NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

The small beachside community of Mangawhai is traditionally associated with surfing and a legendary pub, but in the last few months of 2025, it became New Zealand’s petrol price hot-spot.

The Northland town has never been a cheap place to visit, let alone live, but residents and visitors have, over the past few months, been treated to some of the lowest petrol prices in New Zealand.

Mangawhai is home to a number of petrol stations, a Mobil near the town’s New World Supermarket, another closer to the heads, a G.A.S station and a new self-serve Gull across the road from the town’s museum.

According to the Gaspy App, which monitors fuel prices across the country, since the self-serve station opened in September, the price of 91 has sat at $2.33.9 except when dropping for discount days.

The director of Gaspy, Mike Newton, says the town is a bit of an outlier since the Gull station opened in September.

“They’ve had it really good, pretty much since then. They’ve just steadily been 20 cents lower than that national average, which is pretty impressive, especially for Northland, I don’t think they’ve generally have it that good.”

AA spokesperson Terry Collins said this type of competition shouldn’t be limited to Mangawhai.

“What we’re seeing here is a perfect example of competition driving prices down. The Commerce Commission has talked about it from time to time, about how when we do see lower prices, we see them in areas with the most competition.”

‘A lot of discounting going on’

The day First Up visited Mangawhai, the average price of petrol across the country was $2.55.9 per litre. Mangawhai’s Gull had the third lowest price at $2.33.9 per litre – only bettered by the Allied pump at Opua Marina and Westgate’s Costco.

Newton said the months of lower prices at the Gull forced Mangawhai’s other stations to compete, but the lower prices were not usually as sustained as they have been since September.

“If those other stations don’t compete, they won’t get any business. When the price is that much lower, if they’re sitting across the road and their price is 20 cents higher, why would anyone go there?”

Collins said they saw fluctuations in prices depending on demand during an average week.

“What we’re tending to see lately is a lot of discounting going on, people chasing on particular days, Tuesdays and Thursdays kind of thing, before the weekend and after the weekend where the demand is slacking and because they want volume they’ll make these discount offers to drive sales.”

As for Mangawhai Gull station’s other products, Newton said they were not as much of a bargain. “It’s really only the 91 price that is the significant outlier, diesel and 95 are pretty much tracking the national average, there’s really not much to be saved there”

He said the price of petrol nationwide has been pretty steady. “We haven’t seen any of the huge shifts we saw like when Russia headed into Ukraine, those sort of global [events] which see massive price changes, it’s really been steady as she goes.”

As for Mangawhai’s low prices, Collins said it was all good. “I’m not sure if they’re doing it in this case to encourage tourism, I think basically it has been ignited by the arrival of Gull and the competition it brings, but no, long may we enjoy it.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A homicide investigation has been launched in Napier after a man assaulted outside a nightclub last week died.

Andy Winitana, 46 from Hastings, died in hospital on Wednesday after sustaining injuries during an assault early on Sunday.

A 21-year-old man has appeared before Napier District Court on a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and has been remanded in custody.

Further charges are now being considered.

He is next due to appear in Napier District Court on 25 February.

Police said they wanted to hear from anyone who may have footage or have witnessed the assault on the Napier wharf area between 12.30am-1.30am on Sunday 1 February.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Social services say they are seeing alarming numbers of rough sleepers in the capital, with a constant stream of new people trying to get help.

It comes as an announcement by the government about move on orders for the homeless looms – with legislation expected to be introduced soon.

In the last two quarters of 2025, outreach teams dealt with between 30-40 people “never seen before”, Downtown Community Ministry’s chief executive Natalia Cleland said.

Before that, from the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2025, there was a 40 percent increase in rough sleeping each quarter, she said.

About 160 people were sleeping rough in Wellington within the past three months, Cleland said.

“I feel that whilst the numbers of people rough sleeping is high and it’s terrible, it’s actually quite disheartening as well to see new faces coming through the doors asking for services.”

Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge agreed.

“There’s no question in my mind that the need we are seeing in our community, and the desperation of people’s circumstances is greater than we’ve ever seen before.”

Edridge said in the year since the mission’s community hub in Newtown Whakamaru opened, 70,000 people had walked through its doors – though some of these would be repeat visitors.

About 30,000 hot meals had been served, with about 5500 people using the showers, and 6500 shopping at the social supermarket.

“Every day I see people I’ve never seen before in our cafe.”

‘Jail’s my home’

Marcus Pohio, 57, said his most recent stint on the streets had been about two months.

He said he was housed by Downtown Community Ministry for years, but lost his house when he went to prison, and had since been shoplifting “to survive”.

Pohio said he had been in and out of jail for the past decade, and when he went to court again on new theft charges, he would ask to be sent inside again.

“I seem to have more of a home in jail than I have out here. Jail’s my home, in the last 10 years I’ve probably done about 13 legs – just through drug addiction and theft, mainly theft, and through misbehaviour.”

