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Events – Fashionably late, but worth the wait! New opening date announced for DIVA at Auckland Museum

Source: Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum

Exclusive international exhibition brings global icons to Auckland from Saturday 28 June

This month, Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum welcomes the spectacular international exhibition DIVA, with a new opening date announced for Saturday 28 June 2025.

Exclusive to Auckland, DIVA is a bold celebration of iconic performers who have defined eras, challenged norms and changed the world through the power of performance.

Developed by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), DIVA showcases over 280 objects, including fashion, photography, costumes, music, and design, featuring trailblazing performers who have made their voices heard from the 19th century to today.

DIVA © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Through theatrical staging and an immersive musical soundtrack experience, DIVA explores stories of the creativity, ambition, and resilience of some the world’s best-known divas, from opera goddesses and silent movie stars to Hollywood leg

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Transport – Transporting New Zealand welcomes opening of Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū-Tararua Highway

Source: Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

National road freight organisation Transporting New Zealand says this Saturday’s official opening of the Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū-Tararua Highway is great news for the freight industry, and the region’s communities.
Chief executive Dom Kalasih says the highway will deliver a safe, reliable and resilient connection between the Manawatū and Tararua districts. [Traffic will be able to use the highway from next week.]
The highway replaces the Manawatū Gorge route, closed in 2017 due to slips.
The new 11.5km highway is a major milestone for the freight sector and regional communities. It will take about 13 minutes to drive by car, or around 18 minutes for freight vehicles, to move between the districts.
Kalasih says it will be a relief for people who have had to use the challenging Saddle Road detour for nearly 8 years.
“This new highway will make a real difference to the flow of freight and to the lives of drivers.”
“We also think it is a win that this is a non-tolled road,’ he says.
Transporting New Zealand strongly opposed a proposed toll, noting the Saddle Road was never fit for purpose and the region deserved a safe, free alternative.
“This is a replacement road, not a luxury upgrade,” Kalasih says. “Our members were clear – tolling this essential link would be unfair and would raise the cost of freight, hitting consumers across the board.”
Kalasih says all the engineering that’s gone into the build is impressive.
The project involved:
  • 6.5 million cubic metres of earthworks
  • 30,000 cubic metres of concrete
  • 3.5 million mahi hours
  • 2,500 workers
  • Nearly 2 million native plants planted for environmental
restoration.
The highway holds deep cultural importance, following a historic Māori travel route between the coasts and is named after Te Ahu a Turanga – the former resting place of Turanga-i-Mua, the son of the Aotea waka captain Turi who was killed in a battle there.
One of the standout physical features is the Parahaki Bridge near Ashhurst – at 300 metres long and 30 metres wide, it spans the fast-flowing Manawatū River on a fault line and in one of the windiest areas of the North Island.
“It’s taken years of commitment, coordination and skill to complete such a complex build in an ecologically sensitive and geologically challenging location,” says Kalasih.
“Well done to all who played a part in making this happen.”
In the linked video, project director Tony Adams, the project director for the Te Ahu a Turanga – Manawatū Tararua Highway, talks about the build.
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New Consumer NZ test reveals danger of unregulated online plumbing products

