Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Whether it’s Christmas with family, or a New Year’s Eve event with friends Air New Zealand figures show 2.7 million New Zealanders and international visitors will be flying this summer.

The busiest days for domestic air travel in Aotearoa are Friday 19 December with up to 32,000 travellers flying, followed by Sunday 21, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 December, with around 31,000 customers taking to the skies on each of those days.

Air New Zealand’s domestic network will transport around 1.6 million passengers. Three of its most popular destinations are located in the South Island.

“Queenstown will see 260,000 customers travel to and from the region while Nelson is gearing up for 150,000 customers, and Dunedin 110,000. Napier and the Bay of Plenty are also in hot demand this summer,” Air New Zealand general manager airports Kate Boyer said.

Internationally, around 1.1m passengers will be flying in or out of New Zealand.

A passenger at Auckland Airport today said it was already busy.

Dan Yee who was on his way to Napier had had some interruptions.

“Our flight got cancelled, so that’s why it’s been a lot busier… Engine failure, I hear,” he said.

“Definitely today has been a lot busier than usual. I was surprised to be caught up in a very long queue.”

“Yeah, it’s probably a good idea to get here early.”

Michael Gallagher was waiting for his flight to Tauranga, but said he felt well looked after.

“Don’t stress, the staff are always really good and they’ll always get you where you need to go,” he said.

“We’ve had a few issues over the journey with flights delayed, etcetera, but everyone looks after you and everyone’s trying to get you home safely so just relax, you’ll get there.”

Corina Warren, on her way to Nelson, remarked that the airport felt busy but “quite organised”.

Air New Zealand’s most popular regional destinations from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026 are Queenstown Lakes District with 260,000 travellers, Nelson at 150,000, Bay of Plenty at 120,000, Dunedin at 110,000 and Napier at 100,000.

While internationally the top contenders are Sydney with 195,000 travellers, Melbourne at 185,000, Brisbane at 120,000, Pacific Islands countries at 170,000 and Los Angeles at 56,000.

“Three Australian cities are firm favourites with 195,000 customers travelling to and from Sydney, 185,000 to and from Melbourne, and 120,000 to and from Brisbane.

“Around 170,000 customers will be crossing the Pacific with Tahiti and Fiji clear go to getaways,” Boyer said.

There will be 56,000 passengers flying to or from Los Angeles from New Zealand on the airline.

Saturday 20 December and Saturday 3 January are the busiest international travel days with up to 20,000 passengers travelling each day.

Auckland Airport

An estimated 2.5 million travellers are expected to pass through Auckland Airport between 8 December 2025 and 18 January 2026.

Unlike other New Zealand airports, the majority of its travellers will be international with 1.5m international travellers arriving or departing, an increase of 7.5 percent on last year.

“We’ve been working closely with border agencies, airlines and their ground handlers to make sure travellers get away smoothly. It will be busy, so our advice is simple: plan ahead, arrive with plenty of time and pack smart,” Auckland Airport chief customer officer Scott Tasker said.

There’s capacity for as many as 5.8m travellers to arrive or depart in Auckland, from 43 destinations.

Domestic and international travel numbers will peak at different points through the Christmas and New Year period.

The busiest day for international departures from Auckland is expected to be 4 January, while 15 January is forecast to be its busiest day for international arrivals.

In terms of domestic departures from Auckland 19 December is tipped to be the busiest day, while 16 January is the busiest for domestic arrivals.

Wellington Airport

Nearly half a million travellers are expected to pass through Wellington Airport over the Christmas and New Year period.

The busiest single day being Thursday 18 December with around 18,000 travellers.

Flights in and out of Wellington between 15 December and 11 January have the capacity to fly 350,000 domestic passengers and 90,000 international.

Wellington Airport’s head of operations Matthew Palliser said as well as the possibility of seeing Air New Zealand’s first ever electric aircraft on the tarmac, it also claimed to be the country’s most festive.

“We’re proud to be the most Christmassy airport in the country with over 65 individually decorated Christmas trees raising funds for cystic fibrosis. We’ve also got live music and Christmas carol singing,” Palliser said.

Christchurch Airport

Christchurch Airport’s capacity between 25 November and 26 March has increased 11 percent compared to last year, with an additional 236,000 domestic seats and 139,000 international seats in and out of Christchurch will be available during that period.

Popular destinations out of Christchurch include Adelaide, Cairns, Gold Coast and Fiji.

Dunedin Airport

Close to 150,000 passengers will be travelling on flights in and out of Dunedin over the December and January period.

