NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

Simon Williamson’s grandfather was in his late twenties when he rode his horse from St Bathans in Central Otago to Tekapo in South Canterbury.

The lambs he sought were too expensive but a good deed proved life-changing.

He met a man who took a liking to him and offered him the chance of owning a high country station called Birchwood in the Ahuriri Valley.

He bought it and his family and descendants lived there for 64 years.

It was then sold to the Crown and the Williamson family, in turn, bought another station, Glenbrook further east, straddling State Highway 8 south of Twizel.

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At 4000 hectares and carrying 3000 merino sheep and a couple of hundred cattle, the sheep station is a lot smaller than the stations of Grandad Ted’s day.

Back in the late 1800s a sheep station would have up to 60 staff and contract staff.

Nowadays, Simon said, it is a little different.

“Now the boys have gone off to school, just Kirsty and me are full time and one full-time man who’s gold that’s worked for us for quite a long time now.

“And he’s rock solid. So there’s really only three of us.”

But with the stock numbers and a bit of cropping they try and make everything fit, so it is “doable”.

Simon’s wife Kirsty is a vital part of Glenbrook Station with her four dogs.

She works the sheep and cattle and plays an integral part in the daily running of the farm.

She also runs a tourism venture, welcoming cruise ship guests on-farm for a high country station experience.

“The buses come in and we give the guests lunch, with everything grown here,” she said.

“I think they just like the chance to get up a driveway. You know, they often drive down the road, and never really know what’s up here. So they get a chance to experience it.”

Glenbrook Station is in an extreme environment with harsh, cold winters and extremely hot summers.

Simon said, back in the early days, some winters you could lose almost a quarter of your stock and it took a long time to replace them.

“The winter of 1895, Benmore Station had 100,000 sheep shorn that season and … they got an early storm with metres of snow.

“In those days, there was no access out there. You only had a horse, and the snow covered the sheep over out on the flats.”

The shearing numbers were down to 40,000 the next season, so the numbers told it all.

“They lost 60,000 sheep in piles, so pretty devastating, those sort of events and history.”

Simon said when they took over the land there was no irrigation to speak of and it was not well understood at the time.

Six families took a punt and joined forces to pay for a scheme.

“We struck a good winter, and they got the whole canal right through from Lake Ohau.

“The whole canal cost about $4m to build, and it irrigated 4000 hectares of farmland and is still doing so to this day.”

He said modern, efficient pivot irrigators had been game-changers.

“We started with this irrigator here. It is 900 metres long, and it irrigates 275 hectares, pumping 200 litres of water a second to put six millilitres of water on 275 hectares.”

There’s something about the high country, a kind of romance, with books like Mona Anderson’s “A River Rules My Life” in 1963 helping build an image of isolation, adventure and beauty.

But Simon said there are plenty of challenges.

“Wilding pines are a real problem.

“They just need money thrown at them, so that they don’t become a problem forever, but it is solvable at the moment.”

He said when the rabbits disappeared in the late 90s the pine tree problem really exploded, but he’d rather live with killing a pine tree than rabbits destroying everything.

But the main purpose of Glenbrook is to grow fine merino wool for export.

It heads to Vietnam or China to be scoured, spun and woven into outdoor wear and socks, and ends up in stores in the US.

“It’s a wonderful product, and it’s natural, and merinos suit this country.

“It’s cold in the wintertime, hot in the summertime, and I believe that you farm, what your country suits, and I believe that merinos suit this sort of country.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

After a death on a construction site, a coroner’s report has called a braking system found in some 70,000 vehicles around New Zealand “inherently unsafe”. Waka Kotahi disagrees.

Every time Selwyn Rabbits hears of a vehicle accident in the news, his first fear is that it is the same dodgy brakes as those on the runaway vehicle that killed his son nearly eight years ago.

“You get an instinct,” Rabbits says, a former military engineer and director of crane company Lifting Management.

His son Graeme Rabbits was crushed in January 2018 when the brakes failed on a telehandler, which rolled down a slope and pinned him against a concrete mixer at a construction site in west Auckland where he was working.

Selwyn started investigating soon after Graeme’s death and discovered several fatalities caused by vehicles with cardan shaft brakes since 2010.

The brakes are in around 70,000 vehicles in New Zealand, they are a common and cheaper form of braking system, with a single mechanism connecting to the gearbox rather than at the wheels.

