Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A business owner says Tongariro National Park resembles a hellscape as a massive forest fire continues to burn.

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) said the blaze has swelled in size and is now estimated to be covering about 1000ha and remains out of control.

Skotel Alpine Resort owner Sam Clarkson said they had a grandstand view of the fire last night.

“It was like a hellscape, you know, welcome to Mordor, it really was.”

“Last night, there was quite a brisk westerly wind, which pushed the fire both east and northwards and the wall of flame was enormous… I would estimate some of those flames are 30m high.”

“It was hard to see across the flame to the far side, but any time we did, it was just this wall of orange that was at least 4km long and everything that the fire service were valiantly trying to throw at was achieving nothing.”

He said fortunately the fire was heading away from his hotel, progressing up the Mangatepopo Road towards the Tongariro Crossing.

The the wind had since dropped along with a blanket of fog on Sunday morning, but rain was not forecast until Monday, Clarkson said.

“I watched, literally weeping as the fire went closer and closer and closer to the hill Pukeonake, which is a sensitive sub-alpine environment where the little communities of plant life all huddle together and live out their lives, and it just got toasted,” he said.

“It’s just an ecological disaster. There is no risk to people or structures, unless the wind really got up.”

Despite six weeks of rain, the fire has proven to be insatiable, he said.

“The park was utterly saturated and then it fined up about a week ago, and I think we’d only had seven or eight days of fine weather in a row after a good six weeks of solid rain and you would not think that it’s that tinder dry.”

“But you see, the predominant species in the park, at least on the flats, is tea tree, and tea tree is the most flammable native plant there is – once it’s off, it’s away.”

The community had rallied together in the face of the evacuation and closure of Tongariro National Park, he said.

A total 43 hikers and a warden from Mangatepopo Hut were airlifted out in response to the fire according to the Department of Conservation.

“In fact, we ended up putting up those people and feeding them… we were part of the effort to look after everybody,” Clarkson said.

Firefighters from Taranaki and Manawatu-Wanganui were briefed on Sunday morning before beginning work on the second day of operations.

Assistant Commander Nick West said the fire service will have six fire trucks and five tankers on the fireground, supported by six helicopters and two fixed wing aircraft.

There are no reports of structures being damaged or destroyed and no residents were evacuated overnight.

West said it could take a full day of operations to bring the fire under control.

The cause of the fire has not been established and a specialist wildfire investigator will be working on Sunday.

Residents in the area are being urged to stay alert to the fire, and keep doors and windows shut to minimise exposure to the smoke. Anyone who feels unsafe, or is vulnerable to smoke is encouraged to self-evacuate and stay with family or friends.

FENZ advises those to the north of the fire should go towards Turangi and those to the south of the fire should go towards National Park.

State Highway 47 Waimarino to Tongariro remains closed between the intersections with State Highway 48 and State Highway 46 with no detours available.

The Department of Conservation has closed the Tongariro Crossing and associated areas.

A no fly zone is in place covering the airspace over the fireground and surrounding area, so that firefighting aircraft are not endangered by other aircraft or drones.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A person in the audience at an Auckland performance of Cirque du Soleil on Saturday afternoon says everyone fell silent, when a performer fell several metres to the ground.

Joy Marshall said 6-8 acrobats were executing a bar routine, when one plunged onto the safety mat.

Marshall was at the show with her daughter and a friend from school, and her mother.

She said they enjoyed the first part of the show, and the second half involved acrobats doing a routine on the high bars, including flips.

However, one of the performers plunged 2-3 metres onto the mat, landing flat on his stomach. She said he tried to get up, but collapsed.

Several people surrounded him and paramedics came onto the scene. Black sheets were put up for privacy from the audience.

The performer was taken to hospital and his condition is not known.

The show was stopped for about 20 minutes, as medics attended to the performer, before they were stretchered off the stage.

Marshall said one person in the audience stood up and urged Christians in the crowd to join him in prayer.

“It was quite a brave and beautiful moment.”

The performer was taken to hospital, but it’s not known how seriously injured he is.

Messages on the loud speaker asked people to remain seated and that the show would continue.

Marshall said the next sequence was fairly short, involving the main character riding across the arena on his bicycle, with the other characters farewelling him below.

“They all took their bows and that was the end of the show.”

The show, Corteo, is playing at Spark Arena until 9 November.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

NCEA level 2 English exams asked students to write about a boy with long hair being bullied and asked to pull down his pants to prove his gender.

The exam held on Thursday used a piece of “unfamiliar text” as part of the test for students to write about and make a literary analysis.

