Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fire and Emergency is urging residents in storm-affected areas to be ready to evacuate if necessary, following a night of heavy rain.

A red weather warning remains in place for Northland east of Kaikohe from Doubtless Bay to Whangārei, with the worst of the downpours expected to hit on Thursday afternoon.

Marae in the region have been opened for those in need of support, and Fire and Emergency has deployed 19 specialist rescue personnel to Northland and Auckland.

MetService said the heaviest rain and largest volumes were likely to be in the upper North Island, from Northland to western Bay of Plenty.

Downpours, flooding, and slips were also possible on Thursday and Friday.

Fire and Emergency assistant national commander Ken Cooper warned residents in upper parts of Northland to be ready in case the situation deteriorated.

“For that upper part of Northland, the intelligence we’ve got is there’s a large amount of rainfall over a very short period of time. I would certainly advise people to be prepared, if they’re in low lying areas or near rivers, be prepared to move.”

Cooper said anyone concerned about a risk to life or property should call 111.

Northland Civil Defence expected the worst of the rain to hit the northeast coast on Thursday night.

In a post on social media, it warned residents not to go into flood water, to avoid unnecessary travel, and to be aware of slips.

“Leave immediately if you notice cracks in the ground, leaning trees or power poles, unusual sounds, or sudden changes in streams,” it said.

Follow the latest updates in our live blog above.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Specialist rescue teams are being deployed to Northland as the region hunkers down for the worst of the severe weather.

A red weather warning is in place, with the worst of the downpours expected to hit on Thursday afternoon.

Marae in the region have been opened for those in need of support.

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) assistant national commander Ken Cooper told RNZ it had prepared its response across the region, pre-deploying crews to where they would be most needed.

“We are pre-positioning our specialists water rescue team, and some urban search and rescue teams,” he said.

“These are severe situations that our people are going to be encountering so we want to ensure that we’ve got the right people in the right place.”

Cooper said 17 specialists would be deployed to Northland, while eight would be in Auckland.

FENZ had to pre-position crews strategically, he said.

“We get informed that it’s going to impact a very large geographic area, so it’s always very challenging for Fire and Emergency to pre-position exactly where a storm is going to hit and where the impacts would be.”

His advice for locals was to keep an eye on news and alerts put out by authorities, and to get out if the situation turns dangerous.

“If people feel that life and property is endangered or at risk then please do call 111.

“For that upper part of Northland, the intellegence we’ve got is there’s a large amount of rainfall over a very short period of time. I would certainly advise people to be prepared, if they’re in low lying areas or near rivers, be prepared to move,” Cooper said.

Meanwhile, residents in Northland were facing the oncoming storm.

Max Thompson lived in Mokau, near Ōakura, but the creek crossing to get to his house had been washed out.

He was staying in a campervan at Mokau marae said most people knew they could come to the marae if need be.

“These weather events have prompted our communities, our marae communities, to get into action and to build capacity for when they happen,” he said.

“I don’t want to sound too blasé, but I’m quite comfortable and confident that we’ll ride this storm out.”

Robynne Cooper owned the Whangaruru beachfront camp and said the weather had made it a difficult summer season.

“We should still have quite a few campers out there,” she said.

“It hit us in peak season, so we’ve lost a lot of income and a lot of campers, that’s for sure. We’ve had pretty much 80 percent cancellation.”

Robynne Cooper said she was worried about the sustainability of the business.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens, I haven’t lost any sleep over it, I’m not that person that’s going to stress and kill myself with a heart attack, but it is going to be a very, very tough year that’s for sure.”

Ngātiwai kaiwhiriwhiri Jude Thompson lived in Tūparehuia/Bland Bay, in the north of Whangaruru.

“It’s probably one of the safest areas on the flat. In saying that last time my house flooded, so I’ll probably be staying up quite a bit through the night just to see what happens here. Most of the communities out in this area last time were individually cut off for one reason or another, either through trees falling or through slips. So everybody needs to be ready to be independent and look after themselves.

