NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

Plaques stolen from soldiers’ graves at an Invercargill cemetery have been recovered, and a man charged with their theft.

Nine plaques were taken in October and November last year from St John Cemetery. Four of them belonged to World War I and II personnel, police said.

While all have been found, not all of them could be restored to their original condition, Senior Constable Craig Colyer said on Wednesday.

“Theft at any time is appalling, but targeting a cemetery is a particularly low act.”

A 44-year-old man has been charged with theft, and will appear in the Invercargill District Court next week.

“We hope this arrest brings some comfort to the affected families, and we want to thank the public for their assistance with the investigation,” Colyer said.

Awarua RSA president Ian Becker told Checkpoint in December he was gutted by the theft, which he said showed a complete lack of respect.

“All they’re interested in is getting their grubby little hands on some easy cash, but I think they might [find] they’re now holding onto a wasp’s nest – and somebody, somewhere, is going to tell us who it was.”

One of the plaques belonged to Rose Hinchey, a nurse who served in WWII and Korea.

“I just feel gutted that some person just felt they had a bigger, a stronger need to take away somebody’s identity,” Becker said.

“She’s a real person and she’s one of ours.”

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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 ‘serious incident’ has seen the full closure of part of State Highway 1 northbound in Auckland.

Police said the motorway had been closed at Greville Road in Albany as police respond.

Officers were called to the scene at 10.50am.

Google Maps shows significant traffic in the area.

“Police thank the public for their patience, and ask them to delay travel if possible and follow suggested diversions.”

St John said it was responding.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Unusually hot weather may be on the way, with MetService warning above-average temperatures are projected across much of the country for the coming days.

The forecaster said people across the motu could expect a “great deal of sunshine and dry weather”, with the odd shower or thunderstorm for some areas.

Many areas including Tauranga, Masterton and Christchurch were predicted to be more than 4C hotter than usual over the next two days, while Blenheim was due the largest increase of 7.5C, bringing it to a projected 32C on Friday.

Meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said people should keep an eye out for heat alerts, and take extra precautions during the hottest parts of the day as the weather heats up.

“As we head towards Friday and into the weekend we are looking at quite hot temperatures. It is summer, but some of the temperatures that we are expecting are looking on the high side.”

The east coast of the country was projected to be particularly hot and dry, especially in Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough and Canterbury, Makgabutlane said.

People in those areas should be prepared to be issued with a MetService heat alert, she said.

“Definitely take extra care if you’ve got any plans to be outdoors during the daytime … take those sun precautions. Wearing sunscreen and hats, sunglasses, drinking plenty of water.”

⚡⚠️ A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued

Reminder: A Severe Thunderstorm WATCH shows where severe thunderstorms COULD form, a Severe Thunderstorm WARNING is when one has formed. Keep an eye out for updates this afternoon here: https://t.co/GeH6tLulff pic.twitter.com/V86gv1cP9Z

— MetService NZ (@MetService) January 6, 2026

Despite the largely clear weather, some areas of of both islands were still due patches of rain and thunderstorms with MetService issuing a severe thunderstorm watch for Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Taupō, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay from 1pm until 9pm Wednesday.

A front was also expected to move across areas of the lower South Island during the second half of Thursday and early Friday, prompting MetService to issue a heavy rain watch for the region.

Heading into the weekend, MetService was expecting a weather system bringing rain and strong winds to the South Island, eventually making its way up the country and reaching the North Island early next week.

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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 commuters have complained Metlink’s train network has been a shambles this week with limited buses replacing trains as people return to work.

Metlink is apologising to customers, and has made improvements.

Most train lines are fully or partially closed with buses replacing trains between 26 December to 11 January while works are done across the rail network.

On Monday, commuters criticised Metlink on social media saying the number of buses sent to replace trains have been inadequate, some buses haven’t turned up at all, and others have left earlier than scheduled.

One commuter who also spoke to RNZ said it had been a “shambles” and he wouldn’t be using public transport again until Metlink resumed its normal timetable.

The man said on his trip into Wellington from Petone on Monday he had to wait for a second bus replacement because the first one was full.

While on his way home, buses were leaving earlier than their scheduled time due to quickly filling up.

“My bus left, I think, almost 10 minutes early.”

He said Metlink needed to lift their game and that sending one or two buses to replace a typically six carriage service wasn’t enough.

“They’re clearly underestimating capacity.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Greater Wellington’s Public Transport Committee chairman Ros Connelly said Metlink had received 18 complaints since people returned to work this year, compared to 99 last year.

Connelly said councillors had also received a number of complaints and suggestions for improvement.

“It’s clear from this feedback that some of the stopping, timings and connections were stuffed up,” she said.

“As a result, Metlink has immediately moved to put supervisors at stations across the region to co-ordinate arrivals and departures better.”