He now sits outside a supermarket on Lambton Quay asking for money for food, he said.

Downtown Community Ministry said it had been in touch with Pohio, who was under the Housing First service and was in the process of getting back on the social housing waitlist.

Pohio said he had seen a lot of new rough sleepers in the capital recently.

“There’s a lot of familiar faces, but there’s a lot of new people popping up, from Upper Hutt and Porirua, all over the place – the Auckland crowd are here, a lot of my mates from Auckland are here, they’ve come from Auckland because they want a better life here.”

He heard police had been moving rough sleepers away from Courtenay Place.

“All my mates have left the streets of Courtenay Place because they’ll be moved by police, police will move them along… they say take your shit and go – go, go go.”

But Police area prevention manager Jason McCarthy, said they did not move homeless people on in Wellington.

“Homelessness is not in itself a criminal matter, but rather a complex social issue that requires a multi-agency approach.”

McCarthy said police were sometimes called on to deal with disorder, intimidation and substance abuse, and these matters were handled on a “case-by-case” basis.

“Police are aware of a number of locations across the Wellington area that are frequented by unhoused people, however there is no particular location currently that gives cause for any additional Police resources to be utilised.”

Bradley Mohr said he was homeless in Wellington for a year and eight months about two years ago, but now lived with his sister.

He was asking for money outside New World on Willis street, saying he was trying to clear a debt, when RNZ stopped to talk to him.

Mohr said he had noticed new rough sleepers on the streets too.

“There’s just a lot more hustlers around… it’s just all increased – maybe they were getting no money in their town, so they come to Wellington.”

Rough sleepers appearing in new areas of the city?

Cleland said Wellington’s central city was still the main place where the street commmunity slept.

The agency had had recent reports of others seeking shelter in Charles Plimmer Park, in Mount Victoria.

Rough sleeping in different parts of Wellington’s town belt was not new, Cleland said, but fluctuated depending on the weather.

A person in the Shelly Bay area told RNZ he had seen a homeless camp at the start of Shelly Bay Road in Miramar in the past two months, but the people had recently packed up and left.

Andrew Wilson, Salvation Army core officer in Newtown, said rough sleeping and anti-social behaviour in the Wellington suburb of Newtown had improved since a concerning spike last year.

“We’ve seen some of our rough sleepers be housed now for longer than they have been for a long time – some of them receive proper mental health support and are practically thriving now that they’re receiving the support they need.”

Others had moved to different areas of the city.

Wilson said drugs were “rampant” in Newtown last year, but the police had done an “amazing” job cracking down on the suppliers.

“There is a risk that some of that starts to pop up again, and so we are working closely with police to ensure it stays out of our community, because that was a large driver of the anti-social behaviour we saw in our community last year.”

Unclear how far ‘move on’ orders could apply

The Prime Minister has said a decision about “move on” orders in city centres would be announced shortly, with legislation expected to be introduced in the House.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith would not respond to RNZ questions about whether move on orders would apply to city centres throughout the country, or be limited to Auckland.

“The government has made decisions and will make announcements soon. All details will be revealed then,” a spokesperson for his office said.

Edridge said the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had sought his comment on move on orders for rough sleepers before Christmas.

He said Wellington City Mission would actively oppose any move on orders if they were implemented without support services, but he was hopeful that would not be the government’s approach.

The Prime Minister has previously told Morning Report move on orders would be considered alongside support for the homeless.

“If move on orders aren’t created or imposed alongside a range of support services, then they’re absolutely ineffective and absolutely abhorrent for our community,” Edridge said.

“The idea that we would move somebody because we don’t want them there, or because we’re somehow offended by their circumstances or behaviour, but don’t do anything about seeking to address that behaviour is just wrong.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

An Auckland North Shore resident who was stung by a yellow-legged hornet while gardening is calling on her community to stay vigilant and report sightings to help eradicate the outbreak.

The number of yellow-legged hornet queens found in Auckland has risen to 49, and 51 nests have been destroyed since the sightings in October last year.

The majority of nests were found in the Glenfield and Birkdale areas, however most recently, new nests had been found in Takapuna and Forest Hill.

Biosecurity New Zealand had laid 1080 traps, and radio tracking technology was introduced in December last year to trace worker hornets back to their nests – already contributing to identifying 10 nests.

Niki Sherriff has had two nests removed from her property on Roberts Road in Glenfield over the past three months.

She was trimming a dense bush in front of her house two weeks ago, when she was stung by a hornet after unwittingly disturbing a hidden nest.

Sherriff said she was stung through her gardening gloves, and was lucky to not be allergic to stings.

In November last year, she reported a hornets’ nest in the corner of her covered deck, and was already familiar with what the insects looked like through leaflets from the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI).

It did not take long for her to recognise the insects flying in and out of the bush, and she immediately reported it to the MPI hornets hotline.

Sherriff said MPI officers exterminated the colony, and have been regularly taking samples from a trap they had put in her lemon tree.