As many locals head off for a break over summer, the airport’s chief executive Daniel De Bono is also ready for some downtime.

“It’s been a big year for Dunedin Airport with the Gold Coast direct service starting and winning Medium Airport of the Year being big highlights amongst many. While the airport never closes, many of our people will now get some well deserved time with their families,” De Bono said.

Queenstown Airport

New Zealand’s tourism capital will see around 150,000 passengers passing through its airport between 20 December and 4 January, with nearly 57,000 of those heading to or from Australia.

Around 10,000 passengers a day will be flying in or out on 20, 27 and 28 December, and 2, 3, and 4 January.

“Summer is always a special time in Queenstown. We love the excitement in the terminal as people fly in to spend Christmas with whānau or head off on adventures,” head of operations, compliance and safety Juliet Breen said.

Advice for flyers

RNZ spoke to a number of airlines and airports in the lead up to the holiday season to find out what tips they had for people travelling over the summer period. Almost all of them listed ensuring items with batteries were dealt with correctly as their number one piece of advice.

Before you pack your luggage, make sure any item that may have a battery in it is packed in your carry on luggage, that includes anything powered by lithium batteries such as hearing aids, vapes or headphones. Anything that is checked in will be removed and cannot be returned. Aviation Security has extensive information on its website.

Arriving at the airport with plenty of time and ensuring you’re at your gate in time will also help ensure a less stressful trip.

While some airports no longer need laptops and liquids to be removed at security, for most this is still the norm. So pack accordingly and be ready to remove these items when you get to security. This includes liquids, aerosols and gels such as perfume.

Make sure you drink plenty of water before and during your flight, and remember alcohol can hit you harder in the air than it does on the ground.

Check in online, and use the time that saves you to get through security earlier so you’re at your gate with plenty of time to spare should there be any issues.

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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 man who murdered five people by lighting the Loafers Lodge blaze has been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of release for at least 22 years.

Esarona David Lologa, 50, set the Wellington boarding house alight in May 2023.

He was sentenced in the High Court in Wellington on Friday, to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 22 years.

He will be detained as a special patient in a hospital, and will need to be assessed before he can be moved a prison.

Michael Wahrlich, Melvin Parun, Peter O’Sullivan, Kenneth Barnard and Liam Hockings died in the fire.

In September, a jury found Lologa guilty of five counts of murder, and guilty of one count of arson.

His defence argued he was insane when he lit the fire.

The Crown called around 100 witnesses over its four weeks of evidence.

They included Loafers Lodge residents who described their harrowing escapes from the blaze, firefighters who fought tears recounting their experiences, and crucially, five mental health professionals who believed Lologa was not insane when he lit the fire.

The experts said Lologa did know his actions were morally wrong.

They pointed to Lologa’s own comments to police and psychiatrists, including that he had “done nothing wrong”, as evidence he understood the difference between right and wrong.

During the trial psychiatrist Dr Krishna Pillai, testifying for the defence, believed the man was insane when he lit the fire, and was experiencing a serious psychotic relapse.

Pillai told the court the man’s hallucinations – hearing voices telling him to light the fire – rendered him incapable of knowing lighting the fire was morally wrong, which is a threshold required for an insanity defence.

Esarona Lologa – also known as Esa – was born in Wellington in 1975, but was raised by his grandmother and uncle in a small village near Apia, Samoa.

He was initially educated in Samoa but moved to Wellington when he was about 13, where he lived with his uncle. He attended high school in Lower Hutt.

As a young man, Lologa had a relationship with a woman almost 20 years his senior, who had a teenage son.

In 2009 Lologa was convicted of attempting to murder the son with a machete, after he believed his partner was cheating on him.

Lologa had 50 previous convictions – including the attempted murder and an attempted arson in 1996, after he broke into a butcher and tried to burn it down.

He had also been found guilty of common assault and fraud.

He first came to the attention of mental health services in 1999, when he was 24. He was hearing voices in his head that were swearing at him.

Lologa was diagnosed as having schizophrenia, and was first admitted to a mental health facility in 2000.

The court heard details about Lologa’s clinical history spanning more than two decades, including nine hospital admissions.

During adulthood, Lologa lived in Wellington and Auckland. He stayed in social housing and boarding houses, as well as his car and the street, psychiatrists told the court.

Lologa absconded from a mental health facility on 21 April, 2023, three weeks before the fires, and there was a warrant out for his arrest.

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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

The future of the Hamilton to Auckland train, Te Huia, looks set to be decided in the first half of next year.

