Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Civil Defence teams are heading out in Northland to assess how much damage the latest storm has caused.

A red heavy rain warning expired at 4am Friday and the Far North and Whangārei remain under a state of emergency for another six days.

Kaitaia is cut off and some people in remote parts of Kaipara, Hokianga, Whangaroa and the southeastern Bay of Islands have evacuated because of rising waters.

Around 17 marae welfare centres were set up for people in remote communities.

Road closures include two sections of State Highway 1 at Kaitaia, and sections at Whakapara, Mangamuka and Rangiahua. State Highway 10 is closed at Kaeo, State Highway 12 at Waimamaku, State Highway 15 at Parakao, Pakotai and Kaikohe. Two dozen local roads are closed in the Far North and nine in Whangārei due to slips and flooding. People are urged to avoid unnecessary travel and are advised not to drive through floodwaters.

MetService said Kaitaia had 193 millimetres of rain, more than double the town’s average monthly rainfall for March. Kerikeri received more than a month and a half’s worth of rain and Auckland more than a month’s worth.

River levels across Northland exceeded their flooding risk, with many spilling onto roads. Data from the Northland Regional Council showed that at least nine rivers went over their warning level for potential flooding.

A Northland woman said the flooding was the worst she had seen in years. Stella Matthews had to walk through floodwaters to reach her home near Kiripaka. She said sheds, vehicles and paddocks on her property were inundated by waist-high floodwaters.

Far North mayor Moko Tepania said the storm was worse than the flooding in January, because it had been more widespread. He hoped to get a better idea of how communities have fared on Friday.

He said in January, floodwaters swept mud through homes on Northland’s east coast, damaged roads and triggered landslides and the latest storm had presented more challenges.

“We’ll be requesting funding from central government just to help our people out. Just from that January event alone, we have had over $240,000 in applications for relief funding for our whanau. We know that this is more widespread and we’re going to have whanau that need that and we’ll have to start helping once this weather clears.”

Assessment teams would be out on Friday morning to gauge the extent of the damage and Tepania said a mayoral relief fund would be set up on Monday.

Storm moves towards Coromandel, Bay of Plenty

Fire and Emergency said extra resources were on the ground in Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty, as storms move on from the North.

Director of operations Brendan Nally said crews would stay ready to respond as the risk moved down into the Coromandel and Western Bay of Plenty.

“We’ve got extra resources that we have pre-positioned and sent in to support the local staff,” he said.

“Those specialist resources have been busy, so we were well ready for this event.”

Nally said they were keeping an eye on another turn in the weather expected toward Monday.

Meanwhile, he was urging locals to stay safe and warned motorists against driving in flood waters.

“Our specialist water teams and our [urban search and rescue] teams have been pulling cars out of flooded areas, or getting people from areas that have been surrounded and marooned from floods,” he said.

In one case, three people had been rescued from a car trapped in flood water on Thursday, Nally said.

“It’s one of those things that we see in floods, people, generally, underestimating how difficult it is to cross flooded areas.”

Nally said the safest thing was not to drive on flooded roads.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

In a finger-like branch of Lake Ohakuri the water is as green as the grassy paddocks surrounding it.

It’s thick with algae. The microscopic plant-like organisms lack leaves or roots, but possess a prodigious ability to feast on nutrients and with the help of sunlight, multiply exponentially, turning clear water into a murky, and sometimes toxic, spinach soup.

As unappealing as the water looks, today is a “good” day. On bad days, the algae clump together like old friends embracing, creating snot-like mats of slime. On really bad days, there’s a stench of rot and death.

Despite a legislated vision for the water to be safe to swim in and talks starting more than a decade ago to reduce nutrients in the river, summer algal blooms plague Lake Ohakuri and other hydro lakes along the Waikato River.

Swimming in this water is dicing with illness.

Peter Withers co-owns a five acre block on the Whirinaki Arm of the lake. It was intended to be a summer bolthole, but the water conditions here are frequently poor.

A pontoon moored off the shore bobs hopefully in the green water. It was built to support summers of fun, but there are days when the pontoon stays dry. Withers swims here sometimes, but not on the days when it’s radioactive green, or when the snot clumps have formed.

Yes, sometimes the water gives him a sore throat, he says, but he likes to think he judges the conditions well enough to not get seriously ill. He’s careful about not putting his head under.

He’s far more cautious when it comes to his children; they are often banned from entering the river completely. Algae can produce toxins which attack the liver.

Leanne Archer lives further around the lake. She describes the water as often neon-green, and sometimes smelling of rot. She would like to spend summer enjoying the lake but the potentially toxic algal blooms means she keeps her distance. Her dog Misty loves to swim, but has to be kept inside. The few times she escaped and played in the water she became sick, “vomiting and vomiting,” says Archer.

Katrin Halbert is another Lake Ohakuri local with a dog. On its worst days she says the Whirinaki Arm of the lake is fluorescent green. “You know, The Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, when it turns green, it’s like that.” Last year one of her dogs drank from the lake and within half an hour started vomiting. The days of walking her dogs in the reserve are over, she says.

For dogs, cyanobacteria can be lethal even when the toxins are at a level below what would trigger a public health warning.

There’s a bevy of organisations playing a part in the Waikato River.

Mercury Energy runs the hydro electric power plants that slow the river’s flow. The Waikato Regional Council grants resource consents and sets the rules for land and nutrient use in the catchment. The Waikato River Authority is responsible for the legislated vision of a river that is safe to swim in. Joining them are property owners dotted along the river including farms, forests and industry.

All the big players are aware of the algal blooms, but each says it’s following the rules. An algal bloom working group they belong to has met for the past three years, but frustrated locals aren’t seeing any concrete action. They have taken to documenting lake conditions on a public Facebook page. It’s littered with images of sunny days and lurid green water.

