Category: 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

One person has died after a truck rolled on a walking track in Central Otago this afternoon.

Police said the crash on Grovers Hill walking track – off Teviot Street in Roxburgh – was reported at 3.15pm.

The person died at the scene and the track is now closed while the Serious Crash Unit investigate.

The public have been advised to avoid the area.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

For the past 20 years Annette Hall has been like a mother to the boaties of the Far North.

She’s kept tabs on where they are with twice-daily calls, checked to make sure they return to port when expected, provided weather forecasts, and – when things go badly awry – co-ordinated rescues at any time of day or night.

She’s done all that, unpaid, from her living room in a modest cottage overlooking Doubtless Bay.

At 6pm on Wednesday, however, the radio operator with the infectious laugh signed off for the last time.

That also meant the end of a service that’s been running since at least 1947.

Surprisingly, Hall had no maritime background – beyond a love of fishing – when she first got involved with Far North Radio and Sea Rescue in the early 2000s.

She was previously a publican, who pulled pints at well-known hotels in Ōpua, Kaitāia and Mangōnui.

Hall said she got involved by accident because she used to live next door to Far North Radio stalwarts Malcolm and Maureen MacMillan, better known as Mac and Mo.

“One afternoon, Maureen said to me, ‘You’re very good at talking a lot. Let me show you the radio’. And I said, ‘Okay, how hard could it be?'”

Initially Hall did a few evening shifts so her neighbours could have some time off.

When Maureen MacMillan sadly died of motor neurone disease, Hall agreed to step in while her husband “sorted things out”.

“I came home from work, and there was all their radio equipment on my dining table. So I said, ‘Okay, let’s just do it for a few months, and we’ll take it from there’.”

That was 20 years ago.

“It’s longer than four months. Way longer. But it’s been fun, you know? It’s a community thing, and very family-oriented.”

Far North Radio and Sea Rescue operated a VHF marine radio service from Whangaroa Harbour on the east coast up to the Three Kings Islands, and down the west coast to the Hokianga Harbour.

It also had a single-sideband (SSB) radio service with an almost unlimited range, and – until a few weeks ago – a rescue boat named Lily Walker.

A previous boat, Good as Gold, got its name from Maureen MacMillan’s favourite expression.

The service catered to commercial and recreational fishers, “blue water” sailors travelling between New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, and many a fishing contest.

As the senior operator, Hall was responsible for the morning and evening calls, with other volunteers covering the day shifts so she could go to work at the local vets.

She also monitored the airwaves during weekends and public holidays, and even had a radio next to her bed so she could be roused for emergencies at any time of night.

Doubtless Bay-based commercial fisherman Nat Davey said Hall’s contribution had been “amazing”.

“Over the last good 20 years, Annette’s been like a mum to the fishermen out there,” he said.

“She’s kept a great eye on us, and if for some reason we haven’t called up in the evenings and she knows we’re out there, she’ll always check in to make sure we’re all fine. It’s pretty selfless, really. She just gets in there and does it.”

Ethan Bryant, skipper of fishing charter boat Te Ariki Nui, spoke to RNZ by satellite from the Three Kings Islands, about 30 nautical miles north of Cape Reinga.

“We look at her as our guardian angel,” he said.

“She’s one of the only people that looks out for us out here. Between 7.30 and 8 o’clock every single morning without fail you hear that sweet voice come on the radio, no matter how rough or rainy or sunny or whatever it is, you always feel comfortable. That little 30 second chat every morning and every afternoon, it means a lot.”

Bryant said Hall would be greatly missed – especially by boaties who travelled far offshore, beyond the reach of Coastguard.

“She knows exactly where everybody is. If she doesn’t hear from you or you forget to do your afternoon call, she’ll make sure she gets hold of you before the end of the day. If she can’t, then she knows something’s up,” he said.

“I know she looks at us as her boys that she looks after. It’s definitely a big help knowing that somebody’s looking over you and knows exactly where your nearest help is.”

Hall said the toughest part of her role was when tragedy struck.

The most serious events included the Enchanter sinking of 2022, when five people died, and the Karikari Peninsula fire of 2011, when a helicopter on a rescue mission crashed into the sea.

If she was woken for an emergency at night, she had a simple technique for “getting into the zone”.