However she was still worried that not everyone in the community was aware of the threat and the need to report sightings, and hoped that eradication and education efforts could be further ramped up.

Sherriff said she felt there may be less awareness of the hornets oubreak among renters and people who did not normally do gardening.

“MPI just can’t do this on their own, they really just need everybody to keep their eyes peeled and be vigilant, they’ve got really good resources on their website about what a hornet looks like,” she said.

Sherriff said she was worried that hornets were in leafy communities like Glenfield, where there were many hedgerows and places for them to build nests.

To date, MPI had received more than 11,060 public reports of sightings.

Biosecurity NZ’s commissioner north, Mike Inglis, said radio transmitters attached to woker hornets had helped to succesfully track 10 yellow-legged hornet nests.

Surveillance and tracking had also scaled up as the summer progressed, he said.

He said the radio trackers had been useful as hornets began to build larger secondary nests high up in the trees, where they were less visible to ground searchers.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Plans to fix coastal erosion caused by increasingly big and powerful waves pounding the Waitaki coast could cost $70 million before 2050, with another $80 million needed to protect the entire Ōamaru sewage system by 2125.

In a report commissioned by the district council in late 2024 and publicly released this month, engineering firm BECA found three roads, a railyard, pump stations, a pā site and urupā were at risk.

The report described some locations as extremely vulnerable and others at risk from the next major storm.

BECA’s recommendations included relocating Hampden Cemetery, closing two coastal roads and accepting the loss of private property and land in northern Ōamaru over the next 24 years.

Waitaki District Council has weaved many of the suggested measures into its long term plan.

Mayor Mel Tavendale said the council faced some tough decisions and community feedback was important.

“We’re a coastal community, we are going to be having these challenges and they’re ongoing. We do need to have some brave conversations and work out what’s important to us and what’s not as important because it’s going to get more and more challenging,” she said.

She said not all the land in the report was council-owned, so the council was trying to share the cost with other agencies, such as KiwiRail and the Transport Agency, where possible.

“I guess in a lot of ways the district cannot afford a $70 million spend. We need to prioritise the council-owned land and then we need to work with the community on other strategies,” she said.

“There are a few sites where [the erosion] is always going to be a bit further or a bit less than expected but it’s a well-known issue. How we solve the issue, that’s not as well-formulated at this stage.”

Peak wave heights expected to rise from 2m to 3.5m

The BECA report predicted 100-year peak wave heights could rise from under 2 metres to over 3.5m along parts of the coast by 2125.

Coastal scientist Martin Single said parts of the eastern South Island had been eroding for 12,000 years because of sea-level rise since post-glacial times, accelerated by climate change.

Single, an environmental consultant with Shore Processes and Management, said more storms were expected to hit the coast each year.

“I think it’s good to see that these reports are being written to identify the financial ramifications of coastal erosion around the country and the significance to infrastructure, and where a lot of money is actually going to have to be pushed into either protecting these assets or relocating them,” he said.

Long-time Ōamaru resident Peter De Reus said he remembered playing on fields at Waitaki Boys’ High School that had since washed out to sea.

He hoped the council would consult with ratepayers before deciding whether to abandon or reinforce an at-risk site.

“Obviously, you cannot guard the whole coast. It’s just not feasible to do that but areas where a lot of the town drive and routinely travel, those areas should be hardened and protected, armoured,” he said.

Beach Road future debated

One site in the BECA report, Beach Road North, has already been closed to traffic for several years, partly because of erosion and partly because of excavation work to remove historic waste.

The council had set up temporary fences for walkers and cyclists while it decided whether to reinforce and reopen the scenic coastal route or keep it closed permanently.

BECA estimated road reinforcements would cost almost $12m, while keeping it closed and relocating services would cost about $4m.

De Reus said the temporary closure came as a surprise to many people and there was little support for a long-term closure, even though it was a cheaper option.

“We’re a tourist town and the area landscape around us is critical for us to market the town as for the tourist town. This road was a real big bonus for Ōamaru,” he said.

Ōamaru Ratepayers and Residents Group chair Ray Henderson said he also supported reopening Beach Road, noting it functioned as a backup to State Highway 1.

“Some years ago there was an accident on Mill Bridge [near the town of Herbert], a car actually got jammed on the bridge and that basically brought State Highway 1 to a halt. There’s nowhere else to go,” he said.

Other work ongoing

A Waitaki District Council spokesperson said the BECA report did not include recent work to tackle historic waste at risk of erosion.

‘Project Reclaim’ removed thousands of tonnes of waste from two fly-tip sites on Beach Road North and the former Hampden landfill, they said.

The council had also been reinforcing the coastline, carrying out rock armouring at the Ōamaru breakwater and replacing sections lost during storms.

“In 2025 we had to replace some on the north side of the Holmes wharf following some rough seas and some alongside the Orwell Street pump station when required,” the spokesperson said.

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