“All of our marae have stood up and are just absolutely amazing and have everything that we need to keep our whānau safe.”

She said it would be a very long night. Rain had been falling throughout the day, but began to intensify once night fell. Her power went out around 9.30pm. As of 10.30pm, Northpower reported around 1500 homes without power, including in Aranga, Mamaranui, Kamo and Whangaruru.

Thompson said many residents were tired and quite anxious following January’s widespread and destructive flooding. Punarurku, to the west of Whangaruru Harbour, was hit with 285.5mm of rain over a day during the January floods. That was more than the approximately 260mm that typically fell over the area over the whole of summer.

January’s severe weather also caused a significant slip at the southern end of Whangaruru which would take months to clear, and had left those entering from the south during the day having to drive in convoy following a pilot vehicle.

“It’s quite a long road, it’s gravel, it’s windy, there’s some quite significant drop-offs, and it’s having quite an impact on people’s vehicles.”

Many residents were very anxious about the forecast rain, and warnings about the incoming storm had left many on edge.

“People are anxious about this event and given it’s a red warning that does come with a risk to life so we have to be very vigilant to take it so seriously.

“We’ve seen since the event in January that the impacts on people’s mental health, the rise in anxiety, the psychosocial effects have been significant, right across Whangaruru and with our whānau who are up in Whangaroa who were very impacted as well.

“A couple of days ago when the forecast was communicated and as it’s got closer and we went to a red warning today, people are really, really anxious and feel quite triggered given what they went through.

“Some of our whānau arrived at the marae literally in just what they were standing in. They had lost absolutely everything. Everything had washed away and they were just standing in wet clothes. So to hear even the sound of rain since then … has been really difficult.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Specialist rescue teams are being deployed to Northland as the region hunkers down for the worst of the severe weather.

A red weather warning is in place, with the worst of the downpours expected to hit on Thursday afternoon.

Marae in the region have been opened for those in need of support.

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) assistant national commander Ken Cooper told RNZ it had prepared its response across the region, pre-deploying crews to where they would be most needed.

“We are pre-positioning our specialists water rescue team, and some urban search and rescue teams,” he said.

“These are severe situations that our people are going to be encountering so we want to ensure that we’ve got the right people in the right place.”

Cooper said 17 specialists would be deployed to Northland, while eight would be in Auckland.

FENZ had to pre-position crews strategically, he said.

“We get informed that it’s going to impact a very large geographic area, so it’s always very challenging for Fire and Emergency to pre-position exactly where a storm is going to hit and where the impacts would be.”

His advice for locals was to keep an eye on news and alerts put out by authorities, and to get out if the situation turns dangerous.

“If people feel that life and property is endangered or at risk then please do call 111.

“For that upper part of Northland, the intellegence we’ve got is there’s a large amount of rainfall over a very short period of time. I would certainly advise people to be prepared, if they’re in low lying areas or near rivers, be prepared to move,” Cooper said.

Meanwhile, residents in Northland were facing the oncoming storm.

Max Thompson lived in Mokau, near Ōakura, but the creek crossing to get to his house had been washed out.

He was staying in a campervan at Mokau marae said most people knew they could come to the marae if need be.

“These weather events have prompted our communities, our marae communities, to get into action and to build capacity for when they happen,” he said.

“I don’t want to sound too blasé, but I’m quite comfortable and confident that we’ll ride this storm out.”

Robynne Cooper owned the Whangaruru beachfront camp and said the weather had made it a difficult summer season.

“We should still have quite a few campers out there,” she said.

“It hit us in peak season, so we’ve lost a lot of income and a lot of campers, that’s for sure. We’ve had pretty much 80 percent cancellation.”

Robynne Cooper said she was worried about the sustainability of the business.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens, I haven’t lost any sleep over it, I’m not that person that’s going to stress and kill myself with a heart attack, but it is going to be a very, very tough year that’s for sure.”