“When something happens, you get up, and put the jug on first,” she said.

“One of the really big ones I had was the Karikari fire, when we lost two people in the helicopter. That was a real tragedy.”

Hall, who turns 75 later this month, said she had a number of reasons for hanging up her handpiece.

“It’s just natural attrition, really. You know, we’ve all got older, and you need to go on and do other things. My daughter’s just moved up here from the South Island, I’d like to spend some time with her. And also, I’m actually quite old, believe it or not.”

Hall said she also had “a lot of cricket to catch up on” and was hoping to finally get a chance to do some fishing.

Coastguard New Zealand told RNZ it was currently in discussion with Far North Radio and Sea Rescue about the future of VHF radio coverage in the area.

No decision had been made as yet, but Coastguard wanted to ensure Far North boaties had continued access to safe and reliable radio coverage.

Boaties could also use VHF channel 16 for trip reports and requests for help, which would be passed on to Coastguard if needed.

In 2025, Hall was named a Local Hero medallist in the New Zealander of the Year Awards, and was presented with a Te Tohu Tutuki/Lifetime Achievement Award by the Far North District Council.

Independent, volunteer-run Far North Radio and Sea Rescue received no direct government funding. Member subscriptions, sponsorship and fundraising were its main sources of income.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

One of New Zealand’s rarest plant species is getting another shot at survival, after plummeting to just two known plants in the wild.

About 250 Craspedia argentia seedlings are this week being planted at Mahaka Katia Scientific Reserve in Central Otago following years of painstaking hand-pollination, propagation and care by conservationists and botanists.

Department of Conservation senior technical adviser in ecology Richard Ewans said the project was effectively an 11th-hour rescue mission for the woollyhead herb, which was endemic to the Pisa Flats.

“We’ve been really concerned about this plant disappearing…. so we knew we had to intervene and start a programme of breeding,” he said.

Botanist Geoffrey Rogers, who has studied the rare flora of the Otago drylands for much of his career, said Craspedia argentia numbers had been dropping even under the protection of the reserve.

As the population thinned and the pollination network broke down, researchers managed to collect just three seeds in one season – two of which germinated.

“All of these plants going back into the ground – now hundreds – were derived from those two plants,” he said.

To build up numbers, staff at the Dunedin Botanic Garden spent about two years carefully cross-pollinating and hand-pollinating flowers, Ewans said.

“We initially thought we might be dealing with 20 or 30 plants to translocate back, but we had really good success with the group, particularly at the Botanic Gardens. Their work has been amazing. We produced about 800 seeds from the first season … and that turned into about 300 seedlings,” he said.

“We’ve cracked a bit of a code around how to grow the plants now so we’re confident we can keep producing plants.”

Apprentice Jess Freeman was among several Dunedin Botanic Garden staff involved in nursing the plants through propagation.

“We’ve just kind of looked after the babies, nursed them up, counted seed from them, and stored them in our fridge,” she said

Dunedin Botanic Garden botanist Tom Myers said the species had become personally significant for staff working with it.

“It really speaks to me of this habitat. Like I’ve always loved coming through Central Otago, and it clearly is well suited to this habitat,” he said.

In Alexandra, home-based propagator Dhana Pillai also helped raise plants destined for the reserve and harden them off by gradually introducing them to the Central Otago climate.

“They’re quite fussy plants – sometimes they don’t look so good. And you think, oh, what’s going wrong here? What have I done? Have they got too much water?,” she said.

“It’s really great to be part of this project. I’m learning so much about these plants, and there’s still a long way to go.”

The newly planted seedlings would be closely monitored through winter via monthly visits and a trail camera, with the hope they would establish roots and survive their first Central Otago summer, Ewans said.

Saving the Craspedia argentia was only one step in a much larger restoration effort at Mahaka Katia Scientific Reserve, Rogers said.

“We’re rescuing a species, but really what we want to do is rescue an ecosystem, and all of the flow of nutrients and energy and animal food webs that are associated.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

At age 14, Valiant Overcomer climbed into the back of a truck as it drove out of Gloriavale towards what he believed could be hell.

The Christian community, on the West Coast of Te Wai Pounamu, was the only place he’d known. Gloriavale, he’d grown up to believe, was the only path to salvation.