The Waikato regional council voted on Thursday to ask the New Zealand Transport Agency board in February to keep funding steady at a 60 percent funding assistance rate for a one-year extension.

If NZTA would not keep funding steady for an extra year, council asked for a formal decision on what permanent support the agency will give the service by April.

Te Huia was launched in April 2021 for a five-year trial ending in June 2026. It provides an interregional passenger rail service between the regions of Waikato and Auckland.

It had faced several issues, including covid delays, being temporarily banned from operating in Auckland, and being impacted by repeated line closures on the Auckland network.

The coalition government had a history of negativity about Te Huia, and last year NZTA decided to progressively reduce its contribution to the funding assistance rate from 75.5 in 2024 to 51 percent by 2026.

Councillor Chris Hughes said there was no point in the council continuing its plans to run the train until it knew it had NZTA support.

“Once we’ve got it, we’ve got a commitment, and we can move forward. At the moment there’s too much uncertainty and I don’t believe our ratepayers should be wearing the cost,” he said.

Other councillors echoed this need for certainty from NZTA.

However, councillor Jennifer Nickel pointed out that NZTA had put more money into Te Huia than anyone, and although the council should be strong in its request for certainty it should also be flexible to allow NZTA to “say what it wants to say.”

“We are a partner with them,” she said.

Councillor Tipa Mahuta also said council had a long relationship with NZTA and should be thinking in terms of a partnership.

“It’s not in our role to tell NZTA what their job is, we can express a preference and our key timelines, but I’m pretty sure they know their remit… it’s not our jurisdiction to direct them to do anything,” she said.

Hamilton city council, Waipa district council and Waikato district council told the regional council they supported their request for an extra year of steady funding.

Hamilton city councillor Sarah Thomson spoke at today’s meeting and said the city had been a very supportive partner of Te Huia.

She said the city had brought forward public transport investment to support the train, particularly around the Rotokauri transport hub where most passengers get on and off the train.

“That transport hub was in a master plan, but it would still not be built to this day, most likely, if it was not for the need to support the Te Huia service,” Thomson said.

Hamilton councillor Sue Moroney also spoke and said the city had “significant skin in the game”.

“The city council has seen the importance of having a really fit-for-purpose transport network between the largest city in the country and the fourth largest – but the fastest growing city – in the country,” Moroney said.

She said she regularly used the service for meetings in Auckland.

“Importantly I use it because I can get a lot of work done on the way up and the way back, I can get all my emails done, it’s great for productivity, I can’t do that in a car, I can’t do that in a bus, I can only do that in the train,” she said.

After discussions, the letter tabled in the council’s agenda and the final letter being sent to NZTA were slightly different.

Regional councillor Liz Stolwyk said it was important that the surrounding district and city councils were fully aware of what was being asked for and were taken along on the journey.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The country’s highest court has found that governments must consider climate change when deciding whether to offer oil and gas blocks for tender.

The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal on Friday that former Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods was required to take climate change into account when she granted on-shore exploration permits to two companies in 2021.

However, the court found that climate change is a mandatory consideration at the earlier stage of offering blocks for tender.

Climate change was “so obviously relevant” to a decision that could lead to the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels that it must be considered, the panel of five Supreme Court justices ruled.

“Climate change is a matter of pressing concern for New Zealand and its well-being both in the near and long term,” the justices wrote in their decision.

“Moreover, the Crown has entered into binding obligations on New Zealand’s behalf in connection with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Petroleum extraction and consumption are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand and internationally.”

The Crown Minerals Act’s aim was to “promote” prospecting, exploration and mining “for the benefit of New Zealand”.

The court found that ‘benefit’ was “not simply a recognition of the benefits that flow from mining”.

“Climate change is therefore a mandatory relevant consideration … when deciding whether to offer petroleum exploration permits for tender,” the decision said.

“This is because climate change is so obviously relevant to a decision to commence a process which is intended, if successful, to progress through to extraction of petroleum.”

Student group first took case in 2021

The case against the Energy and Resources minister was taken all the way to the Supreme Court by a group of Victoria University law students.

Students for Climate Solutions, now called Climate Clinic Aotearoa, first took the case in 2021.

The group argued that when then-Energy Minister Megan Woods made her decision to grant the permits, she did not properly consider the impacts of climate change, despite advice from the Climate Change Commission that the government should avoid locking in new fossil fuel assets.

The students argued that climate change should be considered at the point when a minister is deciding whether to grant a permit.

Friday’s judgement dismissed the students’ case, but on the basis that once a tender process had already been completed, going on to refuse a permit would undermine the intent of offering a block for tender.