The toxic problem

Before the Waikato River was dammed, a drop of water could travel its 425 kilometre length in seven days. Today that same drop, beginning in the clear waters of Lake Taupō, is slowed by a chain of hydro lakes. By the time it reaches Port Waikato it is murky brown, and the journey has stretched into weeks.

The eight hydro lakes along the river act as batteries for Mercury Energy, holding water to generate power and producing around 10 percent of New Zealand’s electricity.

Some locals think the dams and how water levels are managed contribute to conditions conducive to algal blooms. Others point to weed spraying and say the nutrients released as the weeds in the lake die, turbo charge algae growth.

Some blame a continual flow of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, seeping in from the farms, horticulture and industry in the area. Climate change gets a mention too, warm weather and tempestuous summer storms can sweep even more nutrients from land into the river system, providing a banquet for algae growth.

Algae aren’t necessarily bad; they’re an important part of freshwater ecosystems, providing food for the invertebrates that fish feed on. But sunshine, warm temperatures and slow water flow, combined with an abundant supply of nutrients can lead to population booms known as blooms.

The boom turns to a bust when conditions change. This might be a drop in temperature or when the algae have consumed all the nutrients in the water. As the algae decomposes its cells collapse and cyanotoxins can be released.

Not all types of algae produce toxins, but the ones that do can make the water poisonous, triggering asthma and hayfever, skin rashes, stomach upsets, tingling around the mouth, headaches, breathing difficulties and visual problems.

Worryingly, data from the Waikato Regional Council shows the proportion of cyanobacteria (the type of algae that is toxic) in the hydro lakes it monitors is slowly increasing during summer months and becoming the predominant algae.

It’s the amount of cyanobacteria present which can trigger a public health alert.

At Lake Arapuni, one of the last hydro lakes on the river, Ryan Fynn keeps his dog in his ute when he meets us. It’s never allowed near the water when it looks green.

His first memory of the lake was as a four-year-old, standing on the front of his uncle’s water skis. Back then they piped the water from the lake straight to their house as drinking water. Now, it’s a different story.

Some days, when the wind blows in the right direction it drags a scent from the lake, which he describes as “sewagey”, into his windows. This summer the algae was “like a big, thick mat” his boat struggled to get through.

He’s battled to get satisfactory answers from the Waikato Regional Council. “They just fob everyone off.”

Fynn thinks part of the problem stems from how long water is held in the lakes by Mercury Energy, the company which runs the hydro dams. The longer it’s held, the longer the algae has a chance to grow, he suggests.

When RNZ meets Fynn on 3 February, the water looks clear, but a sign warns there are high levels of cyanobacteria.

It’s the same sign that was seen by RNZ on a sunny Sunday in January. That day, the water also looked clear and children splashed happily next to the sign.

Keeping people safe

Data doesn’t lie, but the data Waikato Regional Council uses to assess whether the water is poisonous doesn’t necessarily give a full picture of what’s going on day-to-day.

Toxic conditions could occur more often than what has been recorded without triggering public health warnings and sometimes health warnings remain in place when water conditions have improved.

Only four lakes (Ohakuri, Maraetai, Karāpiro and more recently Arapuni) are tested for cyanobacteria once a month between November and April. Tests are done on a Monday and results come back Wednesday. If toxin levels exceed safe recreational thresholds signs are put up, and a public health warning is given. Testing is supposed to increase to at least every seven days.

Weekly sampling from December to March is done at the same four lakes, but this measures a pigment only found in cyanobacteria, not the toxin itself. The council is yet to work out how to use this result to estimate whether toxin levels breach guidelines.

Separate state of the environment monitoring is done at six points along the river. These monthly samples don’t test for cyanobacteria, but do test for nutrient levels such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which are nutrients algae feed on.

Rob Dexter is part of Let’s Be Clear, a charity aiming to help improve water quality. He has reservations about what can be learnt from snapshots in time like this.

The way he describes it, monthly cyanobacteria testing is like testing a person with diabetes once a month and saying those readings are indicative of their daily blood sugar levels.

When it comes to human health, he’s doubtful the current system of infrequent testing with a 48 hour turnaround time for results – then another lag before warning signs are erected – is adequate. Blooms may have ceased before the signs go up, or have moved further down river.

He wants continuous monitoring, with real-time data, including webcam images, shared openly.

While technology for continuously monitoring cyanobacteria doesn’t exist in a cost-effective way, he argues “surrogates” can be used. Combined with weather and flow, the likelihood of a bloom could be modelled. When cloud cover isn’t an issue satellite images can also show blooms from space, which he says could be used in conjunction with webcam images.

Dexter has installed real time monitoring systems on private properties along the river at his own cost. They have shown spikes of nitrogen entering the water after major storms, such as Cyclone Gabrielle. An algal bloom occurred in the weeks after the storm.

He believes resource consents should be evaluated against Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato, the legislated vision and strategy for the Waikato River, established as part of a Treaty settlement. The vision calls for water that is safe to swim in and take food from along its entire length.

“I believe almost every decision on the Waikato River is being made based on inadequate data sets that weren’t designed for the intent that it’s been used for.”

Institutions are following the rules, but are the rules fit for purpose?

Mercury Energy, the Waikato Regional Council and the Waikato River Authority have defined roles and rules, and while organisations say they are meeting them, this is not stopping the ongoing appearance of blooms.

Emily Collis is the operations lead at Mercury Energy. The company is aware of the algal blooms that plague the hydro lakes but she doesn’t accept that the power company is part of the problem.

“At this stage, there’s no evidence to suggest that the way we’re managing the river is contributing.”

The company repeatedly told RNZ it operates within the rules of the resource consents that dictate the amount of flow and the lake levels. Its contractual agreement to supply electricity also plays a part in the way it manages the lakes.

Collis has heard the suggestions that flushing the lakes will clear blooms, but doesn’t feel that would solve the problem.