And yet he’d decided to leave, alongside two of his sisters. Coming from one of only a handful of whānau Māori in the community, he’d had enough.

“We’d made this decision … [we] would rather go to hell than be in there at this point in time,” Valiant says.

Eleven years after that dramatic departure, Valiant has spoken to Mata Reports about his life in the community, as well as some racist attitudes and psychological tactics he endured.

However, he is using his voice not in anger, but with compassion and consideration for the community he still feels connected to.

He still has aroha for the people there. “Absolutely, they’re my people,” he says.

And he still believes the community has a future.

While changes need to be made to address problems, including sexual abuse, Valiant says it needs to come from inside Gloriavale.

Government agency-led impositions won’t work, he believes.

“When I look at history, I don’t know if I’ve found a system that has been destroyed from the outside, so to change it must change from within.

“We have to surrender to the fact that we’ve gotten something wrong here along the way and … we need to make dramatic change.”

He believes a tikanga Māori approach may be a way forward. “It’s a safe option for people, both in there and [for] people that would like to live there.”

Mata Reports approached Gloriavale for comment, but a community spokesperson said they were unable to respond before deadline.

Valiant was born at Gloriavale, the ninth of 12 siblings to a Ngāi Tahu mother and Pākehā father.

He says he remembers how Hopeful Christian, the late, disgraced founder of Gloriavale, would treat Māori members of the community differently to Pākehā.

“He was putting us on a level below him, or below white people,” says Valiant. “We were getting the message that we’re second class citizens.”

Despite that attitude, he and other family members were able to thrive in some ways.

As a teenager, he’d achieved NCEA level 1, 2 and 3 and was working on the community farm. “At 14, I can run a small dairy farm, I can build a shed, I can drive a tractor … I can slaughter an animal from pasture to plate.”

Meanwhile, one of his brothers, Elijah, was being singled out for a leadership position. However, things began to unravel when Elijah started to raise questions over abuse within the community.

Eventually, he and his wife Rosie left. Under the rules in place at the time, that meant they were effectively disconnected from their whānau and banned from coming back.

Around the same time, Valiant says he too started to become uncomfortable about some of the practices in the community.

Senior leaders, known as the shepherds and servants, would enter as of right the private accommodation spaces of whānau, including his own. He started to think: “Why do they have that right?”

And then there would be meetings he would see his siblings called to, in front of shepherds and servants.

“They would come out … three, four hours later, and they’re just distraught. You can see them going through this process of trauma.”

His tipping point came one day when he was in one such meeting with two sisters. He says they were being made to feel “extremely small” and subjected to “manipulative treatment”.

But then one of his older sisters entered the room and told the leaders that their brother who had left, Elijah, had arrived at the community, even though he wasn’t allowed to.

Valiant and the sisters he was in the meeting room with left to go and see Elijah who was being surrounded and told “we don’t want you here, you need to leave”.

Valiant started to cry and told him about the meeting. Elijah told him to get in the back of the truck, and within 10 minutes they were leaving.

“Driving down that drive was probably one of the hardest and slowest drives I’ve ever been on. It was very emotional.”

After the turmoil of that day, life settled down as he initially moved in with Elijah and his family, and enrolled in school.

“You need to start this whole process of living in the outside world.”

Eventually, his whole whānau moved out of Gloriavale, strengthened by the aroha and kaha (love and strength) of their mother.

“She’s our unconditional love portal to our family … the backbone of our whānau.”

Now married, Valiant and his wife Jaegar have two tamāhine (daughters), and they live on a farm near Gloriavale’s property.

Another significant part of his life has been reconnecting with his iwi, Ngāi Tahu.

“In te ao Māori and te reo Māori and on this haereka (journey) … I’m starting to get closer to my life’s purpose.”

He feels a relationship with the whenua, including the land upon which Gloriavale stands, at Haupiri.

These days, the rules around former members have loosened up a bit. Valiant sometimes goes back to the community for work reasons – for instance getting farm machinery fixed.

“So that’s my relationship right now with Gloriavale, a working relationship.”

He hopes that a new way of thinking can take hold in the community, and that people will be allowed to have more freedom.

“It’s okay [to have] out of the box thinking. Me mau tonu ki tēnā – hold on to that … don’t let it be programmed out of you.”