Last week, in a major development, Coroner Erin Woolley found the parking brake was “inherently unsafe”. The finding was rejected by the Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) – but is in line with Rabbits’ own conclusions after nearly eight years of extensive investigations.

RNZ’s senior Checkpoint producer Louisa Cleave and reporter Jimmy Ellingham have been in close contact with Rabbits for many months but he was only prepared to go public with his story after the coroner released her findings.

Cleave tells The Detail how she became aware of Rabbits’ research into his son’s death through his niece, a friend of hers.

“I was immediately taken in by the detail that he had put together, it was an extensive amount of work in terms of other accidents that he had discovered, linked to the same braking system.

“One was just the previous year to Graeme’s death and I can only imagine when he started looking and started discovering all these other accidents and deaths how he realised that this was something that was a major problem,” Cleave says.

She says Rabbits was very insistent that he would not step outside of the coronial process and speak about the case because that’s where he would get the answers. It was always clear that any reporting would be based on her findings.

The Coroner referred to six fatal incidents involving vehicles with cardan shaft brakes since 2010, including one after Graeme’s death.

Her report said that Graeme’s death happened because the cardan shaft brake in the telehandler he was using to tow out the concrete truck failed to hold when it was parked on a slope.

It had been subject to a comprehensive servicing regime, and the Coroner said it would not have been obvious to Graeme, or any other person on site, that the brake would suddenly let go in the way that it did.

According to the report, what happened to Graeme could happen to any other person and more needs to be done to educate the users of vehicles with cardan shaft brakes about the inherent danger they pose.

The Coroner also strongly encouraged NZTA to acknowledge that relying on a cardan shaft brake as the only brake on a vehicle is inherently dangerous, because even a well maintained brake can fail without warning.

NZTA does not accept that finding.

In an interview with Checkpoint, NZTA’s deputy director of land transport Michael Hargreaves says since 1 December 2022, there have been significant changes to the Certificate of Fitness process, including roller brake testing.

He says that has led to fewer vehicles failing.

“In 2020, about a third of these vehicles used to fail, in 2025, after the roller brake test, it is now around about five percent,” he said.

He did not accept the Coroner’s finding that the brakes could fail whether or not they had passed the test.

“Our view and the assessment that we have made is that if we target the factors around poor maintenance and operational use, which is what we have done, those safety benefits will flow.”

Several reports on the NZTA website are dedicated to the brakes’ limitations and how to operate and maintain them. Over the years it has updated and added to the advice.

In July 2022, it issued a safety alert for them “to raise awareness of the limitations of the brake mechanism, including the potential risks of parking on slopes”. That was in addition to a WorkSafe bulletin on driveshaft parking brake failures.

The Transport Agency also requires vehicles with the braking system to display warning stickers.

Rabbits says NZTA has not done enough and he is seeking a meeting with the chair of the agency, Simon Bridges.

He knows it’s not viable to ban all of these vehicles outright as it would be hugely costly and inconvenient. But he wants more done to warn drivers and he wants to see new imports stopped.

Cleave says his call to action is backed by many in the industry.

The National Carriers Association has sent an updated alert to its 1500 members off the back of the coroner’s report.

Heavy vehicle compliance expert Steve Bullot says the system has a fatal design flaw.

Cleave says she has spoken to a number of other people in the industry who echoed those concerns.

In a written statement to Checkpoint, the NZTA board chair Simon Bridges says Rabbits’ request is being considered, and a response will be provided directly to Rabbits.

Any legal advice to NZTA or its board members in connection with the coronial findings and recommendations is legally privileged and confidential.

Rabbits is determined and says he has a lot of supporters. His objective has always been to prevent another death or injury.

“I come from a military background, I was an engineer in the air force and I’ve always believed that you’ve got to make the system right so that it performs, it does its functions just like the Navy is doing with the Manawanui.

“This has not been a grieving father. I’ve always approached this logically, constructively. And I’m a strong believer that if you do that, sooner or later someone will take notice.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Taranaki family has paused work on the rebuild of their coastal bach, after a pair of nesting little blue penguins – or kororā – took up residence beneath its floorboards.

The Vile family, who are redeveloping a classic two-bedroom bach at Urenui Beach, are now patiently waiting for a chick to fledge.

Scott Vile, who’s owned his Urenui bach for about five years, knew he’d have to pause his summer renovation plans, when he discovered a penguin incubating an egg.