Ngātiwai kaiwhiriwhiri Jude Thompson lived in Tūparehuia/Bland Bay, in the north of Whangaruru.

“It’s probably one of the safest areas on the flat. In saying that last time my house flooded, so I’ll probably be staying up quite a bit through the night just to see what happens here. Most of the communities out in this area last time were individually cut off for one reason or another, either through trees falling or through slips. So everybody needs to be ready to be independent and look after themselves.

“All of our marae have stood up and are just absolutely amazing and have everything that we need to keep our whānau safe.”

She said it would be a very long night. Rain had been falling throughout the day, but began to intensify once night fell. Her power went out around 9.30pm. As of 10.30pm, Northpower reported around 1500 homes without power, including in Aranga, Mamaranui, Kamo and Whangaruru.

Thompson said many residents were tired and quite anxious following January’s widespread and destructive flooding. Punarurku, to the west of Whangaruru Harbour, was hit with 285.5mm of rain over a day during the January floods. That was more than the approximately 260mm that typically fell over the area over the whole of summer.

January’s severe weather also caused a significant slip at the southern end of Whangaruru which would take months to clear, and had left those entering from the south during the day having to drive in convoy following a pilot vehicle.

“It’s quite a long road, it’s gravel, it’s windy, there’s some quite significant drop-offs, and it’s having quite an impact on people’s vehicles.”

Many residents were very anxious about the forecast rain, and warnings about the incoming storm had left many on edge.

“People are anxious about this event and given it’s a red warning that does come with a risk to life so we have to be very vigilant to take it so seriously.

“We’ve seen since the event in January that the impacts on people’s mental health, the rise in anxiety, the psychosocial effects have been significant, right across Whangaruru and with our whānau who are up in Whangaroa who were very impacted as well.

“A couple of days ago when the forecast was communicated and as it’s got closer and we went to a red warning today, people are really, really anxious and feel quite triggered given what they went through.

“Some of our whānau arrived at the marae literally in just what they were standing in. They had lost absolutely everything. Everything had washed away and they were just standing in wet clothes. So to hear even the sound of rain since then … has been really difficult.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Lincoln University has confirmed plans to cut 40 full-time equivalent jobs, as the union raises concerns about the speed and impact of the changes.

The university informed staff today it was calling for early retirements and voluntary redundancies, before beginning formal processes in the middle of this year.

A Lincoln University spokesperson said the move was to maintain financial stability in 2026 and beyond, “and to position the university to continue our focus as a specialist university for the land-based sectors”.

Tertiary Education Union (TEU) delegate Professor Cor Vink said the news came as a bombshell.

“People were surprised, they’re obviously upset, people are worried about increasing workload as well as it doesn’t sound like if anyone takes redundancy that they would be replaced.”

Staff were told the university was losing some of its government funding and enrolments had not hit targets, Vink said.

The university revealed the plan at an all-staff meeting this afternoon, where it announced all permanent staff would be offered “enhanced retirement and enhanced voluntary cessation packages,” and had until 23 April to apply.

There was a lack of detail in the announcement, Vink said.

“There wasn’t a lot of clarity in the messaging at the meeting. There was supposed to be a memo for people to have a look at after the meeting, but that didn’t come out for another hour, so we’re sitting around twiddling our thumbs wondering what it’s all about.

“There is a degree of vagueness about the whole thing.”

The union would prioritise clarifying details, including information on how and why it had come to this, he said.

The university invited staff to propose ideas to save money, increase student numbers or improve the university’s finances, but Vink said he did not believe it was staff’s role to propose those type of solutions.

“The Vice Chancellor said if anyone can think of ideas to come to him, but I would think that’s why he gets paid the big bucks, because he should be thinking of those sorts of things.”

Questions were raised about the university’s capital programme, which included a number of new buildings, and whether those works could be stopped or put on hold.