The exam booklet asked the students to “analyse significant aspects of unfamiliar written text(s) through close reading, supported by evidence”.

Students who took the exam said the text described the personal story of a boy with long hair who was bullied and asked to show his genitals to prove that he was a boy as he was often confused for a girl.

“And I didn’t much like it when a few months after I started school a large year 3 boy ambushed me on my way home and ordered me to drop my pants to clear up his confusion,” the text read.

A student and teacher spoken to by RNZ said the text made them feel very uncomfortable.

One year 12 student said they decided to pick a different option to write about because it did not feel appropriate.

One parent said it was particularly concerning that it might upset people in the exam who have a history of sexual abuse.

“For them to present this question in an exam setting, without knowing the triggers it raises in some children sitting that exam, it’s unbelievable. It’s throwing it in their faces, in one of the most stressful times they have in their schooling.

“Every kid I’ve asked so far has said they felt awkward so they skipped that one. Thinking of how many children skipped that question today, because they’ve been forced to pull their pants down, it absolutely breaks my heart.”

She said she understood you can’t protect children from everything, but NCEA should have done better than this.

“They’ve failed the kids on this one.”

Another was worried about what impact it might have on teenagers who were experiencing confusion around gender identity.

The prose is an excerpt from a memoir by Adam Dudding called My Father’s Island: A Memoir based on his father and their relationship.

NZQA deputy chief executive of assessment Jann Marshall said the paper went through a sensitivity check, as all exam papers do.

“The passage is drawn from an age-appropriate text. The specific sentence of concern is contextually consistent with the broader passage.”

The spokesperson said, every year, there was a range of views about the suitability of different questions and use of different texts.

“The exam writers – including experienced subject teachers – thought it appropriate to use this passage, as students would relate well to the affirmation of a young person’s right to assert their own individuality.

“All exam papers undergo a sensitivity check, recognising that people’s experiences and views can vary widely. The exam did go through that process.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

In a Taiwan warehouse, researchers hit a button, and a five-storey, steel-and-concrete box begins to buck and sway.

That’s about the closest researchers can get to how the sort of multi-storey commonly constructed in New Zealand 9000km away might behave in a large earthquake.

The revelations from the work are now coming in.

“You know, partition walls, gypsum board that we use, windows, doors, even ceilings, which previously we thought would do worse in more robust buildings, we’re seeing all these components do much better,” said Santiago Pujol.

The Canterbury University civil engineering professor is used to finding things out – he won a top US award two years ago, looking into high-strength steel in reinforced concrete members, but the ceiling performance in the Taipei prototype tests surprised him.

“Yeah, that’s one of the things that we’ve sort of discovered here recently.”

There had been some research into this before, but it wasn’t systematic. Now it is.

The overall upshot of the New Zealand-Taiwan efforts is to solidify a growing global consensus that stiffer buildings that “drift” less perform better in quakes – opposite to the way New Zealand has built for many decades.

On top of that, they have shown it need not cost much, say, only 1-2 percent of the total building budget to make it stiffer.

“You want to maximise ability to deform and then you want to minimise deformation demand, if you will,” Pujol said in engineering-speak.

“It’s in that sense that we can improve things, if we make buildings more robust, closer to what they build in Chile and Japan.”

Japan had built this way for a century, since the Great Kantō Earthquake split Tokyo in 1923, and Chile since the 1930s.

“You know, some of these things take time to understand and professions adhere to different schools of thought.

“By now, it’s fairly clear the consensus – the worldwide consensus – is that we need more robust buildings.”

‘We could act a little faster’

The United States was going this way, and so too Türkiye, where they were trying to change the building code to avoid a repeat of the 2023 quake that killed over 40,000 people.

“I think we could act a little faster,” Pujol said of New Zealand. “The first thing we need to do is update our building standards to require more robustness.”

Those conversations were already happening with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment that oversees the building code, he added.

“New Zealand does have good building codes that protect the lives of their occupants. What we’re talking about here is buildings that go beyond just life safety and try to ensure, again, functionality. It’s a different model.”

Hospitals were an example of buildings that needed to function fast after a shake.

Data provided by the Health Ministry in Chile to his team had shown stiffer hospitals there performed better.

He did not know the specifics about hospitals being built in New Zealand, but said he did know of several local companies already trying to build stiffer, more robust buildings.

“And by that I mean buildings that drift or sway less in earthquakes, because that’s going to minimise damage and allow us to go back into our buildings sooner after an earthquake.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two people have been arrested, after fireworks were fired into an Auckland lawnmower shop, injuring at least two people.

