NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

What used to be a cheap and cheerful takeaway is now leaving hungry customers with a hefty bill.

The cost of fish and chips has risen 154 percent between September 2005 and September 2025.

But according to Fresco Fisheries owner Eamon Joe, fish and chips are still good value for money compared to other takeaways.

Joe told Checkpoint his costs have gone up “considerably” since Covid, and an increase in labour and compliance costs are having the biggest impact.

“I think it’s the cost of getting things done these days, and in the industry there’s always these added costs which you have to absorb.”

Joe said the increase in cost of staples such as beef, butter, and beef tallow, which is used as a cooking oil, is also contributing to higher prices.

Joe said he switched to using rice bran oil a number of years ago, but is now paying “probably double” for it.

“We have no control over that. We just have to either absorb [the cost] or pass it on.”

Alongside these increases, there is also the rising cost of fish.

Joe said the varying in costs from one fish and chip shop to the next can also be down to portion sizes.

“We don’t have a standard size, but we are all around the same sort of size.

“You go down to your local shop and you’ll get a piece of fish, and he may cut it slightly thinner or thicker than the guy down the road. And then you’ve got different varieties of fish which are available.”

At Fresco Fisheries, Joe said a fish and a scoop of chips was $9.20.

Joe said people will come to his shop, which also sells fresh fish, for certain types.

“They’ll want the cods, or they’ll want the terakihi or the gurnard, and those prices have gone up as well because obviously they are a seasonal fish which are available certain times and available in larger quantities, but when they’re scarce, the price of that goes up.

“Generally, most shops keep their price fixed, so if you’re buying a fish on a daily basis like I am, the price can fluctuate anything between 10 to 30/40 percent on some varieties.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The final stage of a $160 million revamp to New Zealand’s only vet training school is complete.

At Massey University’s Palmerston North campus on Thursday new building Ngā Huia officially opened its doors.

It’s home to state-of-the-art research labs and student facilities for the 750 aspiring vets undergoing their five-year degrees.

Massey vice-chancellor Jan Thomas said it was a “critical piece of national infrastructure”.

The university paid for the upgrade, which included the opening of a new teaching building three years ago.

The previous quake-prone vet tower at the university was demolished. It was built in the early 1970s, not long after the vet school opened.

“Massey’s come a long way since 1963 when the inaugural class of 32 veterinary students began their studies in the Bernard Chambers vet clinic and WWII army mess hubs,” universities minister Dr Shane Reti said at the building’s opening.

“Since then Massey has produced thousands of bachelor of veterinary science graduates.”

Two students who will themselves graduate in a couple of years are 21-year-old Charlotte Cotton and 20-year-old Ryan Smoothy. Both are completing their third year of study.

“It’s really nice being in purpose-built spaces. We started after the old vet tower had been taken down so this is our first time having a big, specific place for vet [studies],” Cotton said.

“We’ve got our labs over in the other building, but it’s really exciting having our own space now.”

Getting into vet school is competitive – about 400 first-year students are whittled down to 175 to move through the degree.

Cotton said in third year students started looking at specific diseases and the medications used to treat them.

“We’ve progressed more towards understanding what’s normal and how to deal with the abnormal,” Smoothy said.

Both said they wanted to start in general practice before moving into a specialist area.

Vet school research not just about animals

Ngā Huia, which cost $70m, houses modern labs, replacing the previous spaces dating from the 1970s.

“Our research is really focused on delivering what the nation needs, particularly as an island, exporting nation,” head of the school, professor Jon Huxley said.

“Our research strengths tend to be in areas such as epidemiology and food security, pathobiology and infection disease, and animal welfare.”

The school’s research went beyond animals, he said.

“Covid was a fantastic example.

“Covid started in animals then then transferred into Man, so of course having the expertise that crosses that space between animal disease and human disease is critically important.

“We’ve got some fabulous research staff that work in that space, both at a national and a global level.”

The vet school is the top ranked one in Asia and Australasia, and is in the world’s top 20 in the QS world university rankings.

But the new facilities are about more than academic performance alone.

Warren Warbrick, of Rangitāne in Manawatū, was asked to develop a cultural narrative for the building’s design features.

“During the research I found it hard because a lot of the narratives and concepts and ideas that are traditional are really to do with the eating, preservation or preserving of food, or killing of animals, skinning of animals and using their bits of piece for tools and all kinds of things,” he said.

He came across the story of tupuna Tauto, who would communicate with huia – a bird with a nurturing nature.

“So, we’ve kind of used this nurturing concept to look at the way knowledge holders, or lecturers and teachers, nurture their students.”

Staff are expected to start moving into the new labs next month and students will use the building from next year.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

At least four people have been injured in a two-vehicle crash that has shut a major highway north of New Plymouth.

Emergency services are at the scene on Devon Road (SH3) Sentry Hill.

The road is closed and drivers are asked to avoid the area.

Diversions are in place.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

They are purveyors of some of the world’s most sought-after culinary delicacies, but Mahurangi’s oyster farmers have been reduced to eating beans on toast most days, their hair going grey, and their nerves shot.

Last month the farmers were hit with a livelihood-ruining sewage overflow after a power surge at a new wastewater treatment plant in Warkworth.

The overflow of 1200 cubic metres prevented farmers from collecting oysters for 28 days.

On Wednesday, a $1 million compensation deal was struck, but the 10 farmers say $100,000 each is only a drop in the sewage-polluted ocean compared to what they’ve lost.

Jim Aitken from Mahurangi Oysters was hauling in contaminated oysters on Thursday from his farm in the Mahurangi Harbour, north of Auckland, to see if they were still alive.

“We probably have somewhere around 80,000 to 120,000 dozen oysters and they’re all contaminated, every single one is contaminated.

