Magnitude 5.3 earthquake near New Plymouth is the area’s largest shallow quake in more than 80 years
A strong magnitude 5.3 quake east of New Plymouth woke Taranaki at 2.57am Saturday, with more than 7,300 felt reports and no link to the volcano.
Category: News
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Queenstown helicopter company loses two $1 million helicopters over illegal crayfish dinners for Rees Hotel guests
A Queenstown helicopter company has been fined $12,000 and ordered to hand two helicopters worth more than $1 million each to the Crown, after flying luxury hotel guests into Fiordland…
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Four sailors rescued from a life raft after their yacht hits a whale and sinks north of Norfolk Island
Four sailors are safe on board a cargo ship after hours in a life raft in the open Pacific, when their Australian yacht struck a whale and sank about 250…
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Police refused 13 watchdog calls to charge their own staff in New Zealand as a new inspector-general is proposed
New Zealand Police declined to charge their own staff 13 times in the past three years after the Independent Police Conduct Authority recommended charges be laid, according to Ministry of…
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Orange warnings for snow, gales and heavy rain as a fast cold front hits New Zealand on daylight saving Sunday
MetService has orange warnings for Canterbury snow, 120 km/h gales in Wellington, Wairarapa and southern Hawke’s Bay, and heavy rain in the Tararua Range on Sunday.
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Christchurch council gives Orana Wildlife Park $1.2 million lifeline as zoo turns 50
Christchurch ratepayers will put up to $1.2 million into Orana Wildlife Park, after city councillors voted on Wednesday to throw the struggling zoo a lifeline just two days before it…
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Fireball lights up the sky over Mount Taranaki and probably falls into the sea off Marakopa
A major fireball crossed Taranaki just before 11pm on Wednesday and probably fell into the sea west of Marakopa, but fragments may have reached land.
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New Zealand cold snap sends North Island below zero as spring equinox frost bites
Late-season frosts sent much of the North Island below zero on Thursday morning, a day after the spring equinox, with Taumarunui forecast to hit -4C and Auckland just 4C.
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Customs seizes almost 40,000 meth pipes and bongs in seven months, more than all of 2025
Customs seized 39,196 meth pipes and bongs at the New Zealand border from January to July 2026, more than all of 2025 and 25 times the 2024 total.
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Police issue 918 stalking notices and lay 140 charges in the first three months of New Zealand’s stalking law
New Zealand Police issued 918 stalking and harassment notices and laid 140 charges in the first three months of the country’s new stalking law, according to figures released by police…
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Police used AI on a Facebook photo and turned a $4,299 Fender into a $600 Squier
Police in Auckland have admitted that a staff member used artificial intelligence to alter a photograph before it went on an official police Facebook page, and that the edit changed…
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MPs recommend review of Fire and Emergency board as 30 new fire trucks sit unused
A select committee report tells the Government to review Fire and Emergency’s board and whether it should buy its own fire trucks.
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Police and Defence Force to search Lake Moeraki for plane that vanished in 1978 with seven aboard
Police, the Defence Force and Coastguard West Coast will spend three days next week searching for a light plane that disappeared in December 1978 with seven people on board, one…
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Tom Phillips inquiry finds agencies could have brought the children home sooner
The public inquiry into the disappearance of the Phillips children makes 41 findings and nine recommendations, and police are disputing that any of it would have changed the ending.
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Māngere Budgeting Services Trust ran New Zealand’s first Bring Your Bills day in Ōtāhuhu
Banks, power and phone companies in one South Auckland hall for New Zealand’s first Bring Your Bills event.
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Victoria Bouvet planted her late mother’s roses in a Christchurch rental and won her $2,400 bond back
A prize-winning gardener, her late mother’s roses, a flooded backyard and a Tenancy Tribunal decision that returned every dollar of her bond.
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Che Bartle swept tow truck floors in Rotorua at 10 and now runs ACE Heavy Haulage
From sweeping floors at Rotorua Towing at 10 to running ACE Heavy Haulage, the story of a life in heavy recovery.
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Todd Maitland, the Waihī concreter who won Apprentice of the Year after Rex Podmore gave him a chance
Waihī concreter Todd Maitland won New Zealand’s top concreting apprentice award at 21, four years after an employer gave him a go.
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Orana Wildlife Park needs $4.1 million as cash reserves run low
Christchurch’s Orana Wildlife Park needs about $4.1 million or its available cash runs out by March 2027, and its own filed accounts show how fast the gap opened.
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Coroner asks for import ban on online diving device after Mana Island drowning
Coroner Amelia Steel has recommended the Wolach 919 tankless diving device be banned from importation after a Lower Hutt man drowned using one for the first time off Mana Island.
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Fake QR code stickers turn up on Auckland parking meters as the scam reaches a third city
Auckland Transport has pulled scam QR code stickers off city centre parking meters, eight weeks after the same trick appeared in Christchurch and days after Wellington removed about a dozen.
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Storm rescues in Northland and near Murchison as heavy rain moves onto the North Island
A shed blew over on an Ahipara property and a vehicle was caught in floodwater near Murchison overnight as a large trough carried heavy rain onto the North Island.
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Fire at Kerikeri cafe came within metres of Kemp House, New Zealand’s oldest building
A suspicious fire destroyed a storage shed behind the Honey House Cafe at Kerikeri Basin late on Friday, metres from a 204-year-old Kemp House wrapped in plastic for reroofing.
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Magnitude 4.9 Wellington Earthquake Draws More Than 21,000 Felt Reports
A magnitude 4.9 quake off the Kapiti Coast woke the lower North Island at 6.34am on Saturday and drew 21,899 felt reports, the second highest tally of any New Zealand…
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Wellington mayor says large chunks of the $435,000 Deloitte staffing report were written by AI
Andrew Little says large parts of the $435,000 Deloitte report that claimed Wellington City Council had 330 excess staff were written by AI, as council papers set out fresh errors…
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Tauranga council accepts the Mount Maunganui landslide review in full as councillors press staff
Tauranga City Council has formally accepted every finding and recommendation of the independent review into the landslide that killed six people at the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park in January,…
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Waiwera hot springs win consent for a $58 million revival and a mid 2028 opening
The long empty site where the Waiwera hot pools once stood has cleared its biggest hurdle, with the developers announcing on Tuesday that Auckland Council has granted resource consent for…
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A bright green fireball crossed the upper North Island and probably fell into the sea
A very bright green fireball crossed the upper North Island just before 7.44pm on Sunday. Fireballs Aotearoa says the rock most likely fell into the sea.
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More than 20 slips shut State Highway 6 north of Wanaka for the weekend
Two cars spent Friday trapped between slips on State Highway 6 between Makarora and Lake Hawea, and the road stays shut for the weekend.
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Inland Revenue stops $4 million in bogus expense claims after a scheme spread on social media
A specialist Inland Revenue team stopped nearly 3,000 fraudulent amended returns, including 542 in a single night, after a bogus expense claim scheme spread through the transport industry.