Author: Press Room

Kiwis will want to make sure they’ve set their clocks – the ones that don’t change automatically – forward by one hour before going to bed tonight, as daylight saving kicks in overnight.The change is officially made at 2am, when the time leaps forward by 60 minutes.Each year it begins on the last Sunday in September and ends at 3am on the first Sunday in April. Fire and Emergency New Zealand are using daylight saving as a chance to remind Kiwis to check their smoke alarms are working while adjusting their clocks. Tom Ronaldson, community education and behavior change manager,…

Tauranga City Council has spent $4.7 million on plans for an aquatic centre that have now been abandoned.Plans for a new$105m aquatic facility at Tauranga’s Memorial Park were paused by the council last year.Last week the council decided to redesign the proposed facility to scale it back and change its location within the park.The aquatic centre with indoor and outdoor pools would now be built on the site of the current Memorial Park pool.The council approved $50,000 to develop concept designs for the new facility. It did not yet have an estimate for what the full project would cost.The new…

Central Dunedin bar Woof! is for sale. Owner Josh Thomas put the business on the market this week and said after five and a-half years the time was right to sell. “I’m very pro-change and I know the time is right.” He was looking for new owners to take the reins. Woof! picked up five awards, including supreme establishment at the Otago Hospitality Awards in 2022. Mr Thomas said he had never had so much fun, it offered a very good lifestyle. “No two days are the same. You’re dealing with people in real life, it’s bricks and mortar.” Mr…

Fonterra is about to pump more money into producing butter and cream cheese as shoppers continue to feel the pinch of high prices in supermarkets. The co-op revealed plans to step up manufacturing of them as part of a $1 billion growth investment after this week announcing a record payout, dividend and $26b revenue for the last financial year to July. Already in construction are a new $75 million advanced protein hub at its Studholme site, more cheese storage at Whareroa and a $150m new UHT cream plant at Edendale — all due to be completed within a year. That…

Sinclair Broadcast Group is bringing Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show back to its ABC affiliate stations on Saturday, ending a days-long TV blackout for dozens of cities across the US over remarks the comedian made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.“Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience,” Sinclair said in a statement. “We take seriously our responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honouring our obligations to air national network programming.”Disney-owned ABC suspended Kimmel on September…

Home loan borrowers may have a bit more time to decide when to lock a long-term rate, the country’s biggest bank says.ANZ has released its latest property market report, which notes that house prices are generally flat.The bank’s economists said floating rates and fixed rates out to three years were largely unchanged in the month.But average four- and five-year rates were slightly lower.”While that change will be welcome news for borrowers looking to fix for an extended period, Reserve Bank data show that most borrowers continue to have a preference for shorter fixes, with the one-year term by far the…

Fonterra accepts farmers may have mixed feelings about selling the Mainland consumer business to Frances Lactalis for $4.22 billion. The co-op was targeting a capital return of $2 per share for farmer shareholders from the Mainland sale, which amounted to $3.2b. The sale would be subject to approval from farmer shareholders, regulatory approvals and businesses being separated from Fonterra. A farmer shareholder vote is due to take place at a special meeting on October 30. Should the sale pass, regulatory approvals were expected to be completed within the first half of next year for the sale to proceed. This would…

A new $26 million water reservoir has been officially opened in Northland, part of a wider plan to future-proof the region against increasingly severe droughts.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today opened the Te Waihekeora Reservoir near Dargaville.The facility can hold 3.3 million cubic metres of water, enough to irrigate around 1100 hectares of farmland. It is the second of three major storage projects being developed by the Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust.Te Waihekeora is the second of three major reservoirs planned with the largest, Otawere at Waimate North, due to be completed later this year.The trust is also planning a 22km…

Ash Thom, general manager of Dunedin Airport’s new cafe, Fuel to Fly, pours a coffee yesterday before the cafe’s opening this morning. The addition of the cafe, on the airport’s upper floor, is part of a wider terminal enhancement project. In a statement, Dunedin Airport CEO Daniel De Bono said the cafe looked “stunning” and offered a good range of food and drink to travellers. The cafe includes Modbar, a “state-of-the-art technology, under-counter espresso machine” which would elevate coffee, an airport spokeswoman said. “The machine is the largest of only two in the South Island and only a handful around…

An Auckland man has been sentenced to nine months’ home detention for possessing child sexual exploitation material involving children as young as 5 years old.Lee Irving Musham was sentenced in the Manukau District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to one representative charge of knowingly possessing child sexual exploitation material.Searches of Musham’s residential and business addresses were carried out following an investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs’ digital child exploitation team.Several electronic devices were seized, which after forensic examination were found to contain images of sexual exploitation of children as young as 5 years old, bestiality, and computer-generated files promoting…