“I know students don’t come to a university to see the buildings, they come to university to be taught by the experts. That’s certainly how I remember my university – I really don’t remember the buildings much at all, I remember the inspirational lectures I had.”

The speed of the process was worrying, especially given existing concerns about workload, Vink said.

“This is all supposed to be decided on in late May and wrapped up by June.

“That gives us just over a month to try and figure out the workload the people leaving have had and then be able to school up everyone else who’s got to carry the burden on how to do those jobs before the person leaves.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Interislander ferry Aratere is expected to arrive in Port Nelson later this week for the first time in nearly four months.

RNZ understands the ship, which has since been renamed Vega, will undergo a crew change and be restocked with fuel and provisions.

KiwiRail retired the ferry last August and announced in October it had been sold to a buyer who would deliver it to a shipbreaking yard in India.

Since being renamed Vega, the Interislander logos had been painted over and it is now flagged in the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

It is still not known when the ship will leave the country.

It has been anchored in Tasman Bay since early December with a crew from India, who had been onboard since October.

A Maritime NZ spokesperson said inspectors last visited the vessel in mid-February while it was in Tasman Bay, and planned to do so again while it was berthed in Nelson.

Inspectors had been regularly engaging with Vega, its operator and flag state regarding crew welfare and compliance with international requirements, Maritime NZ said.

“During these visits, inspectors speak directly with crew and assess compliance with relevant international conventions and flag state requirements relating to crew conditions and vessel safety.”

The Maritime Union has previously raised concerns about the wages and living conditions of those onboard.

Nelson branch president Paul Stewart said he understood Vega was coming in to Port Nelson this week for a crew change, to get rid of rubbish and resupply with food and water.

The union was planning to board the ship, if the captain granted permission, to check on the crew’s welfare and ensure they were being paid correctly, Stewart said.

There had been lots of rumours floating around so the union were keen to speak to the crew directly, he said.

“We haven’t had any contact with them. You hear rumours floating around that they’re not getting paid right or one member wants to jump off because the conditions are bad and that sort of thing. So we just want to get on board just to verify everything, pull the crew aside and just have a chat with them and touch base – see how they’re actually doing and get some definitive answers.”

The union had previously said the crew were being paid “significantly below international and domestic benchmarks”.

Whether the ship would leave for India after coming into port or return to anchor in Tasman Bay was the “million dollar question”, Stewart said.

RNZ understands some crew had been swapped out from the ship, with one person flown home to be with a sick family member, while a delivery of five pallets of food supplies was made several months ago.

RNZ understands issues with paperwork for the ship’s entry to India are the reason it had not left New Zealand.

The Environmental Protection Authority last month said the application for the ship’s export was complete but it had not received an update from the Competent Authority in India about the requested import consent.

The authority told RNZ this week it was unable to provide an update.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Getting an annual influenza vaccine can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke by a third, according to the Immunisation Advisory Centre.

The centre said there was a growing amount of evidence which showed that getting the vaccine was about as effective as using common heart medication.

Heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in New Zealand, accounting for 12,000 deaths per year.

Since 2003, strong evidence has emerged demonstrating that the flu vaccine offered substantial cardiovascular protection.

This protection comes directly from reducing the risk and severity of influenza, plus likely further non-specific immune protection.

Dr Philip Shirley from the Immunisation Advisory Centre told Midday Report that it had been known for about 100 years that in a really bad flu season the number of people having heart attacks and strokes increased.

“More recently we’ve been able to show that if you take a swab of someone in the community and they have influenza, they’ve got a six to 10 times the base rate of having a heart attack for the next seven to 10 days after they’re proven to have influenza.”

That happened for two reasons, he said.

The first was if you catch the flu it goes into your nose and then your chest, he said.

“From there the virus can actually relocate, so into your heart and when it gets to your heart it can cause conditions like myocarditis, peridcarditis, kind of inflammation of the heart, but even more concerning it can actually move into the blood vessels.

