Author: Press Room

A 17-year-old Aucklander has been charged after a spate of shoplifting, which police say added up to $10,000 worth of items.He was tracked down after allegedly bagging $800 worth of groceries in one haul.Initially, police said there was a report of a male shoplifting from a Manukau supermarket at 9am on Saturday, May 24.Counties Manukau central area prevention manager inspector Warrick Adkin said the youth allegedly took a large amount of meat products and fled the scene in a vehicle.Attending officers made inquiries about the vehicle, and discovered it was likely that the same person had been involved in shoplifting…

A grandmother from the Porirua suburb of Whitby says she spent the day at work after realising she had won Lotto’s $17.2 million Powerball prize. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, was walking with her grandson when she decided to stop at New World Whitby to purchase her ticket for that night’s draw.“It was purely because I was out with him that I remembered to get my ticket that day – he’s the reason I stopped and bought it.”He’s too young to understand, but I’ve told him every day since that I love him 17.2 million times,” she laughed.The…

Ryan Tedder’s won three Grammy Awards and written hit songs for Adele, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift — among many others.But the One Republic vocalist doesn’t know if he’s currently got a massive hit single hidden away among a collection of thousands of songs written over the years that have never seen the light of day.”In an average week I do, I would say, about two songs a day in some form or fashion,” he told Breakfast.”I have a Miley Cyrus song that comes out this Friday that’s been on my hard-drive for three years.”It got reproduced, cleaned up, and changed.…

Public toilets across New Zealand’s Department of Conservation sites are stocked with a staggering 15.5 million metres of toilet paper this year. That’s enough to stretch nearly 10 times the length of New Zealand, according to new data released by DOC. The southern South Island, home to Fiordland and its Great Walks, headed the pack with more than 3.1 million metres ordered for the 2024/2025 period.Close behind was the northern South Island, home to the Abel Tasman Great Walk and the Tōtaranui campground, with 3 million metres ordered. The Hauraki Waikato Taranaki (including the Coromandel) ordered 2.7 million metres. Ranger…

For mum Kacey O’Carroll (Te Atiawa) moving into an affordable, newly-built home is an experience she will never forget. Along with her partner and young daughter, the whānau has moved into a new iwi-owned housing development in New Plymouth.”Coming from a whare that was quite cold and the fact that the iwi can provide the whānau with homes to live in rather than us go through the mainstream ways, yeah, it’s really cool to be a part of that experience and that journey with the iwi.”The Papapounamu housing development is part of a small block of land returned to iwi…

The head of Fonterra says he understands consumers’ frustration about the price of butter, but the co-op has to deliver for farmers.In its third-quarter update, Fonterra’s profit for the nine months ended April rose 11% to $1.08 billion (or $1.16b excluding one-offs), driven by strong demand.But the same demand has meant soaring prices for household staples like butter.Recent Stats NZ data showed food prices rising at their fastest rate in more than a year, with butter prices up 65%.Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell said prices were driven by global demand.”We’re a collection of 8500 small farmers and our job is…

Fazerdaze, Lorde, Stan Walker and Earth Tongue have taken out the top awards at the Aotearoa Music Awards in Tāmaki Makaurau.There was fierce competition for the album of the year and best solo artist categories, which had Aaradhna, Stan Walker, Georgia Lines, Troy Kingi, and Kaylee Bell among the finalists, but Fazerdaze (whose real name is Amelia Murray) took out both awards for her third album, Soft Power.The 32-year-old disappeared from the limelight for a few years after the smash success of debut album Morningside in 2017. She told RNZ her latest album was about crafting her own version of…

McDonald’s has been given permission to open a new restaurant in the Auckland suburb of Ōrākei, despite opposition from Auckland Council.Following a three-day hearing in May, an independent panel has granted the fast food restaurant’s resource consent application to build a 24-hour drive-through at the currently vacant 152 Kepa Rd.Auckland Council and Auckland Transport both opposed the application, stating the site had insufficient space for a drive-through and queues would spill onto the already busy main road.A large majority of the 381 written submissions from the public were also against the application – 331 were against, 45 supported the application,…

A ten cent coin with the image of King Charles III has been approved for production, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has confirmed. Photos of the quality checking were released today, giving people the first look at the actual coin. RBNZ director of money and cash Ian Woolford said New Zealanders could expect to see it in their change around 2027.”We received pre-production samples of the coin to check and approve before starting the full production run. We check the coins for quality, weight, size, security properties and that they match the design we ordered,” he said. The…

A massive drug haul worth over $1 billion has been seized in the Middle East by a New Zealand-led maritime task force.The Royal Navy Frigate HMS Lancaster intercepted a suspicious cargo vessel while patrolling in the North Arabian Sea late last week. Using a Peregrine uncrewed arial system to track the dhow, Royal Marine boarding teams stormed the ship while a Wildcat helicopter with a Royal Marine sniper team covered them. Once the crew of six were secured, boarding teams discovered 1000kg of heroin, 660kg of hashish, and 6kg of amphetamine tablets hidden onboard. The drugs were transported back to…