Author: Press Room

Mautohe Cathedral Cove has received hundreds of visitors daily since the walking track to the famous beach was reinstated late last year. The walking track leading to the Coromandel beach was damaged in the summer of 2022-2023 when weather events like Cyclone Gabrielle caused significant slips – rendering it unusable. Visitors were still able to access the beach, but only by water. Since the track’s reopening, the Department of Conversation (DOC) has seen “hundreds” of people visit the beach daily. DOC said Boxing Day and January 2 were the busiest days, with visitor numbers peaking at more than 800 people.…

A trainee electrician has been fined $10,000 after a property owner received an electric shock from a live wire left exposed. Bradley Carl Payne was sentenced in the New Plymouth District Court over the incident in March 2022. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said Payne had agreed to deliver a shipping container to a residential property in Taranaki and would provide a certificate of compliance after completing electrical work on it. The electrical work involved installing and connecting conductors and fittings to the power supply. Although a trainee, Payne carried out the work unsupervised, which was illegal. A…

Drivers in Northland, Coromandel and Gisborne/Tairāwhiti are being advised to be “extra cautious” on the roads with more heavy rain forecast into the afternoon. Some roads around Whangārei were closed or partially closed due to slips and fallen trees this morning, the Whangārei District Council said. MetService yesterday issued orange heavy rain warnings and strong wind watches for parts of the North Island.At 10am, Northland, Coromandel Peninsula and Gisborne/Tairāwhiti remained under heavy rain warnings into this afternoon and Wednesday, with a further 40 to 70mm of rain expected for Northland on top of what has already fallen. “Peak intensities of…

A well-known international ultrarunner, seeking to log the shortest-ever traverse of New Zealand’s Te Araroa trail, has reported being attacked by dogs near the start.Belgian Karel Sabbe shares his running and hiking adventures with a large number of social media followers, and set out early on Thursday to run 3054 kilometres along the trail from from Cape Reinga to Bluff Hill Motupōhue in Southland.On Monday morning – Sabbe’s fourth day on the trail — he posted that he was 415km into his trail journey, but he and his support crew had been attacked by wild dogs.The attack happened on Sunday,…

One person has died following a single-vehicle crash yesterday on State Highway 15 at Tangiteroria, in Kaipara.Police said it was notified of the crash at 6.30pm, when the vehicle was discovered off the road by a motorist.The Serious Crash Unit has examined the scene. Inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were ongoing, police added.

A man accused of attempted murder after allegedly setting a New Zealand woman on fire has also been charged with assaulting another female victim.Family and friends of a alleged attempted murder victim Destiny Otton-Rakuraku, packed a small suburban courtroom for the first scheduled appearance of a man charged with attempted murder.Renata Edward Manning, 36, was arrested at Kingston, south of Brisbane on Saturday and charged with eight offences against two women.Manning has been accused of producing a lighter and setting the 34-year-old Otton-Rakuraku on fire.Manning was not required to appear in person or via videolink in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on…

This article was originally published in Hungarian The Hungarian Prime Minister said during a speech in Budapest that the EU’s leaders are driving it into isolation. He also declared that the new US president and the EU’s right-wing faction will dominate politics in the future. ADVERTISEMENTHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Europe has become isolated from all the important players in the new world order, including the new US leadership, Russia, China and Africa.Following the election of US President Donald Trump, however, and with the rise of the Patriots for Europe – a right-wing faction in the European Parliament -…

The future use of Rotorua’s remaining two non-contracted emergency housing motels hinges on “local demand”, as the Government exits the last of its contracted motels this year.At the peak of the government’s controversial emergency housing response in Rotorua, it was using 62 motels and hotels, including 45 non-contracted, and 13 contracted with resource consents until December 2024.Two non-contracted motels remained in use, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s just-granted resource consent extensions for the last seven contracted motels would gradually expire this year.In his decision granting the consents, independent commissioner David Hill criticised the ministry’s exit strategy, saying…

The second director of collapsed Dunedin building firm Clan Construction has been adjudicated bankrupt. The company, owned by Brett McCormack and Michelle Macmillan, went into liquidation in March 2023 owing more than $2 million. Mr McCormack, a former Otago rugby player, was adjudicated bankrupt in December that year. In their latest report last month, liquidators Trevor and Emma Laing said both directors had now been adjudicated bankrupt. The New Zealand Insolvency and Trustee Service’s insolvency register showed Ms Macmillan was adjudicated bankrupt on creditor’s application in the Dunedin High Court in October last year. All physical company assets had been…

Invercargill experienced more home value growth on average last year than any of New Zealand’s other large urban areas. The southern city’s average home value increased by 3.9% annually to reach $495,947, including by 1.9% in the final quarter of the year, figures from QV showed. That was slightly more growth than in 2023, when the average home value increased by 2.3% annually, and significantly more than in 2022, when values reduced by an average of 4.1% annually. The average home value strengthened slightly across the greater Otago region. The latest QV house price index showed values increased this quarter…