“When it’s in the blood vessels it can disrupt plaques that are here and disrupted plaques are what causes heart attacks because they rupture, they block the blood vessel, and that’s a heart attack. If it happens in the brain then it’s a stroke.”

Another issue was that the lungs of those suffering from severe influenza did not transport oxygen as well as usual, he said.

“And because your lungs aren’t working properly your heart starts beating faster and harder and that’s a problem – that increases your risk.”

The main way that the influenza vaccine protects people is because it protects you from getting influenza which can cause heart attacks and strokes, he said.

The influenza vaccination also “changes the way that the heart responds to stress and inflammation”, he said.

“They did some really interesting studies where people undergoing open heart surgery, some of them had an influenza vaccine the week before, some of them didn’t.

“And when you measure their inflammatory markers after the operation, the people who had the flu vaccine had less inflammation and they showed less signs of heart stress, after one of the most stressful things you can do to your heart.”

A third way the vaccine helps protect people was with “trained immunity”.

“I think of it like this – if our immune system is responding to things frequently, if we’re getting vaccinated regularly, then the immune system gets stronger, not just against the target disease, but it protects you from a wide range of bio-illnesses.

“Nearly any illness you catch can increase your risk of having a heart attack or a stroke – not as badly as influenza, but it can a bit. And getting the flu vaccine every year seems to protect you from lots of respiratory illnesses.”

Dr Shirley said the biggest benefits of getting the vaccine would be for those with chronic health conditions or were over the age of 65, but there were also benefits for healthier people.

“If you’re a healthy person, getting influenza is no picnic. Your rate of heart attacks and strokes might be low, but even increasing a low risk of heart attacks or strokes by six or 10 times isn’t something I would want to be doing.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Interislander ferry Aratere is expected to arrive in Port Nelson later this week for the first time in nearly four months.

RNZ understands the ship, which has since been renamed Vega, will undergo a crew change and be restocked with fuel and provisions.

KiwiRail retired the ferry last August and announced in October it had been sold to a buyer who would deliver it to a shipbreaking yard in India.

Since being renamed Vega, the Interislander logos had been painted over and it is now flagged in the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

It is still not known when the ship will leave the country.

It has been anchored in Tasman Bay since early December with a crew from India, who had been onboard since October.

A Maritime NZ spokesperson said inspectors last visited the vessel in mid-February while it was in Tasman Bay, and planned to do so again while it was berthed in Nelson.

Inspectors had been regularly engaging with Vega, its operator and flag state regarding crew welfare and compliance with international requirements, Maritime NZ said.

“During these visits, inspectors speak directly with crew and assess compliance with relevant international conventions and flag state requirements relating to crew conditions and vessel safety.”

The Maritime Union has previously raised concerns about the wages and living conditions of those onboard.

Nelson branch president Paul Stewart said he understood Vega was coming in to Port Nelson this week for a crew change, to get rid of rubbish and resupply with food and water.

The union was planning to board the ship, if the captain granted permission, to check on the crew’s welfare and ensure they were being paid correctly, Stewart said.

There had been lots of rumours floating around so the union were keen to speak to the crew directly, he said.

“We haven’t had any contact with them. You hear rumours floating around that they’re not getting paid right or one member wants to jump off because the conditions are bad and that sort of thing. So we just want to get on board just to verify everything, pull the crew aside and just have a chat with them and touch base – see how they’re actually doing and get some definitive answers.”

The union had previously said the crew were being paid “significantly below international and domestic benchmarks”.

Whether the ship would leave for India after coming into port or return to anchor in Tasman Bay was the “million dollar question”, Stewart said.

RNZ understands some crew had been swapped out from the ship, with one person flown home to be with a sick family member, while a delivery of five pallets of food supplies was made several months ago.

RNZ understands issues with paperwork for the ship’s entry to India are the reason it had not left New Zealand.

The Environmental Protection Authority last month said the application for the ship’s export was complete but it had not received an update from the Competent Authority in India about the requested import consent.