Source: Master Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers

Master Plumbers’ concerns that cheap online plumbing products will not comply with new regulations to make drinking water safer have proven justified.
A recent test undertaken by Consumer NZ showed that one of six kitchen tap mixers purchased from a variety of retailers resulted in lead levels in the water higher than is permitted in the Australian/New Zealand testing standard.
Lead is a cumulative toxin, which makes ongoing exposure through drinking water a particular concern.
“No level of lead is acceptable,” says Master Plumbers CEO Greg Wallace. “Young children are especially vulnerable to the toxin, with even low levels of exposure linked to learning disabilities and nervous system damage.”
The tap mixer that failed was purchased from global retailer Amazon, which ships a wide range of product to New Zealand. This highlights the dangers of buying tapware online where the market is largely unregulated and unpoliced.
From May 2026, new requirements for plumbing products that deliver drinking water come into force, in line with an update to the building code. These products, which include kitchen and bathroom tapware, as well as valves and fittings connected to domestic drinking water pipes, must not contain more than 0.25% lead.
Master Plumbers welcomes the transition to lead free plumbing products in New Zealand but wants more to be done to give consumers confidence.
“We want to see compulsory ‘lead free’ marking being placed either on the product or the packaging of relevant plumbing products, to allow consumers and tradespeople to easily identify that they are lead-free,” says Wallace. “It is the plumber installing the product who is held responsible, so installers should have a way to easily determine if the product is compliant.”
Compulsory marking would allow for the policing of non-compliant or falsely declared products through Commerce Commission regulations. As it stands, the current building product information requirement (BPIR) regulations rely on self-reporting and do not have a proactive enforcement system in place-which is particularly concerning for the regulation of online retailers that may be importing international products.
Master Plumbers has been raising the alarm about lead in tapware for years. In 2018, the organisation commissioned independent testing of five tapware products sold in this country and found the level of lead leaching from one product to be 70% higher than the allowable limit in drinking water product standard AS/NZS 4020.
The full details of the test conducted by Consumer NZ are included in their online report and published in the latest issue of Consumer magazine. (ref. https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/is-the-water-from-cheap-imported-tapware-safe )
Master Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers NZ Inc (Master Plumbers) is the national membership organisation for plumbing, gasfitting and drainlaying businesses, with 18 regional Associations and Branches across New Zealand. Companies go through a Quality Assurance programme in order to become a member. We provide members with a wide range of resources and training opportunities to support them in staying up with the latest technologies, products and compliance requirements. We advocate on behalf of our members and our industry.
About Masterlink:
Masterlink, a group training scheme owned by Master Plumbers, provides managed mentored apprenticeships across New Zealand, with Regional Managers supporting the apprentices and the businesses who host them during their training.
About NZ Plumber:
NZ Plumber is the award-winning, bi-monthly magazine for New Zealand's plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers. It is owned by Master Plumbers.
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Greenpeace activists disrupt industrial fishing operation ahead of UN Ocean Conference

Source: Greenpeace

PACIFIC OCEAN, Friday, 6 June 2025 – Greenpeace activists have disrupted an industrial longlining fishing operation in the South Pacific Ocean, seizing almost 20 kilometers of fishing gear and freeing nine sharks, including an endangered mako, near Australia and New Zealand.
With an expert team on a small boat releasing more than a dozen animals, crew aboard Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior retrieved the entire longline and more than 210 baited hooks from a EU-flagged industrial fishing vessel, including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish. The crew also documented the vessel catching endangered sharks during its longlining operation.
The at-sea action follows new Greenpeace Australia Pacific analysis exposing the extent of shark catch from industrial longlining in parts of the Pacific Ocean. Latest fisheries data showed that almost 70% of EU vessels’ catch was blue shark in 2023 alone. It comes ahead of next week’s UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, where world leaders will discuss ocean protection and the Global Ocean Treaty.
Georgia Whitaker, Senior Campaigner, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life. We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks.”
“The scale of industrial fishing – still legal on the high seas – is astronomical. These vessels claim to be targeting swordfish or tuna, but we witnessed shark after shark being hauled up by these industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour. Greenpeace is calling on world leaders at the UN Ocean Conference to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 from this wanton destruction.”
GreenpeaceAotearoa is calling on the New Zealand Government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and help create global ocean sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand signed the agreement in 2023.
More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing. Over the last three weeks, the Rainbow Warrior has been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia’s east coast, including from Spain and China.
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Northland News – CityLink, BusLink fares to increase from August

Source: Northland Regional Council

Prices will increase across Northland’s public transport network from Friday 01 August with authorities saying they have been left with little choice in the matter.
Northland Regional Council member Joe Carr, who chairs the Northland Regional Transport Committee, says fares on Whangārei’s CityLink service will revert to their 2018 level of $3 for adults and $2 for children, an increase of $1 per journey on the present fares.
Fares on the rural BusLink services will rise by 50 cents per journey from Friday 01 August.
Infants up to four years of age will continue to travel free of charge. Concessions for Community Service Card and Gold Card holders remain in place for CityLink and BusLink routes.
From 01 August these concessions will also apply for the first time to BusLink’s Bream Bay Link and Hikurangi Link, which had not previously been able to offer these discounts.
“Council recognises that cost of living pressures are impacting on Northlanders and has for many years made every effort to keep bus fares as low as possible,” Chair Carr says.
However, he says the council – which administers the services – had been left with very little option, but to review fares.
“Regional councils nationwide are having to find additional forms of funding to cover bus operational, infrastructure and administration costs in keeping with the Government Policy on Land Transport 2024.”.
During Covid and to assist with the cost-of-living crisis, the government had funded several fare reduction schemes across the country, but this funding had ceased in 2023.
Chair Carr says even with the increased fares, Northland’s charges are still largely in line with other parts of New Zealand.
He says over the past two years CityLink has also made several improvements to the service, including the introduction of the SchoolLink service and extension to Route 3, an online bus tracking system, and the Rose Street bus hub redevelopment currently underway with Whangarei District Council.
The council will run an awareness campaign shortly to inform passengers of the intended increases.
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Tech Security – Tax assessment period a prime time for scams, expert warns