“Basically, I lifted a piece of chipboard there and they weren’t under there when I started in October, so me being me, I just went for it.

“Then my curiosity caught me out and I checked again on a Sunday, before I went to leave, and hello, there was a penguin sitting on an egg just nesting away, so I quickly made the phone call and got some help really.”

Coromandel couple Tracey and Peter Kendall told Morning Report on Friday they were at their wits ends, after their resident rowdy penguins migrated underneath their bedroom – keeping them up at nights.

Scott and wife Natalie were more relaxed about his find – they contacted the Department of Conservation and put the project on hold.

“Basically, we’re waiting for the penguin to fledge, so it will leave and go to sea, and once it’s fledged, we can continue on with the project and carry on.”

The timeframe was open-ended.

“Oh, it is just what it is. We’re pretty cruisy and, once we’re allowed to start, we’ll get in and begin chipping away at it.”

Scott said the bach had a history of penguins nesting under the floorboards and, at one stage, had a perspex viewing hatch in the floor.

“Late at night, they scoot out to sea, and they come back in when we’re having BBQs and a few drinks at night, and you can see them come back in.

“Kinda like little drunken sailors, they come in and hit their heads on the floorboards, ‘Donk, donk, donk’ you can hear them as they get back to their home.

“It’s just living in harmony really, just both us in the bach and them under the floor.”

Scott said the couple’s children, Bentley and Jordan, were thrilled by the discovery of the nest.

“We’ve been amazed by how fast the chick has grown. It’s been pretty cool to watch them grow.”

DOC tipped off Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Mutunga Pou Taiao about the penguin discovery.

“We actually all met here and had a look, and sure enough, there were a couple of little fuzz balls under the deck there. It was just really awesome, and we’re so grateful for Scott and his whānau for just being so accommodating of them, and willing to put their summer time on pause for us and the kororā.”

McKay helped monitor kororā for a joint Ngāti Mutunga – Ngā Motu Marine Reserve Society project.

“There’s been kororā around this coastline for as long as I can remember and, from the stories I’ve heard, they’ve been around for generations now.

“We have two areas that we monitor closely – Wai-iti and here at Urenui – and there are plenty of kororā coming and going.”

McKay expected the Vile family could soon get back to work.

“We actually microchipped this penguin on Monday, so it had shed enough of its fluff, of its down feathers to be chipped. It should only be a couple of weeks now, [before it fledged], I imagine.”

Meanwhile, Scott Vile wasn’t worried about penguins causing him to lose sleep.

“We first encountered them up the coast at Wai-iti, so we’re pretty used to them and I sleep like a rock anyway, so they’ve never bothered me.

“Like I say, we just live together harmoniously. They come and go as they please, and we do the same, so it’s always been a good little relationship.

“We just need them to leave for a couple of months, so I can build a bach and then they can come back.”

DOC Taranaki principal operations advisor Kelby Clements said the Vile family’s decision to pause their project for the penguins’ benefit was “naturing at its best”.

“This is a great example of how small acts of naturing make a difference to protecting our precious native species.

“By pausing their project, Scott and his family have made a real difference to this little family of kororā, and that will contribute to our understanding of the species’ local population.”

There were originally two kororā – which were the world’s smallest penguin species – under the Vile’s bach, but one did not survive.

Clements said little blue penguin populations had been declining where they were not protected from predators and threats to the birds increase where there was human development in coastal areas.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A $55,000 reward for information leading to those responsible for killing endangered sea lions in the Catlins a year ago has been extended to cover the killing of three sea lions at the Waitaki River mouth, north of Ōamaru, in August.

The New Zealand Sea Lion Trust (NZSLT) initially offered a $5000 reward for information leading to the killing of a sea lion pup and its mother, found shot in late 2024, and the death of another young female that had to be euthanised after being found with stab wounds in November last year.

The eight month old pup was shot and left to die in September, and its mother was found dead weeks later 100 metres away from where the pup had died.

A wave of support and donations saw the reward soar to $55,000.

But prosecutions have to be brought within twelve months of the offence due to statutory limitations in the Marine Mammals Protections Act, Sea Lion Trust co-chair Shaun McConkey said.

He said the reward has been extended, and will remain open until the end of August for information leading to those who killed the sea lions in Waitaki.