One of the explosions struck a customer in the neck during the incident on Friday morning and two people were taken to hospital, store staff said.

Six staff and seven customers were at Papakura Lawnmowers, when the explosions started.

Lee Webster was working, when he heard a loud bang.

“I didn’t know exactly what was going on – I looked up and there was a car that had pulled up just outside the shop. [The firework had] come through the front door and was going off inside.

“I just ducked for cover obviously, because these fireworks were still coming through the front door, and… as they stopped, I actually took off after the car to try and get the description for the police.”

Two people have been arrested and charged.

Store owner Michael Wards said the outcome could have been much worse.

“Towards a lawnmower shop of all places – with fuel and ignition sources – was horrendous.

“It could have been catastrophic, if they had… shot the firework at a bottle of oil or at a petrol container.”

Despite the shop still smelling like fireworks, Wards said it was lucky nothing caught alight.

“I don’t understand where their brain was at. Who would have thought, ‘Let’s shoot fireworks at 9.30 in the morning’ – I mean, ridiculous.”

Wards has been in contact with one of the injured people, who was discharged from hospital.

He called for a ban on individual sales of fireworks to prevent more people getting injured.

“Hopefully someone learns from their stupid mistake not to go and send fireworks in the direction of people.”

• Explainer: Will New Zealand ever ban fireworks?

Fireworks were shot into a lawnmower shop at 9.30am on Friday Photo: Screenshot

Fireworks aimed at maunga security guards

In a separate incident, security guards protecting Auckland’s volcanic cones had fireworks aimed at them this week.

For the past six years, the region’s 14 maunga have closed for four days during the first week of November, following serious fires caused by fireworks. The decision was made to close them again this year, with security guards on site at the entrances as well as carrying out foot patrols.

Tupuna Maunga Authority chair Paul Majurey said there was strong public support for the closures, and the very real risk from fireworks-related fires reinforced the authority’s stance that the public sale of fireworks should be banned.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A large fire in the Central Plateau has triggered evacuations of trampers and caused the closure of a nearby highway, authorities say.

About 400 hectares of the Tongariro National Park was estimated to be on fire, Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) said shortly before 10pm Saturday.

The blaze remains uncontrolled and burning toward Mount Ngauruhoe, but it was too dangerous for firefighters to actively work on it through the night to stop it, FENZ assistant commander Nick West said.

Firefighters will instead monitor it overnight.

Thirteen fire crews from eight brigades were working at the scene earlier tonight. They were being supported by three helicopters carrying monsoon buckets, and one providing observations of the scene. However the aircraft were all stood down at nightfall, West said.

Trampers were airlifted from the Mangatepopo Hut on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and a helicopter was checking the area for any remaining walkers on Saturday before nightfall.

As a precaution, 43 hikers and a hut warden were evacuated by helicopter, according to the Department of Conservation (DOC). No injuries had been reported.

“If people are aware of friends or family who were planning to be on the Tongariro Crossing or the general area of SH47 and the Maungatepopo Hut today, they should try to get in touch with them and confirm their whereabouts. If they are not able to make contact, please call 111 and advise the Police,” FENZ said.

Weather conditions were easing late on Saturday, but “but a wind shift is forecast around midnight, which will push the direction of the fire’s travel further to the north, in the direction of State Highway 46,” they said.

“Fire and Emergency is working closely with Police, Iwi and the Department of Conservation on the safety of people in the area.

“People living in the area should be alert to the fire and any advice from emergency services.”

State Highway 47 remains closed between SH48 and SH46, and motorists are being asked to avoid the area.

Just before 8pm, police said “motorists should turn around or delay travel, as there are no alternative routes in the immediate area”.

The fire was first reported about 3.15pm Saturday, on State Highway 47, just north of the junction with SH48.

Through the afternoon there had been “a large build-up of traffic reported” on the highway, as the fire and firefighting efforts disrupted travel.

The Department of Conservation said both the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and the Northern Circuit were closed, and would remain closed on Sunday.

Earlier on Saturday evening, DOC Central North Island operations director Damian Coutts said the fire had not yet reached any tracks or huts, but the closures were a precaution, while firefighting continued.

“People are asked to stay away from the area,” Coutts said.

FENZ said it does not yet know how the blaze started.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say a body has been found, after a house fire in Hamilton East.

Emergency services rushed to the house fire on Wellington Street just after 6am Saturday.

“Sadly, a person was located deceased at the property,” police said.

A guard was on watch at the scene on Saturday evening, and police would work with Fire and Emergency NZ to uncover the circumstances.

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