“They can flush it out, but again it takes time, it takes that 28 days if the test results come back negative, but still everything stops.”

While he is relieved and grateful for the compensation from Watercare, he said it will only cover a small portion of the damage to his business.

“Pretty much it’s all gone already to pay off our debts, but it’ll get us through to Christmas, so it takes a significant weight off the shoulders so we’re very thankful that we have got some support after this very, very tough year.”

Aitken said he has lost a whole year of income and incurred debt just trying to survive.

“It has been a bit of eat beans on toast, trying to keep the wallet tight, because we don’t know what next year is going to bring, until that new main pipe is put in there might still be spills next winter, so until that’s in we could be in for another difficult season for 2026.”

The toll on his business will likely linger across the next three years.

Up the road in Matakana, Tom Waters has been spending thousands on oysters from elsewhere just to keep his businesses running.

He said despite no-one getting ill in the latest discharge, the reputation of his business, Matakana Oysters, has taken a huge blow.

“This has really damaged the reputation again so financially that’s a huge impact.

“I’ve got people saying ‘oh look we’re just not going to be trusting them’, all of the farmers have had that out there wherever they sell at farmers markets or wholesalers, that’s something that we’re going to have to continuously try and work hard to get back again.”

Waters said he has had countless sleepless nights with the stress of keeping up with bills and trying to keep on staff.

“This event the other day, that one really did hit me quite badly because it was sunny and we were starting to get everything back going again so I’m glad that they were on the front foot and have come through with something for us in this regard because in previous times it’s sort of been like you’re banging your head upon a brick wall.”

He said compensation is a good start for now, but he is nervous about wet weather events in the future.

“Even though Watercare have done work to try and mitigate those effects with their temporary fixes around Warkworth and certain areas, we are still going to have this problem until the growth service pipeline goes in at the end of next year or the year after.”

Aquaculture New Zealand, the New Zealand Oyster Industry Association and Watercare are still figuring out the full extent of loss from Watercare’s system failures.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Water is warning Seaview residents that due to an “error” by the operators of its Seaview sewage plant, locals should expect bad smells in the area.

The Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant is notorious in the community for causing bad odours, which some have described as being so bad it made them dry retch.

Wellington Water said following an “error” on Thursday with routine operational maintenance undertaken by its contractor Veolia, the biological process for the plant has become unbalanced – which would likely cause more smells.

To manage the risk it would bring in trucks to remove wet sludge from the plant, which would give the process of the plant its best opportunity to become stable again, it said.

“It’s important that the local community are aware and they should expect increased odour from both the sludge trucking and the plant.”

The water provider’s chief executive Pat Dougherty has apologised and said they’d hold Veolia to account.

“This is completely unacceptable.

“We acknowledge that it was around the same time last year that we had issues with odour from the plant and we are gutted that this has happened yet again at the start of summer.”

Dougherty said Wellington Water was committed to reducing the impact of the issue and to ensure it did not happen again.

“We have asked Veolia to provide a robust plan so we can give our community confidence moving forward.”

Just over a year ago fire in the plant’s sludge dryer caused an increase in odour near the plant.

At the time Greater Wellington Regional Council had received hundreds of complaints about the smell at the plant.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say people have been seriously injured in a two-vehicle crash in New Plymouth.

Emergency services are at the scene on Devon Road (SH3) Sentry Hill.

The road is closed and drivers are ask to avoid the area.

Diversions are in place.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are searching for a man who escaped custody while on a hospital escort in Auckland last week.

A warrant to arrest 42-year-old Paul Kyle Peekay Rehua has been issued by police, who believe he is in the wider Waitematā area.

Mt Eden Corrections Facility acting general manager Edith Pattinson confirmed to RNZ on Tuesday a remand prisoner escaped from Corrections staff about 9am on Friday while on a hospital escort.

Police believed he was actively avoiding authorities.

Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz and finn.blackwell@rnz.co.nz

They said Rehua was known to frequent both the greater Auckland and Waikato regions, and were appealing for anyone who may have seen him or those with information that could help in finding him to get in contact.

Earlier this week, Pattinson said public safety was a top priority.

“Any escape is unacceptable and an immediate review into how this incident occurred is being carried out.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says contracting a non-existent trust to set up a charter school was “a bit of a screw up”.

But he said the sport-focused charter school would still go ahead.

The Charter School Agency signed a contract for the NZ Performance Academy Aoteaora with the NZPAA Charitable Trust, but the trust was not listed on the Charities Register.

The agency has been unable to clarify for RNZ the legal status of the contract.

Seymour initially told reporters on Thursday the trust did exist, but his office later clarified he meant the school’s sponsor existed.

He said the sponsor changed some of its arrangements, but the name of the sponsor was not changed on the contract.

“On the contract they still had the old name. So obviously, bit of a screw-up administratively but fundamentally the people are there, the students are there, the government’s there and that partnership will continue,” he said.

“There’s not actually a problem to be addressed here. The school’s going to be there, the students are going to be there. Everyone’s very excited about it and the administrative error can be easily fixed.”

Seymour said he had confidence in the agency’s processes.

“I do, because one administrative error when they’ve opened nearly 18 schools at record speed, I think is pretty good.”

He said the agency was not rushing to approve schools before next year’s election.

“I don’t think they’re being rushed for that purpose. I think they’ve been overwhelmed with interest. They’ve had over 100 different organisations that want to run charter schools. They’ve got to assess them all, contract the ones that we can afford to to open right now, and then monitor how they perform,” he said.

“There’s a huge amount of interest in charter schools, which has put pressure, but generally I’m pretty pleased with the way the charter school agency’s responded to that pressure.”

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