The authority told RNZ this week it was unable to provide an update.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

More needs to be done to discourage the use of super-sized vehicles in urban areas – and not just because they guzzle far more petrol at a time when there are growing concerns over price and supply, says a University of Auckland professor.

Double cab utes and SUVs are regularly among New Zealand’s top selling new vehicles.

Their capacity to guzzle fuel is in sharp focus at the moment with prices rising at the pump, along with concerns about diesel which largely keeps industry moving, including freight and farming.

Those concerns have led to calls for more regulation to discourage people buying supersized vehicles.

Professor Alistair Woodward – from the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences – told Checkpoint that while bigger vehicles are still widely used in rural areas and by tradies in the cities, the big rise in buyers in recent years had been in urban areas.

“They are becoming used more and more as the family vehicle, so their use is pretty widespread.

“What has changed is that they have become very popular as an alternative to cars.”

Woodward said more people needed to be aware of how inefficient the bigger vehicles were – “A Ford Ranger uses roughly twice as much fuel per kilometre as a Toyota Corolla.”

But he said the bigger vehicles created a number of other challenges beyond the petrol pump.

“They are bad for the climate with twice as much carbon monoxide, and they are very nasty if they run into you and cause problems.”

He cited a recent study in the US which found that if a child was struck by a light truck, they were seven times as more likely to die than if they were struck by a car.

He said two ways to discourage the rising number of bigger vehicles on urban streets were things like higher sales taxes, and resisting pressure to supersize parking spaces.

“As these double cab utes and other vehicles get larger, they really have difficulty fitting in what used to be an adequate carpark, they cause overhangs and cause frustrations for drivers.

“Rather than taking up more space for parking, we should do something about restricting the use of supersized vehicles in urban areas.”

But Woodward said there did not appear to be much enthusiasm in the current government to make these kinds of moves.

“The previous government introduced incentives for lower emission vehicles and by implication higher costs for people who buy double cab utes. The present government felt that this was not justified, and they have removed that discount scheme.

“So we’re waiting for good moves, but in the 1970s we downsized our cars because of the oil shocks, so maybe we’ve got something to learn from 50 years ago.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

After a million hours of labour, Te Rua – Archive New Zealand’s brand new Wellington building – is now open.

The 10-level, $290 million building is described as one of the world’s most technologically advanced archive protection facilities and forms part of Te Kahu, a new heritage campus.

The campus, which sees Archives New Zealand and the National Library physically joined, includes Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision and the Alexander Turnbull Library in its wider net.

Delivered on budget and on time, Te Rua has been held up as a win for public-private partnerships, but where the nation’s archives will ultimately be stored – and how much it will cost to do so – remains unclear.

Preserving windows into the past

Under the bright lights of the brand new Te Rua facility, research archivist Shaun McGuire points to a cluster of carefully laid out black and white photographs of the 488 Squadron.

“It was a fighter squadron that was sent to Singapore prior to the outbreak of hostilities with Japan. As you can see from their general posture, they’re green as grass and not particularly military,” he said.

“This chap here playing in the puddle – because it’s monsoonish – is Pete Gifford and the fellow playing with him is Len Farr. They’re both pilot officers.”

McGuire said the Brewster Buffalo planes they flew were outdated by World War II, and while Peter Gifford survived the war, others were not so lucky.

The photographs of the young men are but a taste of the historical material that will eventually be housed in Te Rua.

The bronze-accented state-of-the-art archive facility – boasting more than 19,000sqm of floor space and 90km of storage under tightly controlled environmental condition – will ultimately be home to millions of photographs, films and records, documenting the nation’s political, cultural and social history.

According to Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden, the new facility could not come soon enough.

“I think it’s a really awesome day for New Zealanders because it means that our nation’s history will be preserved. And I have to tell you, a couple of years ago when I went to visit the old archives building I could feel for myself that it was damp and that it was falling apart.”