Source: Botica Butler Raudon Partners & Passion PR

Inland Revenue (IR) has begun issuing income tax assessments to New Zealanders, kicking off the annual cycle of tax refunds and chasing up tax owned.

With cybercriminals known to exploit this period, Norton experts are warning that Kiwis will soon be targeted with a range of tax scams, from phishing emails to phone impersonations and fake refund promises.

“New Zealand is one of the most heavily impacted countries by a new wave of AI-driven, hyper-personalised cyber threats. That makes tax time an especially risky period,” says Mark Gorrie, Managing Director Norton APAC.

“Our latest Q1 2025 Threat Report points out that breached data and AI tools are giving cybercriminals just enough personal information and design sophistication to easily manipulate people.”

Key tips for protecting yourself:

  • IR never includes refund amounts or login links in emails or texts 
  • Watch for suspicious domains (e.g. ird.com.nz, ird.qovt.nz); the real one is ird.govt.nz 
  • Be wary of terms like “fiscal activity”, “excess payment” or “Department of Taxes” 
  • Never give out personal info over the phone unless you’ve verified the caller – hang up and call IR back using their official number 
  • Use strong passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and secure personal documents.

Limit what you share online. Scammers can use social media info to guess security questions or build convincing fake messages.

Consider enrolling in an identity protection service. These services can monitor your financial and personal data, alert you to unusual activity, and help you recover more quickly if your identity is compromised.

Common types of tax scams:

  • Phishing emails impersonating IR, often claiming issues with your refund or tax return 
  • Fake IR calls demanding immediate payment for tax debts that don’t exist 
  • Identity theft, with scammers using your IR number to lodge fraudulent returns 
  • Social media scams offering fake tax help or posing as IR reps 
  • Emails with fake tax documents that install malware when opened 
  • Bogus refund offers used to harvest personal or banking info 
  • Scam charities asking for “deductible” donations
  • Tax payment scams involving prepaid gift cards or unusual repayment methods.
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Property Market – Regional resilience but weaker main centres in May – Cotality

Source: Cotality

Property values in Aotearoa New Zealand edged down by -0.1% in May and remain -1.6% below a year ago.

The latest slight fall in values on the Cotality hedonic Home Value Index comes after some previous months of modest gains, with the national median now at $818,132. That remains 16.3% below the January 2022 peak.
Values were patchy around the main centres in May, with Kirikiriroa Hamilton inching up by +0.1%, but Ōtepoti Dunedin and Tauranga both edging down by -0.1%. Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland dipped by -0.3%, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington by -0.4%, and after a period of resilience, Ōtautahi Christchurch fell by -0.8%.
Cotality NZ (formerly CoreLogic) Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson said May’s figures were a reminder that any emerging housing upturn could well remain slow and variable for the time-being, both from month to month and across regions.
“Lower mortgage rates are clearly going to be bolstering households’ confidence as well as their wallets, and there were signs of higher loan-to-value and debt-to-income ratio lending activity in the latest Reserve Bank figures.”
“But it’s not one-way traffic. After all, housing isn’t necessarily affordable in absolute terms, while the economy and labour market remain subdued too. Indeed, filled jobs edged lower again in April. These are certainly restraints on buyers’ willingness to push ahead with property deals or to pay higher prices.”
“May’s drop in values at the national level was fairly trivial and could be reversed next month. But anybody who was anticipating a sharp or widespread increase in property values as we got further into 2025 continues to be disappointed.

