Author: Press Room

An unprecedented 55 haka groups are performing at Te Matatini Festival from Tuesday to Saturday in New Plymouth, Taranaki.Both TVNZ and Whakaata Māori are providing free-to-air coverage of the event on TVNZ 2, TVNZ+, and Māori+. Wednesday’s scheduleWednesday – Te Haumi (Source: Supplied)Thursday Thursday – Te Kei (Source: Supplied)FridayFriday – Te Awa (Source: Supplied)The groups are split over four pools – Te Ihu, Te Haumi, Te Kei, Te Awa – each pool has been allocated a performance day.Fourteen groups will perform on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and thirteen on Friday in the preliminary round.At the end of Friday, the top twelve…

Police are seeking a man following a spate of church arsons in Masterton in the early hours of Saturday.Michael Kane McRae, 44, has a warrant out for his arrest.”We believe Mr McRae will be able to assist with our investigation into several arsons at churches in Masterton on the morning of Saturday, February 22,” police said.A Masterton church damaged in a fire. (Source: 1News)Four Masterton churches suffered damage ranging from “moderate to significant” following a group of suspicious fires believed to have started between 4.25am and 4.35am.A graphic showing the locations of the church fires in Masterton. (Source: 1News)The churches…

Mohamed Amra had fled after armed men ambushed his prison transfer van, killing two officers and injuring three others. ADVERTISEMENTMohamed Amra, a French fugitive whose prison escape killed two guards last year, was arrested in Romania’s Bucharest and was extradited to France on Tuesday. The 30-year-old, who has been dubbed as ‘The Fly’, was arrested near a shopping centre in the capital, ending a nine-month international manhunt. After a reporter asked “Are you happy to return to France?”, Amra, who had dyed his hair orange, possibly to evade detection, simply replied with “I love you, Mum, that’s all.”The search began…

Drake has officially cancelled the remainder of his Australia tour and two concerts in New Zealand.The rapper was due to hold back-to-back shows at Spark Arena in Auckland on Saturday, March 15, and Sunday, March 16 — as well as dates in Brisbane on March 4 and Sydney on March 7.In a statement to Rolling Stone Australia, a representative for Drake confirmed the cancellation, blaming it on a “scheduling conflict”.The spokesperson said organisers were “actively working” on rescheduling the dates and adding additional shows.All tickets for the cancelled shows would remain valid for the new dates, while refunds would be…

More jobs are on the line at Kāinga Ora and a staffer has told RNZ they are stressed, exhausted, and disheartened by leaders telling them to stay positive.Last year the state housing agency shed 540 roles in a bid to meet government savings targets, and earlier this month the government released a Kāinga Ora “turnaround plan” to ensure its financial sustainability.RNZ has obtained copies of information given to staff via the intranet last week announcing a “redesign” of the organisation, called the “Reset, Resize, Renew” programme, as the turnaround plan is implemented.”We expect it may result in changes to some…

Daniel Bracken. Photo: Supplied / Michael Hill via RNZ The head of New Zealand-founded jewellery retailer Michael Hill International has died. Daniel Bracken died overnight after an adverse reaction to a treatment for an underlying medical condition, the company said in a stock exchange statement. The board said he had given seven years and devoted and outstanding leadership to the Australian based company. It described him as a passionate retailer, innovative and strategic thinker who had transformed the company, which operates 300 stores on both sides of the Tasman and in Canada.

The New Zealand motocross community is mourning the death of a young rider who suffered a serious head injury while racing earlier this month.Eli Hankins suffered the injury while racing at a track in Tuakau, near Pukekohe on February 16 and was flown to Auckland’s Starship in a critical condition.Pukekohe Motorcycle Club advised with “heavy hearts” on social media today that Eli had died.He had been in an induced coma and was surrounded by his family.The club had set up a Givealittle page to help Eli’s family.”The MX world is one big family — it’s what makes our sport so…

Stargazers will be in for a treat over the next few nights, with all seven of the other planets in the solar system visible across the night sky.  The rare phenomenon, called a “grand planetary alignment”, will be visible over the next few evenings. It will be the last time Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune, Mercury and Saturn can be simultaneously seen so clearly until 2040. How do you catch a glimpse of the alignment? Stardome astronomer Josh Aroaki said the alignment would be visible in New Zealand on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening this week. He said all the…

International tourist spending has returned to pre-Covid levels, while domestic tourism has dipped, according to the latest figures. StatsNZ has released its annual tourism satellite figures, showing international tourism expenditure was up 60% to $16.9 billion, returning to levels similar to 2019 ($17.2b). The largest increase on 2023 came from Asian visitors, a 168% increase year on year, followed by visitors from the Americas, up 59.1%, visitors from Europe up 25.9% and visitors from Oceania, an increase of 18.4%. International student expenditure (studying less than 12 months, which meets StatsNZ’s definition of a tourist) also leapt up on 2023 – by…

Retailers and members of the public will soon have beefed-up rights to detain and arrest suspected thieves by using “reasonable force”, the Government has announced.It says the measures will help tackle retail crime.Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the coalition would implement the first suite of recommendations from its retail crime advisory group.The changes recommended by the group included:Amending the Crimes Act so that citizens can intervene to stop any Crimes Act offence at any time of the dayRequiring that a person making an arrest contact police and follow police instructionsClarifying that restraints can be used, when reasonable, when making an…