She said it was “wonderful” that country will have preserved archival material for centuries to come.

“For all our children’s children.”

A public-private partnership

Van Velden, who is also deputy leader of the ACT Party, heralded the facility as a win for public-private partnerships over successive governments, with the contract signed under the previous Labour government.

While the taonga within the building and its fit-out is publicly owned, the building base and land belongs to Canadian Mutual Fund, PSPIB/CPPIB Waiheke Inc. and is managed by Australasian real estate assets manager Dexus – also the developer.

The 25-year lease agreement with the Crown has the option to extend for another 25 years.

A spokesperson for the Department of Internal Affairs said the rent has been fixed – with yearly increases agreed upfront and budgeted for – but the amount can’t be made public due to commercial sensitivity.

Van Velden said given the building’s specifications it would be unlikely for the lease not to be renewed.

She said collaborations between business and the public sector, highlighted the private sector’s expertise.

“Government has a lot of interest and expertise in particular areas, but they’re not building things all the time. They’re not experts in seismic strengthening.”

Dexus portfolio manager for New Zealand Phill Stanley said the Kaikoura earthquake in 2016 was a “learning curve for everyone”.

The site, which previously housed the quake-damaged Defence House, now featured a building on 36 base isolators that could drift up to 1.3m horizontally and up to 300mm vertically, during an earthquake, he said.

In order to meet UNESCO standards, climate control within the building must hold within ±1°C for at least 48 hours in the event of a power failure.

“In layman’s terms, we have built the most beautiful chilly-bin on base isolators.”

He said the project had been a career highlight and hinted at more partnerships with the Crown in the pipeline.

Space for taonga unknown

The relocation of more than 150,000 containers of historical material from the Mulgrave Street facility is currently underway.

A massive undertaking, that chief archivist Poumanaaki Anahera Morehu hoped would be completed by December this year.

However, Te Rua won’t be able to hold all the material – and how much it can take remains to be seen.

National Librarian Te Pouhuaki Rachel Esson said while there were estimates, they won’t truly know until the material has been shifted.

“Part of the process of bringing things over is we’re rehousing them. So some things have been in boxes that aren’t quite as good as they could be, so they’re being put in new boxes.

“Sometimes things have been crammed into a box so they might be split out into two. We’re just not quite sure yet exactly.”

Morehu said the new facility was never going to house everything contained in Mulgrave Street and anticipated the wider heritage campus – Te Kahu – would absorb overflow.

She said access to the archives was just as important as preservation.

“It’s all good to preserve it and hold on to it, but it’s no good if nobody’s got access to it.

“This is creating that opportunity and the campus is creating that opportunity, while it opens the doors to other facilities to think about how we play a role as archives and libraries in making this more collaborative and sharing.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two bodies have been found inside a car that was discovered upside down in a stream in rural Wellington this morning.

Police, Fire and Emergency and Wellington Free Ambulance were called to the crash in Mākara just after 8am.

Fire and Emergency shift manager Alex Norris said crews arrived to find a car partially submerged in the stream on Mākara Beach Road – a narrow, winding road between Karori and Mākara Beach.

The bodies were found by police when they arrived at the scene.

The road was closed for several hours but has since reopened.

A local resident who did not want to be named said they could see the crash site from their home.

They said they saw at least four police vehicles, two ambulances and a fire appliance attending the crash as well as white blanket laid on the ground.

“Usually you hear stuff a night but we didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. Our neighbour told me it’s quite a common place where people go off there’s about a two to three metre drop from the road down to the stream.

“I’ve witnessed cars having a head on collision on the stretch before and a bunch of near misses. I haven’t really had a chance to let it sink in. I’ve talked to some of the locals this morning and they’re really shocked” he said.

The road skirts a small stream bordered by wire fencing down the bank from Mākara Road.

Mākara Village cattery owner Cody Stephens said he saw police cars and a fire engine fly past his property this morning, heading towards the beach.

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