“Sadly I think the opportunity to prosecute someone for the Catlins killings has passed. But for the Sea Lion Trust one of the positives to come out of it is the number of people who are incensed about it, the number of people who are disgusted by it, and the number of people who are willing to give money towards finding the culprits and preventing it from happening again.

“There is certainly a lot of support out there for sea lions and other wildlife, and there’s enough people who have had enough of this type of thing going on.”

The three young males were found at the Waitaki River mouth, north of Ōamaru on August 10.

The New Zealand or Hooker’s sea lion – one of the rarest sea lions in the world – is nationally endangered.

They were hunted to the point of extinction, eradicated on the mainland for around 200 years, only returning in the 1990s when a sea lion named ‘Mum’ made her way to the Dunedin coast to give birth.

There’s thought to be around 10,000 sea lions left, mostly found on remote sub-Antarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands, though the main breeding colony on the Auckland Islands has halved in size in recent decades.

Sea lions are drawn to isolated sandy beaches, which made it hard to monitor the animals or install cameras in many areas, leaving the Trust reliant on information from the public, McConkey said.

“I’m just hoping that someone’s opened their mouth and boasted about doing this at the pub or something like that, and someone’s been listening and noted it and will be able to tell the police.”

It’s not known what was used to stab the sea lion killed in the Catlins, but McConkey said people would have been able to approach the animal, despite their size.

“If you were to go up and stab a sea lion, they’d most likely try and run away rather than attack you. They’re not especially aggressive animals, but there’s always someone who’s either incensed enough or macho enough to do this and it makes them look big and tough, but I really don’t understand it.”

Locals described the small colony at the Waitaki River Mouth where the dead and wounded animals were found as almost tame.

Under the Wildlife Act, it is illegal to injure or kill protected native wildlife such as sea lions and anyone who does so can face punishments of up to two years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $250,000.

Mainland populations were doing better than their sub-Antarctic counterparts, where colonies were extremely vulnerable to disease and steep declines in numbers had been seen, likely due to wider ecological issues, including growing competition for dwindling fish stocks and the effects of climate change.

On the mainland, the animals faced threats from dogs, drivers and humans.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Some residents at an Auckland retirement village want to put the brakes on a policy that would ban any more electric vehicles (EVs) within its gates.

Fairview Lifestyle Village in Albany said it was concerned about the risk an EV fire would pose to the busy community’s residents and homes.

While rare, EV fires can be more difficult to put out than petrol car fires and the village said it was unclear who was legally responsible for managing that risk.

The policy was still in mediation, and residents who already owned electric vehicles would be allowed to keep them, but they were not letting any new EVs into the gated North Shore community.

As well as cars, the policy extended to e-bikes, e-scooters and wheelchairs.

Retirement Village Residents Association chief executive Nigel Matthews told RNZ’s Checkpoint this was the first case concerning electric vehicles that he had seen.

While the issuing concerned some retirement residents, he said it was great that consultation was underway.

“We have been aware that this has been an ongoing discussion since early February, March of this year and, unfortunately, some of these processes take a while.”

Matthews said concerns about the risks of EVs had seemingly been increased via the media.

“There’s been obviously a tension in the media – as soon as there’s an EV that blows up or catches fire, it’s on the front page. [If] it’s a diesel or a petrol car, you won’t hear about it.”

He said the issue was complicated by policies being formed after people had already moved in with EVs.

“Prior to people moving in, no policy on this. However, there’s obviously – you know – discussion that has occurred, and now they’re wanting to put in a policy, which would ban charging in your own garage and obviously underneath in the car parking area of the apartment.

“I get it, but you know, if the council imposed a sudden policy change on me and said, ‘You can no longer charge your EV in your own personal garage’, we need to actually change that. I would then want to engage in consultation and I’d want there to be some sort of resolution.”

Despite the decision causing frustration for some, he said the retirement village had acted properly.

“The law’s pretty clear – if operators change something that’s going to have a material impact on you, then you must consult. These operators have done exactly that.”

There was currently no end in sight for that consultation.

“At some point, there’s going to have to be a resolution at the end and you’ve got some residents that clearly want to be able to continue to use their EV.

“It’ll be like telling someone who drives a Ford now, ‘You can no longer drive your Ford, but we’ve got some Holdens you might like’.”

Matthews said, if the village wanted to look at also banning things like electric bikes and wheelchairs, they would have taken a broader look at the issue.