“We haven’t done any particular studies that we would then go and share or publish or anything like that. But because we are active on the river every day, we do have observations that tend us to believe that even if we were in high flow conditions, a lot of the algae blooms will not move simply because of their location in those slower moving areas,” she says.

The spraying of diquat to kill weeds that can clog the dam turbines is a sore point for locals, who say they notice blooms after spraying.

Mercury says it has used diquat for 17 years and algal blooms have not always occurred after its use.

Research completed by NIWA, (now Earth Sciences New Zealand) showed weeds release a large amount of nutrients when they die. It suggested more research was needed to understand the effects in a lake system. When asked if Mercury would fund research into this Collis indicated the company was “open to opportunities”.

Is she at all concerned the company will lose social license in the communities it operates in? Mercury has a hydro stakeholder manager who is often in the community helping people understand Mercury’s role in the river, she says. The company also tries to support communities with funds and sponsorships of the Waikato River Trail.

Mercury points to Waikato Regional Council as the agency responsible for the management of the river’s water quality.

The council’s science manager Mike Scarsbrook says the organisation is worried about the changes seen in the river. He says the blooms are becoming more frequent and more severe.

“It’s not a good space for us to be in. We are working towards improving the health and wellbeing of the river, but we’re certainly seeing worrying signs.”

Climate change plays a role, but the blooms also need nutrients to grow, he says. This can come from nitrogen and phosphate washing in from farms, or other enterprises dotted along the river.

The council is proposing significant changes to how the land surrounding the river is used, which include measures to reduce the nutrients entering the water. Proposed plan change 1 is the council’s answer to meeting Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato’s legislated vision of water that is safe for swimming and food gathering.

The plan change was first notified in 2016 and applies to approximately 10,000 properties and covers more than a million hectares within the Waikato and Waipā river catchments. Over a decade on, it’s still not enacted. Currently it sits with the Environment Court, caught up in a slew of appeals, although interim decisions made by the court look promising for the plan’s future.

If it does come into effect, change won’t happen overnight. Improvement has been given an 80-year runway, meaning the reduction in nutrient levels in the river isn’t expected to be reached until 2096.

Not everybody thinks the reductions will have an effect. Former Fish and Game water scientist Adam Canning previously told RNZ the nutrient reduction targets in the plan were watered down to a level he described as maintaining the “status quo”.

“It’s pathetic. And we don’t have to achieve it for 80 years. 2096. I’ll be dead.”

Canning doesn’t believe the reductions will ensure the water is safe for swimming and food gathering, achieving the legislated vision of Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato.

Chief executive of the Waikato River Authority Antoine Coffin is the man in charge of Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato. The Authority has iwi and Crown representatives on its board and distributes funding for restoration projects. It sets the vision for the health of the Waikato River.

“We’ve been set up as a voice for the river,” says Coffin.

But having a voice isn’t the same as having teeth. The authority’s vision sits above other legislation, such as the Resource Management Act, but the authority doesn’t have enforcement powers. It can’t compel Mercury Energy to increase water flow to see if that affects blooms, demand the council’s new plan be put in place before the Environment Court process runs its course, or tell farmers to cut back on fertiliser.

Asked whether the Waikato River Authority was taking a leadership role on algal blooms, Coffin does not directly answer, but says long-term solutions, such as the council’s new plan are important. He doesn’t think the plan will fix everything, “but it’s a good start”.

Continuing algal blooms, “would be an antithesis to the vision and a strategy for the river,” he says.

He’s part of the Upper Waikato Algal Blooms Working Group. Other members include Waikato Regional Council, Raukawa, Ngāti Tahu – Ngāti Whaoa Rūnanga Trust, Te Arawa River Iwi Trust, Taupō District Council, Let’s Be Clear Trust, Mercury Energy, Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board and Dairy NZ.

The group met twice in 2024 and once in 2025 and 2026. Its aim is to reach an understanding of the drivers of the algal blooms and, according to a memo from a September 2025 meeting, “to advance a Response Plan for managing the impacts of harmful algal blooms in the Upper Waikato – within the context of existing interventions to manage water quality, such as the Waikato Regional Council Proposed Plan Change 1, and Te Ture Whaimana o awa o Waikato.”

One of the things the group is working on is communication. “Together, we are also working to improve public understanding of risks, in particular, what specific language will help people to heed those risks – we understand that many people still use the water even when health warnings are in place,” a council statement said.

Coffin is confident the working group is more than a box-ticking exercise but says getting alignment between the various groups, each with their own mandate, is a “conundrum”.

Community takes control

For locals, the stance of the big players, ranging from denying any impact, to having their hands tied by rules, offers little comfort. They’re yet to see any improvement as a result of the working group.

Hope Woodward is a councillor for the Mangakino-Pouakani ward of the Taupō District Council.

“Heartbreaking,” is a term she uses repeatedly about the water condition, and she’s agitating for action.

She’s attended working group meetings and suggested a survey be conducted to understand how the water quality affects the community. The Waikato Regional Council agreed to her idea, she says, but when she asked when it would be done the council’s response was, “in the next fiscal year, funding dependent”.

She set up a survey herself using an online tool that cost $50. Eighty-one of the almost 100 people who completed it said poor water quality stopped activities. At least 41 percent of those who responded to the survey said they or their pets had been sick after being in contact with the water.

Almost half of the comments touched on perceived inaction and fragmented responsibility.

“There seems to be nothing happening, we complained two years ago and nothing changed,” one respondent wrote.

“Somebody needs to take accountability and fix it,” another commented.

Woodward says the issue affects public health, livelihoods, tourism, property values and wellbeing.

“I think the responsible entities just need to stop having all these discussions that have no resolutions whatsoever. It just seems that nobody wants to take any accountability for what’s gone on.”