Connelly said daily de-briefs between Metlink and its rail operator Transdev Wellington were also in place to “actively manage any issues and spot areas for improvement”.

Metlink acting general manager Paul Tawharu apologised to passengers who had experienced trouble with bus replacements and navigating summer timetables.

“While we know bus replacements are less than ideal, we want our passengers to know we take their concerns seriously and are working with our operators to improve these services,” he said.

Tawharu said Metlink thanked passengers for their patience and they were nearly at the end of this summer’s rail closure.

“All rail services return to normal from next Monday, 12 January, excluding the Melling Line which will be running between Western Hutt and Wellington stations.”

Customers were encouraged to continue to contact Metlink about their experiences through the formal complaints process.

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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 hackers who say they have stolen data from a health app have removed information about the data online.

The hackers, known as ‘Kazu’, previously published samples of the leaked information.

Last night, Manage My Health was granted a High Court injunction preventing anyone from accessing or sharing the stolen data.

This morning, all posts referring to the Manage My Health hack have been removed from an account purporting to be used by the hacker.

Health Minister Simeon Brown has ordered an urgent review into the breach, which happened just before New Year’s.

Brown told RNZ the breach was not acceptable.

“I think it’s a very serious breach, it’s not just the large number of New Zealanders impacted, over 100,000, but it’s the nature of the information that has been breached.

“New Zealanders have a right to expect that their data, which is being held by entities, whether public or private, is being held to the highest of standards,” Brown said.

“I think there’s certainly lessons that need to be learned, I think it’s pretty unacceptable what’s happened to be honest.

“I think many New Zealanders will be very concerned about this. “

Manage My Health has said between 6 and 7 percent of the approximately 1.8 million registered users were impacted.

In an interview with RNZ on Tuesday, Manage My Health CEO Vino Ramayah said the company was itself also the victim of crime.

He said patients should trust the company “even though we have dropped the ball”, and his own medical records were among those accessed.

On Tuesday, a cyber security expert told RNZ he could not see Manage My Health recovering from the breach.

“Look, this is a big hit on our reputation and I do not disagree with that observation,” Ramayah said.

“But whether we can recover, we’ve got an excellent team, we’ve got an excellent product and we have served Kiwis for a very long time well.

“We’re very confident that we can restore the confidence and we are doing the right thing to ensure that we put providers and patients ahead of our own interests.”

Ramayah said he took full responsibility for what had happened.

“That’s something for after the dust settles, whether I’m the current or continue to be the CEO,” he said.

“I’m not unprepared to step down if there’s a better person who can do a better job than I did.”

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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 British World War expert is expected to reveal how Kiwi troops compared to their Australian counterparts in both World Wars.

Professor Gary Sheffield is one of 34 historians who will challenge and explore quirky, controversial and overlooked stories in New Zealand’s military history at the seventh conference, in Wellington, organised by the New Zealand Military History Committee (NZMHC).

According to the Professional Historians’ Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa, the subjects will be “crises, characters and controversies in New Zealand’s military history”.

NZMHC chair John Crawford said they will be “looking at all sorts of different aspects of New Zealand’s military history [ranging] “from the Zealand wars right through to defence policy controversies in recent decades”.

As for Sheffield’s supposed claim about Kiwi soldiers being better than their Australian colleagues, Crawford said “different” would be a better way to describe it.

“I think he thinks that they’re better in some regards, the Australians are better in other regards,” Crawford told Morning Report.

“From my own work, I know that some British commanders preferred the Kiwis because they were less trouble behind the front line than the Australians, who had perhaps a stronger larrakin culture. “

Asked if talking up New Zealand soldiers was in the Anzac spirit, Crawford said there was “an element of rivalry” in that spirit.

“But I think the overriding element of the Anzac spirit is mutual regard and respect and a great tradition of working together. So I don’t think anything Gary’s going to say at our conference is going to impact on that at all.

“The thing about New Zealand military history is that many important subjects have not really been dealt with in any depth at all, so we have the fruits of really interesting new research being presented by a whole range of people – from graduate students through to leading military historians.

“We try to get, you know, have a very inclusive approach and get people involved so we’ve got all sorts of papers being presented.”

New Zealand had a unique military history compared with other nations, Crawford said.

“Of course it’s the Māori element which stands out. It makes New Zealand military history unique. We’ve got both the New Zealand Wars with Māori fighting on both sides, we have the strong involvement of Māori in the New Zealand Armed Forces from a very early date, so that’s something that really stands out.

“But there are also other aspects of our military history which are quite unique and of particular interest. I think particularly of the strong history of military service in Taranaki dating back to the mid-19th century. There’s things that happened at Taranaki [that were] quite quirky.”

The conference is set to take place in Wellington next month.

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