoned off the road about what was happening and when we’ll be able to come back. They have our contact details and will let us know when it’s ok.

“This morning we could see a lot more damage because when it [the landslide] hit, it was dark, we couldn’t see anything.

“Just seeing the amount of slip behind our house is a bit daunting. If we move back in are we always going to be not sleeping properly or on edge because we don’t know if a little bit of rain overnight is going to get it moving again?”

He said he felt devastated for their neighbours, and the ordeal had left them quite shaken.

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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 hacked online patient portal Manage My Health says fraudsters could now be attempting to contact its customers.

The organisation said in a statement it had notified most of the people affected by the data theft that happened late last year.

But it warned people might now be sending spam or phishing emails that impersonate the company.

“We’re also aware that secondary actors may impersonate MMH and send spam or phishing emails to prompt engagement. These communications are not from MMH. We’re investigating steps to limit this activity and have included guidance below on how to protect yourself below,” it said.

Manage My Health said some of the people it initially contacted about the hack had not been affected.

“We are progressing through the notifications, with most of affected patients having now received a notification email. Our priority is to continue notifying the remaining affected patients and ensuring they receive appropriate support.”

The organisation said it was working closely with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which announced an inquiry into privacy aspects of the hack this week.

The cyber criminal(s) demanded thousands of dollars as a ransom, threatening to otherwise release the data on the dark web, potentially exposing more than 120,000 New Zealanders’ medical details.

There had been no further mention of the Manage My Health data from the hackers since the last reported deadline passed (January 9).

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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 disaster expert says the “awful events” involving landlsides this week show the importance of knowing how to tell when one is coming.

Several people were trapped in two separate landslides in the Bay of Plenty on Thursday, with two confirmed fatalities in Pāpāmoa.

Dr Lauren Vinnella, a senior lecturer of emergency management at Massey University’s joint centre for disaster research, said there were sometimes warning signs of a landslide to look out for.

“Landslides can occur on most of the slopes we have in New Zealand.

“In particular, if there are any rocks falling or small slips, it might be a sign that a larger slip is about to happen, any cracks or bulges in the ground, or doors or windows becoming hard to close or open because the frames have moved.”

Vinnella said it was important to remember if a person felt as if they were in danger it was always best to act on it.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” she said.

Landslide could happen very suddenly, she said, especially during rain and after earthquakes.

She hoped research could inform decisions about how and whether to build on slopes.

“Landslides are quite common in New Zealand and can cause considerable damage.

“My thoughts are with those impacted by the recent severe weather, including those affected by the landslides.”

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