She wants farming consents to be checked, and she’s keen for more research to be done into the effect of Mercury spraying weeds in the lakes. She can’t identify a single thing being done now that will stop another summer of blooms.

“There’s a lot of data gathering and discussion happening, which is important, however we now need to see that translate into real, on the ground action.”

The working group’s eventual response plan will only satisfy the community if it’s backed by accountability and delivery, she says.

At Lake Maraetai in Mangakino, Karl Hitchcock says the blooms have gotten worse since he bought his property.

“We’ve got pictures of the lake. It’s just glowing in the dark. It looks radioactive.”

It makes wakeboarding and swimming unsafe and there’s a flow-on effect for the community. Businesses which rely on the weekend recreational visitors are struggling, people just don’t bother coming anymore. There’s only one upside, he jokes. “It’s good for the swimming pool, because all the locals will swim in the swimming pool, right?”

He’s been one of the key voices on the community Facebook page encouraging people to send in photos of water conditions and looking for opportunities to improve the situation.

Hitchcock has looked into whether a fund administered by the Waikato Regional Council might be applied to pay for webcams at the lakes, but was told it probably wasn’t the right fit for that particular fund. He had hoped giving the ability for people to see whether the water was pea soup green, or covered in scum might prevent wasted trips to the lake.

The council told RNZ webcams are one of the options the working group is considering, along with drone footage, community reporting via photo and satellite imagery.

He’s now planning to apply for funding from Mercury Energy to try an ultrasonic treatment for the lakes where blooms occur. This would consist of a solar-powered floating unit that emits sound waves that kill algae.

Without some concrete action he thinks next summer, “will only be worse”.

The river is an asset to farmers, recreational users and the country’s power generation capability. “Obviously, we’re generating a lot of power from the dam, and everybody wants cleaner, cheaper power, but we all just need to get together and fix it.”

He’s another fan of more data being gathered to help drive decisions about how to improve the water quality.

“When the water comes out of the Taupō gates, it’s crystal, it’s pristine, it’s so good up there. But then when it comes down here, it’s green, and it doesn’t need to be.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Heavy rain and winds continue as a deep sub-tropical low continues to make its way across the country, particularly from Northland to Bay of Plenty.

A period of large northeast waves is also expected with strong to gale-force winds.

Northland east of Kaikohe from Doubtless Bay to Whangārei remains under a red heavy rain warning, with the remainder of Northland under an orange heavy rain warning.

Auckland, Westland District, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Tasman, Canterbury and North Otago are also under orange heavy rain warnings.

Orange strong wind warnings are in place for Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Taihape, Whanganui and parts of Taranaki.

It comes after Northland and Auckland received more than a month of rain since wild weather hit the regions on Wednesday.

A number of highways and local roads were closed across the upper North Island.

Further flooding and slips were still possible, MetService warned.

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

States of Emergency have been declared in Whangārei and the Far North

The Whangārei District Mayor Ken Couper said with communities isolated and more heavy rain forecast, declaring an emergency means Civil Defence had access to emergency powers to protect life and property.

He said that includes ordering evacuations, closing roads and public places and removing aircraft, vessels, vehicles.

Whangārei District Civil Defence Controller Victoria Harwood, said at this stage, it’s not known whether the emergency powers will be used.

Northland Civil Defence is urging Northlanders to take the current weather event seriously.

The States of Emergency will be in effect for seven days beginning 2.00pm, Thursday, 26 March.

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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Source: Radio New Zealand

MetService says there’s a strong likelihood of several regions being upgraded to red heavy rain warnings as a damaging storm sweeps across the country.

Northland and Whangārei are currently in a state of emergency, which will last for seven days.

Although rainfall is set to ease for both regions, others may soon be in the flood firing line.

So which regions are preparing for the worst?

Tauranga

Tauranga City Council is also warning people of landslide risks.

An orange heavy rain warning remains in place for Tauranga through to 1am on Saturday.

The warning has a high chance of being upgraded to a red warning.

Due to earlier rainfall and slips, it said there was an increased risk of new landslide occurring and more damage at sites which had already experienced slides.

“If you learn or suspect that a landslide is occurring or is about to occur in your area evacuate immediately if it is safe to do so.

“Seek higher ground outside the path of the landslide. Getting out of the path of a landslide or debris flow path is your best protection.”

Adams Avenue, between Pilot Bay and the Maunganui Rd roundabout, would be closed to vehicles from 5pm due to the heavy rain warning.

“This is a precautionary approach following geotechnical advice about the current risks on Mauao from anticipated rainfall.

“The road will not be opened until the rain event has passed and we have expert advice regarding the safety of the area.”

Bay of Plenty

Bay of Plenty Civil Defence is warning of possible land slides and for people to stay inside if possible.

Up to 180 millimetres of rain is expected, with the region’s orange warning likely to be upgraded to a red.

MetServices said surface flooding and road closures are expected.

Visit MetService, NZTA or the council website for updates, the region’s Civil Defence said.

Coromandel

Meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said there was a high chance of the Coromandel’s orange rain warning being upgraded to red.

A heavy rain warning was in place for the area from 4pm Thursday until at least 6pm Friday.

MetService said expect up to 80 to 120mm of rain on top of what has already fallen.

It said rain up to 200mm was also possible for the Coromandel Peninsula.

Auckland

All of Auckland is now under orange rain and wind warnings, with a low chance of being upgraded to red warnings.

Auckland Civil Defence said residents should prepare for flooding and stay up-to-date via MetService and the NZTA website.

Nelson/Tasman

Residents in the Nelson and Tasman districts are being asked to prepare for severe weather, with up to 250 millimetres of rain expected in some areas.

An orange heavy rain warning is in effect for Tasman northwest of Motueka until 4pm Friday, with a a high chance the warning will be upgraded to red.