Made with the help of Te Māngai Pāho & NZ on Air

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Health NZ has confirmed one of the New Zealanders on board a cruise ship struck by hantavirus does not usually live in New Zealand.

One New Zealand citizen left the ship before the hantavirus outbreak was revealed, while another disembarked on Monday and is now being quarantined in Australia.

Director of Public Health Dr Corina Gray said the first New Zealander to leave the ship was in fact a dual national and did not live in New Zealand.

“We can confirm New Zealand authorities have been in contact with a dual New Zealand national, not normally resident in New Zealand, who has been exposed to hantavirus,” she said in a statement.

“On Thursday last week, New Zealand authorities alerted the public health services where this person normally resides. We have also alerted health partners in the country where this person is currently located.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was in contact with the person.

“We are providing consular assistance to a dual national who ordinarily resides outside New Zealand, who has sought help from MFAT today.”

On Tuesday, the ABC reported the Australian Federal Health Minister Mark Butler as saying the Kiwi due to quarantine in Perth with five Australians was in “good health” and “relatively good spirits” despite the situation.

Three passengers on board the ship – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died after contracting the virus.

As of Tuesday, Butler told the ABC that a French national – also from the cruise – was in critical condition in hospital after testing positive for the virus.

What is hantavirus?

Hantavirus is typically spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings.

This particular strain, the Andes virus, is endemic to Argentina, and is the only strain of hantavirus that has been known to have human to human transmission – typically through very close contact such as sharing a bed or food.

Its symptoms typically include fever, headache, muscle aches and gastrointestinal symptoms.

No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, but quick hospital care can often prevent symptoms turning deadly.

Hantaviruses are found in small mammals such as rats, mice, voles, shrews and lemmings, but no New Zealand rodents carry these viruses, University of Auckland associate professor of infectious diseases Dr Mark Thomas said.

“The only way a New Zealand resident could become unwell with a hantavirus infection would be as the result of travel to a country where the virus is present.”

WHO has said the investigations so far suggest possible exposure to rodents during bird watching activities.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

An independent review into Invercargill’s Awanui Labs is needed after doctors twice missed signs a woman had cancer, Patient Voice Aotearoa says.

The lab failed to detect the 74-year-old retired nurse had stomach cancer, despite analysing multiple biopsies with cancer cells present.

It meant her treatment was delayed by nine months and she died a year later.

The lab is privately owned, but is contracted by Health New Zealand to provide medical laboratory and pathology services.

The retired nurse was referred to Southland Hospital by her GP for recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding in 2021 and had a number of tests.

A Health and Disability Commission report, released last month, found Awanui Labs did not ensure reasonable care and skill in providing services to the patient.

Advocacy group Patient Voice Aotearoa wants the government to conduct an independent review of histology testing undertaken at Invercargill by Awanui Labs from 2021 to 2023.

Chair Malcolm Mulholland said doing so would give surety that the diagnoses patients received were correct.

“Awanui did not disclose to the Health and Disability Commissioner who looked into that case that they had effectively stopped providing histology service out of Invercargill.

“I believe that if that knowledge had have come to light, then it could have been that the Health and Disability Commissioner recommend that a wider look be taken at the practices of the lab,” he said.

Mulholland said pathologists have been reporting concerns with that practice of testing.

“My understanding is that in order to get the best results, you are best to conduct the biopsies where you are and then to subsequently, at that very place, have the pathology undertaken, as opposed to transporting it off-site to another lab that might be 2, 2 1/2 hours up the road,”

Mulholland said workloads were also a massive concern.

“I’ve certainly heard from a number of pathologists on that front that they are extremely concerned about their high workload.

“And some have attributed the mistakes that were made in that particular case towards having a high workload,” he said.

Awanui Labs has confirmed the patient’s tests were sent to Dunedin.

In a statement, it said that the practice had been in place for Southland since 2020 and the Health of Disability Commissioner was aware of this during its investigation.

The company said there were appropriate levels of staffing, support and oversight in Dunedin at the time.

Awanui did not accept that patient safety was compromised due to workload pressures or staffing levels.

It said it continuously monitors workloads, staffing and service demand across its network to ensure safe and timely diagnostic services for patients.