“I’ve seen the YouTube clips where things have exploded – either ebikes and EV of some sort that are being charged and then just caught alight… but I’ve also seen it with cell phones.

“At what point do you actually stop and say, ‘We need to have a bigger holistic look at this and come up with some sensible parameters?'”

Fairview Lifestyle Village said its overriding concern and objective was the safety of its 300 residents, as well as staff, visitors and property.

It said, in New Zealand, the legal responsibility framework around the safe management of EVs in residential care settings was completely undefined, so it had to define its own safety parameters.

It said it had taken a measured approach in consulting on and developing a policy to address the current technology and set guidelines for future advancements.

Fairview Lifestyle Village said it anticipated debate, and welcomed ongoing robust conversation to ensure that the policy ultimately implemented was fit for purpose and put residents’ safety first.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown told local media he had requested a meeting with New Zealand’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister regarding the funding pause, but was declined.

It comes as a second round of funding to the realm nation has been paused by Aotearoa, bringing the total funds held to nearly $30 million over two years.

Brown has declined an interview with RNZ Pacific.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for Brown said the government continues to engage in good faith with New Zealand and that discussions are ongoing, “so it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time”.

However, speaking to Cook Islands Television (CITV) in Cook Islands Māori, Brown said he had received criticism for not meeting with New Zealand’s prime minister or foreign minister.

“I want to confirm to you all that I did send a letter to the prime minister of New Zealand and [New Zealand foreign minister] Winston to arrange a meeting between leaders, New Zealand’s leader and myself,” Brown, addressing Cook Islanders direclty, told CITV.

“I wanted to elevate these discussions to the prime minister’s level. But they sent their response, they wanted the discussions to be done between our officials.”

He said the Cook Islands was doing what New Zealand requested by leaving the meeting for officials to come up with solutions.

Uncertainty over what the problem is

The disagreement between the two governments stem from partnership agreements that Cook Islands signed with China at the beginning of the year.

The New Zealand government believed it should have been consulted over the agreements, while Brown disagreed.

Brown told CITV the agreements signed with China are “all over and done with”, and New Zealand has had an in-depth look at them.

“There is a part of the document we signed that [New Zealand] say they have a problem with but they have not been able to confirm with us what exactly it is that they have a problem with.”

Kiwis ‘running’ to Oz, Cook Islands economy ‘all good’

Brown said his government is able to cover the amount that New Zealand has put on pause because of a strong economy, driven by the tourism sector.

He said the money New Zealand had paused would normally be disbursed to education and health.

“Looking to New Zealand, they are having issues with the state of their economy, it’s going backwards, the people are running away from New Zealand for Australia to find better opportunities.

“But our status however, it’s all good, hence we were able to afford to cover the amount of money that we did not receive from New Zealand.”

Relationship between to nations ‘not like it was back in the day’

Brown said the relationship with New Zealand had evolved.

“For our relationship today, it is not like it was back in the day where New Zealand was like a parent, and we were the child,” Brown said.

“We have reached 60 years of self-governance; we are our own people, we have our own land, we have our own ocean, our own being, our relationship now is the relationship between friends, not of a parent and child.”

Brown said he wanted the friendship to grow and not go backwards – where New Zealand spoke for the country on the world stage.

“The younger generations and their young ones, they are able to fulfill roles that were once held by westerners or New Zealand… they can fly our flag, be our voice, out there in the world.”

But Brown said he did not want to change the free-association relationship between the two countries, which he has always maintained. It comes after several calls from New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters for Brown to hold an independence referendum.

“When looking at the state of this relationship, what we are pushing firmly for is that this relationship continues, and is strengthened, continuing on into the future,” Brown said.

Peters’ response

A spokesperson for Peters said they had nothing further to add to a statement issued last week.

Part of it said there had been a series of constructive discussions between New Zealand and Cook Islands officials aimed at remediating the breach of trust.

“However, Prime Minister Mark Brown continues in his public statements and actions to promote a vision of the New Zealand-Cook Islands relationship which is inconsistent with the free association model,” the statement said.

“He appears to wish for the Cook Islands to reap all the benefits of the free association relationship while being subject to none of the mutual responsibilities.”

A spokesperson for Brown in a statement told RNZ the Cook Islands remain committed to the relationship of free association with New Zealand.

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