Nelson Tasman Civil Defence said the rain was settling in on Thursday, and people should be careful around rivers and streams, and on the roads.

Rest of South

Orange heavy rain warnings are also in place for the Richmond and Bryant ranges, as well as parts of Westland, south Canterbury, and north Otago.

MetService said up to 90mm of rain could fall in North Otago and Canterbury.

There was a minimal chance of the warning upgrading to red, it said.

Red weather warnings ‘no joke’

National Emergency Management Agency’s (NEMA) director of civil defence emergency management John Price confirmed further red warnings for parts of the country were likely.

“Red weather warnings are real and no joke, and I’m urging people not to put themselves in harm’s way, as your life safety is critical.

“MetService only issues red warnings for the most extreme weather events. Heavy rain and severe winds can cause flooding and landslides, which can kill or cause serious harm.”

Price urged people to “trust their danger sense” and not be foolish.

“If you get into trouble and need rescuing, you’ll be holding up emergency services who need to be looking after our most vulnerable.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A young mum facing life-threatening delays for cancer treatment may be forced to raise more than $1 million for a stem cell transplant overseas.

At only 29-years-old, Loran Geddes was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in November last year.

Her symptoms started long before that – around July, but as a busy mum to two young boys, she managed to cast them aside.

She was bruising a lot but worked rearing calves. She was tired all the time, but her kids kept her up at night. She had night sweats, but even her doctor told her that because she was breastfeeding, this was likely to be hormonal.

It wasn’t until chest pains that she’d had for two weeks became so bad that she couldn’t lie on one side that knew something was wrong.

After her diagnosis, Geddes was put straight on a waiting list for a stem cell transplant.

Shortly after beginning chemotherapy, it was found her cancer had mutations, putting her in a high-risk category, and making an allogenic stem cell transplant the only possible way to treat her leukaemia.

Despite this, she was told May was the earliest she would be able to receive the transplant.

In order to get the treatment, she must be in remission, which she achieved in January after her second cycle of chemotherapy.

She had a donor from the UK lined up, after she discovered neither of her siblings or anyone in the New Zealand database was a match.

But instead, she sat and waited, undergoing two more rounds of preventative chemo.

After Geddes completed her third cycle of chemo, she met with her haematologist, who delivered the blow that her transplant date had now been pushed out to August at the earliest – nine months after her diagnosis.

“Those words from the doctor were the hardest things to hear. We’ve remained really positive throughout this whole journey. And hearing you go home and sit and wait now was terrifying.

“The waiting for a transplant is really risky for me. These delays put me in a position of potential relapse.”

Geddes is worried that the delay could ultimately cost her life.

“The delays could be the difference between me living or dying, unfortunately.”

“My most critical time is within the three months following my last chemo treatment and my stem cell transplant is not scheduled until at least six months post my last sort of chemo. So a bit daunting sitting and waiting.”

Patients left in limbo by funding boost

Geddes hasn’t been given a definitive reason as to why her transplant date was pushed out another three months, but it ultimately all comes down to waitlists.

Stem cell transplants can only be done in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch – Geddes is on the Auckland list, but all three have hefty wait times.

“They don’t have the capacity for patients. They haven’t had the funding previously.

“They’ve now received some funding, but it’s going to take a couple of years for them to catch up on the waitlist and improve waitlist times, which is not obviously going to help me at this current point.”

In November 2025, the health minister announced a $27 million funding boost for stem cell transplants, to recruit to the specialist workforce, increase hospital capacity, and upgrade infrastructure.

The year prior, a $6.11 million investment was made to enable Health New Zealand to begin improvements immediately.

While Geddes said it is great that funding has been allocated, it is doing little for people in her situation.

She wants to know exactly where that funding has gone, and said each time she has asked the answer has been vague.

“I’d really like to know where some of the funding has been used so far. I know they received about 6.1 million in 2024 and then the following 27.1 million in 2025.”

“I understand that money is only just being rolled out now, but I’d love to know where that first initial 6 million has gone.

“I think they’ve had a good couple of years now to have implemented something to have helped some sort of procedure to decrease these wait times.”

Executive national director clinical at Health New Zealand, Richard Sullivan, said while the initial $6.11m investment has made a material difference to those waiting for a stem cell transplant, demand still exceeds capacity.

That investment has gone towards appointing 21 new full-time staff in Christchurch, and 26 full time staff in Auckland, with another five still to be appointed in May.

Sullivan said the investment has meant 125 allogeneic transplants were delivered in 2025, up from 114 in 2024.

But for patients like Loran, that does little to help.

The further $27 million will be implemented over the next three years with an aim to increase allogenic transplants to 161 over 2027 and 2028.

Health Minister Simeon Brown said ensuring patients who need stem cell transplants can access this life-saving treatment is a priority for him.

When announcing the funding late last year, Brown said every New Zealander deserves access to timely treatment that can save their life.

Geddes said that statement is “ridiculous”.

“It does not apply to myself in this situation. And I’m sure there are a lot of people in my situation at this current time that would laugh at that statement.

“It hasn’t improved wait times. It’s not going to save our lives. They don’t look at it case by case. It is solely just when you’re added to a wait list.”

The million dollar price tag for survival

For Geddes, August isn’t an answer. If she relapses any time before her transplant she will have to undergo chemotherapy again until she in remission.

There is no option to have the transplant done privately in New Zealand, meaning she is now looking overseas to Australia.

“If we look to go to Australia into their public system, it could take just as long because we would have to be eligible for Medicare and all sorts of other things.”

The only other option in Australia would be to go private – the treatment alone would cost around $1.2 million.

That doesn’t account for the cost of Geddes, her husband and two young sons relocating for around eight months.

It’s a price tag that is far out of reach for the family.

“We would have to do a lot of fundraising and see if we could get other family members to help us or friends to help us get there because as my husband and I and our kids, realistically it’s not possible.”

