NZ Engine

Source: New Zealand Labour Party

Source: New Zealand Police

At around 11:20am emergency services received reports of a single vehicle crash on the Waikato Expressway, south of Cambridge Road, Tamahere.

One north bound and one south bound lane are blocked.

No injuries have been reported at this stage.

Motorists should expect delays and avoid the area if possible.

Traffic management is on route and emergency services are working to clear the road.

ENDS

Source: Maritime New Zealand

Maritime NZ has filed two charges against KiwiRail after completing a comprehensive and wide-ranging investigation into the grounding of the Interislander ferry, Aratere last year.

Source: New Zealand Police

NZ Police have this week dealt a significant blow to the manufacture and supply of methamphetamine by the Greazy Dogs MC in western Bay of Plenty this week, with the arrest of several members and associates of the gang, and the restraint of more than $1.5 million of assets.

On 17 – 18 June, Police carried out 35 search warrants at properties across Tauranga, including the Greazy Dogs MC pad. Those arrested as a result of these warrants include senior members of the Greazy Dog MC, including the national vice president and the sergeant at arms.

“The arrests and asset restraints this week mark the successful culmination of a National Organised Crime Group (NOCG) operation that began in late 2024,” says Detective Inspector Albie Alexander.

“This operation – Operation Kingtide – identified the Greazy Dogs MC as controlling the methamphetamine supply across the western Bay of Plenty, through local manufacture.”

Search warrants executed located firearms, ammunition, methamphetamine, chemicals and equipment used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, cannabis and approximately $25,000 in cash.

In addition, Police’s Asset Recovery Unit has restrained more than $1.5 million of assets to date, including two residential properties, two cars and three motorcycles.

Further search warrants are being carried out this week and more arrests and charges are likely.

“With the arrest of these senior gang members and the seizure of their equipment and assets, I’m confident we have dealt a significant blow to the Greazy Dogs’ methamphetamine operation, and the supply of methamphetamine in the western Bay of Plenty,” says Detective Inspector Alexander.

“Police will continue to focus on the enforcement and disruption of such criminal groups, who are dealing primarily in the sale and supply of methamphetamine into our most vulnerable communities.”

Bay of Plenty District Commander, Superintendent Tim Anderson, has welcomed the arrests of the Greazy Dogs MC members and associates, saying he has seen first-hand the immense harm that methamphetamine causes in communities in Bay of Plenty and across New Zealand.

“The Greazy Dogs MC, as with other gangs involved in the supply of methamphetamine in New Zealand, are in this for the money. They don’t care about the enormous damage the drug is doing to families in our communities, even though many of them are parents themselves. All they are interested in is how much money they can make for themselves and their associates.”

Working alongside the officers undertaking enforcement action this week has been the team from the Resilience to Organised Crime in Communities (ROCC) programme, which takes a multi-agency approach to help address the social conditions that feed the emergence or growth of organised crime, and the harms that flow from it.  

Op Manawaroa (Resilience) has run alongside Operation Kingtide and is led by Bay of Plenty ROCC, with assistance from other ROCC regions including Eastern, Southern and Porirua.

“What this looks like in practice is officers and senior advisors from our ROCC team visiting homes after search warrants have been executed, looking to engage and support families and whānau of those arrested,” Superintendent Anderson.

“Our local ROCC team, with the support of other Police harm prevention work groups, local agencies, iwi and community partners, will continue to work with families and whānau of those affected. This is a long-term approach to prevention and in response to mitigating and preventing further harm and offending.”

Arrest and charge details to date:

25-year-old Tauranga man – charged with participating in an organised criminal group, supplying methamphetamine, offering to supply methamphetamine, and possession of methamphetamine

34-year-old Mt Maunganui man – charged with participating in an organised criminal group, supplying methamphetamine, offering to supply methamphetamine, and possession of methamphetamine for supply

34-year-old Papamoa man – charged with participating in an organised criminal group, supplying methamphetamine, offering to supply methamphetamine, and possession for supply of methamphetamine

33-year-old Mt Maunganui man – charged with participating in an organised criminal group, supplying methamphetamine, offering to supply methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine for supply, and conspiring to supply cocaine

37-year-old Tauranga man – charged with participating in an organised criminal group, supplying methamphetamine, offering to supply methamphetamine, and possession of methamphetamine for supply.