National and Main Centres
Change in dwelling values
 Region
Month
Quarter
Annual
From peak
Median  value
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
-0.3%
-0.6%
-2.7%
-21.4%
$1,073,222
Kirikiriroa Hamilton
0.1%
1.0%
1.4%
-10.5%
$754,800
Tauranga
-0.1%
-0.5%
-1.0%
-16.3%
$918,320
Te-Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington*
-0.4%
-0.2%
-5.2%
-23.9%
$797,126
Ōtautahi Christchurch
-0.8%
-0.2%
0.6%
-6.0%
$695,117
Ōtepoti Dunedin
-0.1%
-0.8%
-0.9%
-10.9%
$610,669
Aotearoa New Zealand
-0.1%
-0.1%
-1.6%
-16.3%
$818,132
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
 Region
Change in dwelling values
Month
Quarter
Annual
From peak
Median  value
Rodney
0.4%
0.5%
-2.5%
-19.6%
$1,227,830
Te Raki Paewhenua North Shore
-1.0%
-1.6%
-1.4%
-18.4%
$1,283,925
Waitakere
0.0%
-0.6%
-1.7%
-23.3%
$940,295
Auckland City
-0.3%
-0.9%
-4.0%
-22.2%
$1,149,279
Manukau
-0.3%
-0.1%
-2.6%
-22.6%
$1,000,134
Papakura
-0.6%
-0.8%
-1.8%
-22.0%
$840,185
Franklin
0.2%
1.3%
0.1%
-19.3%
$969,887
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
-0.3%
-0.6%
-2.7%
-21.4%
$1,073,222

May was a patchy month for the various sub-markets across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with Rodney recording a +0.4% rise, Franklin up by +0.2%, and Waitakere holding steady. But Auckland City and Manukau both fell by -0.3%, with Papakura (-0.6%) and North Shore (-1.0%) registering even larger drops.

Franklin and Rodney remain higher than three months ago, but the rest of Auckland’s sub-markets have seen values drop since February (albeit only -0.1% in Manukau).

Mr Davidson said, “Auckland is a pretty good example of the wider forces that are playing out across the housing market at present. In an environment where lower interest rates are being counteracted by other restraints, the tr

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NZ’s firefighters demonstrate life-saving extraction skills in Feilding

Source: United Fire Brigades' Association

Tragically, 2025 has already seen 147 fatal road crashes on NZ roads, which trending higher than this time last year – and who is first on the scene in many areas of the country? Our firefighters are.
Firefighters today do far more than put water on fire. They now respond to as many medical emergencies and road crashes as they do fires.
Along with Police and Ambulance, firefighters respond to some of the worst scenes imaginable.
The United Fire Brigades’ Association (UFBA) Road Crash Rescue Challenge supports the development of our members’ skills in these high-stress and life-threatening situations.
The challenge is treated with the seriousness and professionalism of real-life and death scenarios while providing a realistic simulation in a controlled and safe environment.
Imagine a scene where a car has flipped over onto its roof, wedged against a dangerously leaning pole. The driver lies suspended, unconscious and bleeding. In the dim light it’s hard to know whether there are fractures, cuts or worse. Shattered glass litters the road.
Everyday, our members from over 600 paid and volunteer fire brigades across Aotearoa must make precise and difficult calls in these situations, deciding on the safest, most efficient way to extricate a patient, while a life literally hangs in the balance.
From Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 June, over 110 firefighters from all across the country will gather in Feilding at the UFBA Road Crash Rescue Challenge to take part in complex, timed rescues – working in teams to remove live ‘patients’ from multiple crash scenes using real vehicles, real tools and real pressure.
It’s raw, intensely visual, and an exciting test of firefighters’ critical life-saving skills and teamwork that demonstrates the mental and physical demands of real-life patient extraction in serious car crashes or medical situations.
The UFBA Road Crash Rescue Challenge is supported by Fire and Emergency New Zealand and AA Insurance who have supplied all the wrecked vehicles used in the simulations – meaning that damaged vehicles are re-purposed for good.
This event is open to the public; it’s a great opportunity for a close-up experience of what firefighters do.
Location: Manfeild Park Stadium, 59 South Street, Feilding Date/Times: Thursday 12 June: 12pm to 5pm Friday 13 June: 9.30am to 5pm Saturday 14 June: 9am to 2pm
About the UFBA – for over 140 years the United Fire Brigades’ Association has been the leading association representing firefighters in New Zealand. Today our services support c.14,000 firefighters throughout the fire and emergency services sector by providing advocacy, skills-based challenges, workshops, and service honours.
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Choose Clean Water: Changes to Fish & Game continue Coalition’s handover of power to polluters

Source: Choose Clean Water – Tom Kay

Changes announced to Fish & Game this morning are another move in the Coalition Government’s handover of power to intensive farming and other polluting commercial interests, and will result in the further degradation of our rivers and freshwater, say freshwater campaigners.