The family have set up a give a little to help fundraise and enable them to explore any other options that may get Geddes the treatment she needs.

She said the health system here has left her feeling has left her feeling overlooked and ignored.

“The fact that we’re having to look outside of this country for other options to try and save my life, I feel like we’re pretty failed by this healthcare system and this country.

“I know there must be a lot of people in my situation, and I just wish there was a few more people that would speak up about it. More people in my situation, if they spoke up and made a bit of noise, that potentially, it wouldn’t be so overlooked or ignored.”

While she now must search for another option that may help her chances of survival, all Geddes wants to do is to get back to her kids and normal life.

“I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old, two little boys. And for my life, I would love to see them grow up. I’d love to get back into work. I’d love to get back into activities that I enjoy. Just being a part of the community again and contributing to my kids’ lives.”

Funding needed, but hasn’t come soon enough

Health New Zealand told Checkpoint they are currently working to develop waiting time standards for stem cell transplants.

As of December 2025 there were 228 patients on the wait list, like Loran 110 of these were allogeneic, meaning they require a donor.

Between March and November last year, patients in Auckland waited an average of 184 days for a transplant, including 82 days of waiting after they were medically ready.

Sullivan said Loran’s treatment delay is the result of nationwide capacity constraints for stem cell transplants.

While the new funding will reduce the waitlist over the longer term, Health NZ recognises this doesn’t help Loran right now.

At this stage she is scheduled to get her transplant no later than mid-August at Auckland Hospital, however, the Auckland team will continue to look for opportunities to bring this forward.

Along with increasing the number of transplants delivered annually, the $27 million of funding will go towards 79 full time staff; 23 in Auckland, 31 in Wellington, and 26 in Christchurch.

Auckland and Wellington will also see increased inpatient space, with eight new beds decided to oncology/haematology patients in Auckland.

Brown told Checkpoint he expects Health New Zealand to continue prioritising this work, including recruiting to the specialist workforce, increasing hospital capacity, and upgrading infrastructure so that more New Zealanders receive stem cell transplants when they need them.

Blood Cancer New Zealand said Geddes’ situation is very concerning.

“A timely transplant would give her a real chance of returning home to her family and being there for her two boys. In many comparable countries, this would be the expected pathway. A wait of this length is neither clinically nor ethically acceptable.

“Whilst last year’s budget increase showed responsiveness to the waitlist issue, it is deeply distressing that this has not come soon enough for patients like Loran.”

While the funding boost is necessary step, they said it does not address immediate risk for patients currently waiting.

They said they would continue advocate for further urgency so future patients aren’t placed in the same situation as Geddes.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Warning: This story contains reference to suicide.

• Residential eating disorder facility says without funding from Health NZ, only those who can afford the cost can access care.
• Two former patients and their families share their eating disorder stories, and how Recovered Living NZ helped them.
• Labour calls on government to fund community organisations with proven track record; minister says he expects funding to be directed where it’s needed.

A North Canterbury eating disorder residential facility that’s proved a lifesaver for those admitted there can’t attract government funding, leading to concerns about who can access care.

Recovered Living NZ offers a different experience from the public system, catering for only nine people at a time in residential care that’s far removed from beds on a mental health ward.

Patients live in the facility and can stay for months, but this comes at a cost of about $1050 a night.

The not-for-profit charity has a contract with ACC for sensitive claims patients, but has been passed over for Health NZ funding to open the service to more people.

Family borrows to afford treatment

Gabby Greally’s in no doubt about Recovered Living’s effect on her.

“I think it saved my life and I think that’s the case for a lot of other people I know who went there. They provided treatment that I think the public service is too strained to give me, and that goes for a lot of people.”

Admitted there in July 2024, Gabby was initially reluctant, but she had run out of options in the pubic system, where she’d initially faced a seven-month wait to see a specialist.

Mum Genevieve said a psychologist told them about Recovered Living.

“She became so sick to the point that she had no other option. She had to go to residential care. She was medically unstable.

“That gave us the mandate as parents to say, ‘Either you go or we’ll have to try something more drastic,'” Genevieve said.

Because there’s no funding to go through the public health system, Gabby’s family dug deep to pay for her stay.

“The funding situation is difficult. We didn’t have the money. We had to borrow the money. So many other parents are in that situation. The girls down there, most of them weren’t wealthy.

“People were remortgaging their houses and things like that. It’s pretty unobtainable for most people…

“For Gabby, we’ve got a girl who either would not be here or who would be in and out of the public system for the rest of her life, and instead now we’ve got a girl who’s well and engaged and will contribute so much to New Zealand in the future.”

Gabby said Recovered Living offered more than just eating and weight restoration, focusing too on exercise and reintegrating to everyday life after six months at the facility. There was group and individual work.

Now, the 21-year-old’s studying law and environmental studies at Victoria University in Wellington as well as working in hospitality, progress that seemed unthinkable two years ago.

“The public service is doing a fantastic job considering how strained they are, but I think they need more support through different routes,” she said.

“I think the nature of eating disorders is very complex and the fact we have only one route to go doesn’t reflect their complexity.”

‘You’d do anything to help your child’

Amanda Holland’s daughter Bridie also went to Recovered Living, for five months in 2024, followed by months of part-time programmes after years battling an eating disorder as a teenager.

Bridie was on a waiting list for over a year to see a specialist in the public sector, only for that relationship to eventually fall over when the specialist said they couldn’t help Bridie because she didn’t want to be helped.

Her condition worsened when she moved to Christchurch from Nelson to study at university, and she was hospitalised twice.

Her mum is telling her story with Bridie’s permission.

“Bridie attempted to take her life while she was home with us for holidays and ended up in the ICU at Nelson Hospital,” Amanda said.