MEDIA ADVISORY:

Detective Inspector Albie Anderson and Superintendent Tim Anderson will be available to speak to media at Tauranga Police Station at 1pm today. 
Media wishing to attend are asked to report to the front counter of the police station by 12.50pm.

Source: PHARMAC

Pharmac is fully funding two brands of liquid nutrition replacements for adults with Crohn’s disease who use them as their only source of nutrition.

The nutrition replacements are Ensure Plus and Fortisip (200ml bottles, 1.5kcal/ml) and changes to funding will take place from 1 July 2025.

Adrienne Martin, Manager Pharmaceutical Funding says, “we are removing the additional cost on Ensure Plus and Fortisip so adults with Crohn’s disease, who use them as their only source of nutrition, can continue to access and benefit from fully funded treatment.”

Crohn’s is a type of inflammatory bowel disease. Some people with this condition use these nutrition replacements as their exclusive diet for a period of 4–12 weeks.

The goal of this exclusive diet is to rest the gut, to reduce inflammation and promote healing. This also may help manage symptoms and reduce the likelihood of needing surgery.

A different fully funded nutrition replacement was previously available for these people, but the supplier stopped making it.

“We are grateful to those who provided feedback to our proposal and shared it with their community. Having this additional information from clinicians and the community helps with our decisions.”

“Our role is to help people access the medicines and related products they need to improve their health. We estimate around 200 adults with Crohn’s disease will benefit from the funding each year,” says Martin 

Source: New Zealand Labour Party

Source: New Zealand Labour Party

Source: New Zealand Labour Party

Source: NZ Department of Conservation

Date:  18 June 2025

A population of the rare and unusual spider, which lives in the “Crazy Paving Cave” in the Ōparara Valley on the South Island’s West Coast, is increasing and scientists think it is because the spiders have had a break from visitors.

The spiders had been monitored for a number of years, with a steadily declining population, when the decision was made to close the cave to visitors in 2022.

Since then, spider numbers have shown a steady increase from an average of eight found during monitoring in 2022 to 33 in 2025. Rangers have also seen signs of the spiders breeding.

Senior Ranger Scott Freeman says people unknowingly interupt the natural behaviour of the spiders with bright lights, vibration, sound, and the heat they bring into the cave.

“The cave has a low ceiling, and it’s quite small, so people get close to the spiders, which don’t like large creatures such as humans wandering round.”

Scott says, “We have proven in many parts of the country that when we remove or manage the threats, restore habitats or modify how we use or interact with nature, it comes back, and we can see that here with the spiders.”

It is thought that numbers of spiders may have peaked, and scientists are keen to see what happens in the next year before decisions about visitor access to the cave are made.

The spiders are relatively long lived, with baby spiders taking two to three years to mature. Most spiders complete their life cycle in a year.

New Zealand’s native species are unique and special. On average, 70% of our nature is found nowhere else in the world. 93% of New Zealand’s estimated 2000 spider species are only found here.

Nelson cave spiders evolved separately from the rest of the world for millions of years and are thought to be directly descended from the earliest true spiders. They may be the missing link between primitive and modern spiders.

These spiders live near cave entrances and mostly eat cave wētā, which they drop onto while attached to the cave roof by their web. They are also found in Golden Bay and were the first spider species to be protected under the Wildlife Act.

The other walks and experiences in the Ōparara and the adjacent Box Canyon Cave remain open for visitors.

Background information

Crazy Paving Cave gets its name from its floor of ancient, fragile, fine deep sediment which has dried out slowly, cracking and curling into what looks like large, distorted paving stones.

It’s a dry cave where the sediment has stayed in place unchanged for hundreds of years. It’s like a time capsule holding information about what life was present when water once washed into the cave.

Contact

Source: New Zealand Police

Southbound motorists are advised to expect delays on State Highway 1 north of Auckland.

Two cars collided around 10.10am between the Silverdale and Oteha Valley Road offramps.

There are no reports of injury although one of the vehicles is badly damaged.

Police are at the scene and ask motorists to be patient as there are long queues of traffic at the accident scene.

ENDS.

Nicole Bremner/NZ Police