Choose Clean Water spokesperson Tom Kay says the changes announced today are clearly designed to remove Fish & Game’s ability to advocate for the health of rivers.

“Fish & Game has used its statutory purpose as a strong advocate for the health of rivers across New Zealand, and as such has helped protect numerous rivers from pollution and degradation.”

“There are some things about the system that do need fixing, but this is not only about that—this is the Coalition Govt taking advantage of an opportunity to reduce Fish & Game's influence over polluters.”

“When environmental groups, local community groups, or iwi can’t afford to legally challenge a damaging activity or poorly made decision, Fish & Game is often there to ensure waterways are protected—working on behalf of their members to protect habitat for fish. But this Government is trying to stop that.”

The Coalition has stated that Fish & Game’s advocacy functions will be “revised” so regional Fish & Game Councils will only be able to take court action in relation to advocacy if explicitly approved by the New Zealand Fish & Game Council or the Minister and within a new restricted advocacy policy.

This morning’s press release from Minister for Hunting and Fishing James Meager on the changes states they will restrict the organisation’s ability to undertake court proceedings and require “Fish & Game councils to better consider the interests of other stakeholders such as farmers and the aviation sector in decision-making”.

“It’s telling that the Government has said specifically that it wants Fish & Game to better consider farming interests. Why not public health interests? Why not the interests of future generations? Why not the myriad of other commercial interests that operate in our communities? This demonstrates that this decision is another example of the Government enabling more pollution in rivers, lakes, and drinking water sources, and the handing of more power over our water to polluting commercial interests like intensive farming.”

“We know how detrimental the influence of Ministers can be over the statutory purposes of agencies like the Department of Conservation to protect our environment, for example. This is another case of Ministers being given the power to step in and stop actions that would protect our environment.”

Fish & Game led the processes to secure many Water Conservation Orders—similar to National Parks—for our rivers, protecting them for anglers and the public alike to enjoy. In 2002 they launched a large campaign against “Dirty Dairying” and the conversion of land into intensive agriculture, particularly in the South Island.

More recently, Fish & Game took up a legal challenge against ongoing extreme pollution of Southland’s waterways where dairy interests were wrongly claiming “there is no evidence of diffuse discharges from farming activities, either individually or cumulatively, causing adverse effects, including significant adverse effects on aquatic life”.

“Proponents of damaging, intensive agriculture and other major polluters are all over this Government’s decisions. This decision stinks of undue influence.”

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Climate – Fifth-Warmest Autumn on Record Brings Wet Weather to the South Island – Seasonal Climate Summary – NIWA

Source: NIWA

Autumn 2025 was New Zealand’s fifth-warmest on record, with nationwide average temperatures above the long-term seasonal average for almost all the country, according to NIWA’s latest seasonal climate summary. 
Almost all regions experienced above-average temperatures, driven by more frequent northeasterly winds and persistently high-pressure systems. 
It was a warm autumn, wet for eastern and northern parts of the South Island, says NIWA Climate Scientist Gregor Macara . 
The data shows it was a wetter-than-usual autumn for eastern and northern parts of the South Island, while Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, and western Bay of Plenty also saw above normal rainfall. 
Meanwhile, areas such as Dunedin, Whanganui, and Hawke’s Bay remained drier than usual over the three month period, March to May. 
Two major weather events marked the autumn season: heavy flooding in Canterbury at the end of April, which prompted a state of emergency in multiple districts, and ex-tropical cyclone Tam, which impacted the North Island in mid-April. 
Extreme conditions included a high of 33.6°C in Timaru, a low of -5.0°C in Manapouri and Tūrangi, and the highest 1-day rainfall of 290 mm, recorded at Tākaka on 3 April. 
Among the main centres, Auckland was the warmest, Tauranga the sunniest and wettest, and Dunedin the driest and least sunny. More detailed information, including records and local data, is available at https://niwa.co.nz/climate-and-weather/seasonal