“She was very, very unwell in the ICU when they admitted her. They just brought her back…

“She was in ICU overnight while they monitored her.”

Bridie was discharged after less than a day. She and her family had nowhere to turn to for help.

“How do you get help? How do you advocate for them? How do you keep your children safe when they’ve got a mental health conditions that’s destroying them?

“It’s such a lost, helpless feeling watching them unravel and not being able to help.”

Amanda heard about Recovered Living through her sister, but the family had to find the means to pay for what turned out to be $195,000 of care.

“You’d do anything to help your child, anything at all. A thousand bucks a day, that’s just money isn’t it when it gets to that?

“The cost was what it was. We were fortunate that we had some retirement funds that we were able to liquidate to pay for her care,” Amanda said.

“She was able to get to a point where we could talk about food and eating plans with her.

“Everything’s very closed off and secretive with an eating disorder. It’s just so isolating for the person that’s struggling with it and they cut everybody, including us, as their parents, out of their world.

“They just shut down from everyone, so to get to a point where Bridie learned how to talk about her feelings and let people back into her world again was just incredible.”

Bridie’s back at university now and doing well, but Amanda worries for others unable to access the help they need if they can’t afford it.

Concerns about equity of care

Recovered Living chair Gerard DeCourcy said there was a cost to provide care, but because of its small scale, the home-style facility, which opened almost three years ago, didn’t fit the public-funding model .

“The issue for Health NZ is we’re quite small, with nine beds, and the public money is spent to reach greater numbers.

“The trade-off, however, is that the contract involves quite small amounts of money, relatively, but it still makes a huge difference to the lives of the clients who come to Recovered Living.”

DeCourcy said due to the cost there was an issue with equity of access.

“A Health NZ contract would enable this recovery-based therapy to be accessible,” he said.

“We operate in a small country. There are a number of very worthwhile charities all chasing private support.

“It is difficult for a charity like Recovered Living to build up enough working capital to give it financial security, so we need a reliable pipeline of clients who come to access our service to ensure that we remain financially viable.”

He would like to see a greater partnership between Health NZ and community providers.

Health NZ didn’t say why it doesn’t fund Recovered Living, but it confirmed a senior official met with the organisation late last year.

“Health New Zealand aims to provide a range of accessible, high-quality services for those with eating disorders, from early intervention through to specialist care, prioritising patients with the greatest clinical risk,” said Phil Grady, Health NZ’s national director for mental health and addiction.

“Wait times vary for different services across the country, but help is always available for those in urgent need.”

He said there was a standard application process for contestable funding.

There were 23 inpatient beds nationwide.

It’s estimated about 100,000 New Zealanders have an eating disorder.

Labour mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary said she’d like to see the government fund organisations with proven track records, rather than just measuring numbers of patients.

She said that’s what Labour would do if it were in power, and she compared the cost of a facility such as Recovered Living with the $1600 it would cost to keep someone in hospital each night.

“Clearly, this is an organisation that has good results and good evidence. Why isn’t it being funded?”

Minister for mental health Matt Doocey said he met with Recovered Living late last year and then contacted Health NZ’s director of mental health to arrange a meeting “to address the funding issue raised”.

“It is important to note that funding decisions are made independently by Health New Zealand.”

Doocey said last year he announced the first, refreshed eating disorders strategy in 16 years, which was supported by a $4 million a year funding boost.

“This represents a 20 percent increase and brings total annual investment in eating disorders services to more than $23m.

“I expect Health NZ to ensure that this funding is directed to where it is most needed, so that people experiencing eating disorders can access the support they need.”

Where to get help:

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Thousands of fans are still making the pilgrimage to Middle Earth nearly a quarter century after The Lord of the Rings first hit the silver screen.

Tourism New Zealand said nearly one-in-five visitors from the United States last year booked their trip because of the trilogy – with tour operators reporting a renewed surge in demand for Lord of the Rings experiences.

Rebecca Lower, from Iowa, said the movies were the key reason New Zealand was on her radar and the catalyst for being in Queenstown this month.

“This is my senior year of high school and we’re taking a trip one place anywhere in the world – and I decided I wanted to come to New Zealand to visit all of the filming locations with my mum, who’s also a big fan,” she said.

Their itinerary included a trip to Hobbiton, a hike in Tongariro National Park, a visit to Wētā Workshop and a tour of film locations around Central Otago, Lower said.

“It’s a lot of fun being able to pretend for a while that I’m in some fantasy world,” she said.

Southern Trails, which runs Trails of Middle Earth tours, offers a range of trips to filming locations with opportunities to see and handle replica props and dress up in fellowship-style cloaks.

Owner Shane Pinder said bookings had almost doubled since restarting the company in 2023 and it now offered helicopter tours.

“People are really craving for more Middle Earth,” he said.

“We’ve got a third vehicle; we’ve got another $15,000 worth of props; we’ve got now six guides – whereas we were just two for the first year … and we’re continuing to grow.”

Most visitors had grown up with the movies, he said.

“This is their dream to get over here and see all the locations where the films took place.”

A few kilometres away, Silky Otter cinemas offers 13-hour Lord of the Rings movie marathons every week, comprising all three of the extended editions of the films with introductions by Peter Jackson.

Cinema manager Clem Walker said the sessions – running from 10am to 11pm every Tuesday – typically drew 10 to 20 viewers with most staying right until the end.

“It carries us through quiet seasons and during the winter season it’s going to be even bigger again,” he said.

Many viewers were locals on working holidays or fans closing the circle after visiting filming sites – a final stop on their Middle Earth mission, he said.

“It’s almost 4D, being able to walk out and immediately look out the windows at Middle Earth itself,” he said.

“To say you’ve seen it in a cinema is a novelty, but to say you’ve seen it surrounded by most of the major filming locations – it’s just that extra step.