The proper place to consider climate change and other mandatory considerations was at the earlier stage to offer blocks for tender in the first place, the court ruled.

Friday’s judgement found that even though she was not required to consider climate change at the permitting stage, Woods had adequately done so anyway.

She had received detailed advice from officials and was aware of other relevant matters, including policy work on a National Energy Strategy and a broader climate change work programme.

Supreme Court decision at odds with earlier rulings

The High Court earlier found against the students’ case, ruling that while no one could doubt the importance of climate change issues, the purpose of the Crown Minerals Act was to promote mining for fossil fuels.

“Such activity may be at the expense of climate change, but that is what the Act seeks to advance,” Justice Francis Cooke found.

On that account, the Energy Minister had acted in line with the law, he said.

The Court of Appeal also dismissed the students’ appeal, with a panel of three judges finding that there was no requirement for the minister to consider climate change when making permitting decisions.

However, one of the three appeal judges, Justice Jillian Mallon, found that climate change was a ‘permissive’ consideration – in other words, that the minister could factor it into her decision if she chose to.

That was because the Climate Change Response Act, more widely known as the Zero Carbon Act, allows ministers and public agencies to take New Zealand’s emissions targets and budgets into account when carrying out their duties.

Justice Mallon said in her judgement: “Given the accepted climate emergency, and that the combustion of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change, it would be odd if the Minister responsible for petroleum exploration was precluded from taking into account these key components of New Zealand’s response to climate change, when Parliament has said in the Climate Change Response Act that those exercising powers may do so.”

As an example, she said if the country was on course to exceed one of its emissions budgets, “it would be odd (and potentially contrary to the benefit of New Zealand) if the Minister was precluded from taking into account any published advice from the Climate Change Commission about this in determining whether to grant a permit in furtherance of the purpose of the Act to promote further exploration or prospecting of petroleum ‘for the benefit of NZ”.

At the time Woods granted the two permits, the Climate Change Commission had advised the government it was not on track to meet its emissions targets.

Current projections show New Zealand is on track to meet it emissions budgets for 2022-25 and 2026-2030, but not the budget for 2031-35.

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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

The government is proposing to amend alcohol legislation so restaurants with on-site retail spaces can sell take-home booze.

The amendment to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act would mean restaurants can apply for an off-licence, if they also sell takeaway food or non-alcoholic beverages prepared by the business.

The bill was originally a National Party member’s bill lodged by Hutt South MP Chris Bishop in 2018, and then transferred to Wairarapa MP Mike Butterick in 2023 once Bishop became a minister.

The bill was pulled from the ballot in April, but has now been picked up by Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee as government legislation.

McKee said restaurants were already trusted to supply alcohol through an on-licence, and the law change would mean they can apply for permission to sell it for off-site consumption as well.

“Right now, restaurants that prepare and sell food products like sauces, pastries or desserts for consumption off site are effectively barred from selling customers a bottle of wine to take home,” she said.

“These rigid rules have created absurd barriers to responsible businesses providing a unique experience their customers want.”

McKee said the current law was “nonsensical.” She gave the example of La Bella Italia in Petone, which has both a restaurant and an on-site shop under the same roof.

She said the restaurant had had to jump through “all sorts of hoops” to sell wine for customers to take home with their meal.

“When the rules can’t adapt, they block good ideas and kill the spirit and ambition of the people behind them.”

Restaurants would continue to be required to hold an on-licence to sell alcohol for consumption on the premises.

Alcohol legislation flows through Parliament

This would not be the only legislation liberalising alcohol sales to be considered by Parliament this term.

In August, McKee announced she would loosen the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to make it harder for people to block liquor licences, and easier for ministers to declare one-off special trading hours for venues screening major sporting or cultural events.

Labour’s Kieran McAnulty has a member’s bill to allow businesses that are already allowed to open on Anzac Day morning, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Day to sell alcohol.

That bill is up for second reading, and is set to be debated at the first ‘member’s day’ session next year.

In October, the Justice Committee recommended the bill be passed, but proposed retaining restrictions for off-licence premises.

A bill from ACT’s Cameron Luxton to repeal alcohol restrictions on Good Friday and Easter Sunday was voted down at first reading in 2024.

National MP Stuart Smith’s bill allowing winery cellar doors to charge visitors for samples and add off-licence categories for wineries holding an on-licence passed successfully through the House in 2024.

Parliament treats alcohol legislation as a conscience matter, meaning MPs vote according to their personal view instead of as a party bloc.

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