Awanui’s pathology services are overseen by International Accreditation New Zealand and it adheres to Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) standards.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A proposal to run a floating sauna in a popular Te Anau reserve has gone up in steam in the face of public backlash.

The plan was for people to sweat it out on a floating pontoon on Lake Henry with the option to finish with a cold plunge.

Floating Sauna Limited first applied for a licence to occupy in Ivon Wilson Park under the Reserves Act back in 2024 – it was granted a resource consent in February.

The Southland District Council spent hours discussing the many concerns residents raised at a meeting on Wednesday.

In the busy tourist town of Te Anau, Diana Zadravec said Ivon Wilson Park was a welcome patch of tranquility

“We really appreciate to have one space in town that is not commercialised, that is not pre-dominantly for tourism,” she said.

She and others have been fighting to keep the floating sauna from setting up shop on the lake at its heart.

“It’s just the place you can go and just walk and have quiet and have peace, and it’s just incredible. There’s this little lake in the middle that’s like the jewel in it.”

The company’s application said the saunas would create a new way to appreciate the park without compromising the enjoyment of the wider reserve and it would provide a year round opportunity for residents and visitors to “provide for their health and well-being”.

Earlier this year, council received 210 submissions on the planned sauna – 170 were against it and 37 backed the proposal.

Councillors considered those points of view at Wednesday’s meeting, with councillor Matt Wilson saying residents had ensured their voices were heard.

“Lake Henry is only this big. There’s three public platforms and one out of three of them would be commercialised so that sentiment from the submissions, I think, really does need to stand,” he said.

Many residents did not want to see a business on a lake they treasured, he said.

“The acknowledgement that Te Anau’s got a strong tourism economy but the park was cited as a space where locals could step away from the commercial tourism and go to a local space that wasn’t commercialised.”

Councillor Jaspreet Boparai agreed.

“Multiple people said that the jetty’s the first place we head to when we visit the park,” she said.

A resource consent for the saunas was granted in February.

But councillor Don Byars said that should not mean the community’s environmental concerns were discounted, especially as the saunas were wood-fired.

“Heating saunas to accommodate 160-something people (a day), I would have thought that on balance that there is going to be an effect of smoke in that park. I don’t see how you can rule that out,” he said.

When it came to decision time, no one backed the proposal and it was declined.

Diana Zadravec said it was the right call to make.

“I think it was never a question of whether the community supported a sauna project, it was just not the right location for it,” she said.

“I was really impressed with the robustness of the discussion that was held by the council. It was a very thorough and long discussion about it.”

A floating sauna on Lake Henry might be off the cards, but some locals hope the idea will not lose steam – just find somewhere else to go.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

There has been an increased security presence at a West Auckland train station, after anti-social behaviour involving teenagers yesterday.

The incident occurred at the Sturges Road train station car park on Tuesday afternoon.

Auckland Transport spokesperson Hayden Rawcliffe confirmed the incident involving a group of young people, some of whom were in school uniforms.

Kelston Boys’ High School said it had students who were involved.

“The school is aware of an incident that occurred yesterday afternoon and is taking the matter seriously.

“We are currently working with other schools involved and relevant agencies to establish the facts. For privacy reasons, we are unable to comment on individual students or provide further details at this time.”

Rawcliffe said AT’s train service operator Auckland One Rail had placed security at the station on Wednesday.

“AOR is sharing CCTV footage from the station with the police, and the appropriate schools to ensure this is managed from their sides.

“AOR is also sending roving security patrols to the area this afternoon to help reassure our passengers and provide a more visible presence.

“While this was an incident that took place near a train station, it could have occurred at any public place. Although AT has a range of initiatives and staff in place to help with public safety on public transport and at our facilities, our role is limited, and we don’t have the primary responsibility or enforcement powers that Police have.

Rawcliffe said no transport officers were at the station at the time of the incident.

“Where possible, AT transport officers are often rostered to be on trains during peak travel times, including after school. This is to deter antisocial behaviour and to prevent fare evasion. However, our transport officers cannot be everywhere, all at once, and unfortunately, none were present at Sturges Road Train Station at the time of yesterday’s incident.

“We would suggest that a concerned person call 111 in cases of emergency – AT actively works with police and supplies CCTV or access to our systems to monitor situations like the below if required. They can also approach a station guard with concerns and make a report to Crime Stoppers.”

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