“I think the whole tourism industry of New Zealand is on a growth curve that sort of parallels Lord of the Rings fandom as well. It just runs quite closely. We’re not planning on stopping at all.”

North American travel company GoWay had also recorded a rise in people seeking out Lord of the Rings adventures.

After the company updated its itineraries last year, interest in New Zealand trips featuring movie stop-offs almost doubled, South Pacific vice president Anthony Saba said.

“Our search data tells us we’re getting a lot more people hitting these packages … once we rejigged them to be a little bit more Middle Earth, Lord of the Rings-focused in some of the labelling,” he said.

People typically were not going soley for movie-related experiences, but it was a key reason for their interest, Saba said.

“I think what happened was it made people research New Zealand more and they learned more about it, Māori culture, the scenery, Milford Sound,” he said.

It will be 25 years since the premier of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and 12 years since the final Hobbit movie – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in December.

Tourism New Zealand said last year’s International Visitor Survey showed 14 percent of arrivals to the country were motivated by The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.

Among visitors from the USA, that figure rose to 18 percent, it said.

“Once here, 26 percent of visitors went to or participated in a film location, tour or experience, this was 37 percent for visitors from the US,” a spokesperson said.

Saba said long-time fans now had the time and money to travel.

“A lot of people who were really interested in the Lord of the Rings movies 25 years ago, they may have been in their 20s. And that drove a lot of interest to New Zealand. But a lot of those people, North Americans, don’t travel until they get into their 50s and do this kind of a trip. So I think what we’re seeing now is that generation…now fulfilling the dream of going to New Zealand,” he said.

Shane Pinder believed a sense of nostalgia was contributing.

“It’s this cycle that you see in pop culture, whether it’s music and fashion, movies – people hark back to their younger days. Twenty-five years just seems to be that kind of number where people always look back. I see a lot of people listening to early 2000s music and dressing the way that I dressed when I was in high school. And I guess Lord of the Rings was a huge part of the early 2000s pop culture – these were the biggest films of the early 2000s, 17 Academy Awards,” he said.

“That’s not to say that there wasn’t fandom in between, but it definitely seems like there’s a resurgence of it.”

Peter Janssen, a fan from Belgium, said it was all about the power of the ring.

“It’s so unique the way they were filmed, the location here, it’s just amazing. I think it just has a lot of influence on people’s lives,” he said.

“For me New Zealand was always high on the list – but mainly because of Lord of the Rings,” he said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Government documents show changes aimed at strengthening deportation levers could disproportionately affect Pacific Island nationals, but the Immigration Minister says that won’t happen.

Erica Stanford said it was “not about racial profiling, it never has been”, but the Greens are concerned the “MAGA-loving immigration Bill” could scapegoat migrant communities.

The Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill was up for its first reading at Parliament on Thursday, and will give immigration officers the power to ask suspected overstayers for identification in homes and workplaces.

The government said it was closing a compliance gap in the deportation system, while critics argued it was a step towards the immigration conditions that had allowed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids seen in the United States.

Proactively released documents by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment show a paper outlining further decisions on the Bill.

It noted the population groups most likely to be “potentially liable for deportation” had historically been Pacific Island nationals.

“As a result, the proposal to expand the powers of immigration officers to request identity information from those they have ‘good cause to suspect’ may be liable for deportation, could disproportionately affect these same population groups.”

Stanford rejected the suggestion the Bill would lead to disproportionate impacts on Pacific communities, saying it was a “really small technical change” in very “limited circumstances”.

“This is not about racial profiling. It never has been,” she said.

Stanford explained that currently immigration officials who come across people “hiding” or “jumping out windows” or “escaping” aren’t able to ask them for identification documents.

“This is not about randomly stopping people on the street or targeting them because of their ethnicity. This is a particular behaviour in a particular situation, and it was a request from immigration officials for that change.”

She said she wasn’t scared of history repeating itself.

The Greens immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said he was extremely concerned the “MAGA-loving immigration bill” would scapegoat migrant communities.

“The government is taking a Trump-like approach to immigration by targeting undocumented migrants, including our Pacific communities, who have already faced the intergenerational damage of the Dawn Raids.”

He said the government had been advised that Pacific people will be disproportionately affected by the bill and it needed to be scrapped.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A woman and two young children have been rescued from a car trapped by rising floodwaters in Northland.

Fire and Emergency said the rescue unfolded on Pigs Head Road, Whananaki, when the woman’s car became trapped between two impassable bodies of water.

Hikurangi fire chief Trevor Gallagher said the brigade initially thought the car had gone off the road and was submerged in floodwaters.

A specialist swift water rescue team – which had been stationed in Whangārei ahead of the storm – was dispatched to Pigs Head Road, and a rescue helicopter was put on standby.

However, when the Hikurangi Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived they found the driver had made her way through one flooded section of road, only to come to another where the water was even deeper.

With the water still rising, she was unable to go back the way she had come.

Gallagher said she got her car onto an area of higher ground and called for help just before noon on Thursday.

The water was also too deep for emergency service vehicles, so some of the firefighters, kitted out in lifejackets and safety gear, waded through the water to the car.

The primary-school-aged children were cold and frightened, but otherwise unharmed.

The brigade then called in an ex-army Unimog to drive through the flood and collect the trio, but while they were waiting a large contractor’s truck turned up.

The driver was able to collect the woman and children and drive them to the other side of the flood, where an ambulance crew was waiting to check them.

The water rescue team was stood down.

Gallagher said since then floodwaters had continued rising, with the nearby settlements of Ngunguru and Whananaki entirely cut off, and State Highway 1 closed by flooding at Whakapara.

A Pigs Head Road resident told RNZ he saw emergency vehicles on either side of a section of flooded road about 40 metres long.

He said so much rain had fallen overnight – about 200mm since midnight – that waterfalls were pouring off the embankments alongside the road.

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