Latest news with #HawkesBay
RNZ News
12 hours ago
- General
- RNZ News
Flight lands safely at Hawke's Bay Airport after Fire and Emergency callout
File pic Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Fire and Emergency (FENZ) was on standby at Hawke's Bay Airport on Friday morning at the request of an inbound Air New Zealand flight. However, around 8am the flight landed safely, an Air New Zealand spokesperson said. "The crew operating NZ5025 from Auckland to Napier this morning received a maintenance alert during the service," the spokesperson said. Chief operating officer Alex Marren said emergency services were called in line with standard operating procedure after such an alert. The aircraft landed safely and the airline's maintenance team would now inspect the aircraft before it was returned to service. FENZ shift manager Chris Dalton earlier said three crews were at the airport as a precaution after an aircraft indicated a possible "situation on board". He said larger airports had their own fire brigades, but in regional areas FENZ was called in to help. Dalton said there had been no suggestion of an emergency. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
20 hours ago
- RNZ News
Fire and Emergency on standby for flight into Hawke's Bay Airport
Hawke's Bay Airport (File pic) Photo: Google Maps Fire and Emergency (FENZ) is on standby at Hawke's Bay Airport at the request of an inbound flight. Shift manager Chris Dalton said three crews were at the airport as a precaution after an aircraft indicated a possible "situation on board". He said larger airports had their own fire brigades, but in regional areas FENZ was called in to help. Dalton said there had been no suggestion of an emergency, and the plan was to attempt a landing before 8am. RNZ has contacted the airline. More to come. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
Forecast suggests best chance of seeing Matariki stars on East Coast
The Matariki star cluster will be visible on New Zealand's eastern horizon just before dawn. Photo: Quin Tauetau People hoping to catch a glimpse of the Matariki stars over the long weekend will have the best chance on the East Coast. The star cluster will be visible on New Zealand's eastern horizon just before dawn. NIWA's cloud cover forecast showed Eastern regions such as Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, and the lower North Island, along with parts of the upper and eastern South Island, can expect clearer skies than other regions. Meteorologist Chris Brandolino said stargazers could check the cloud cover forecast on Vimeo, which would be updated at 3.30pm each day for the following morning. Brandolino said the east of the South Island would get the best views. "As you get farther to the north of Dunedin, over toward Timaru, Oamaru, Christchurch and farther north toward perhaps even Kaikōura, there will be some pretty good viewing conditions." He said there were actions people could take to get a better view. "If you can find an area where there's no street lights or a lack of street lights - or maybe take a 10 minute drive to where you're a bit more removed from the urban areas." Forecast by region: Upper North Island (including Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Coromandel Peninsula) East Coast (including Gisborne, Napier, Wairarapa) Western North Island (including New Plymouth, Whanganui) Lower North Island (including Wellington) Upper South Island (including Nelson, Blenheim) Eastern South Island (including Christchurch, Timaru) West Coast (including Greymouth, Hokitika) Lakes Region (including Queenstown, Wanaka) Lower South Island (including Dunedin, Invercargill) Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Drug dealer Seth Forde gets extra jail time after being netted by Hawke's Bay police operation
By Ric Stevens, Open Justice reporter of Motorcyclists gathered in Napier for the funeral of Peter Lui in 2021. Former Outlaws Motorcycle Club member Seth Forde was a friend of Lui. Photo: Supplied/NZME Paranoid and afraid, just out of prison and with no support from his old gang buddies, a convicted drug dealer bought guns for protection and took methamphetamine to stay alert. Now, he's back in jail with extra time added for reoffending while on parole. Seth John Forde, 46, was a former leading member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club in Napier and a friend of club national president Peter Lui, who was murdered in 2021. Forde was released on parole in March last year from a six-year prison sentence for supplying methamphetamine and unlawfully possessing firearms. He found living in a small central Hawke's Bay community difficult. Soon after he was released on parole, someone pointed a gun at him - the circumstances of which were not spelled out in detail when Forde came back before the Napier District Court on the new charges this week. He received threats from people in the community, his lawyer, Cam Robertson, told the court. Forde was no longer associated with the Outlaws. He had no support or communication from the club since 2021. "He was effectively out on his own," Robertson said. However, he didn't tell his probation officer or his drug counsellor about the difficulties he was experiencing. He started using methamphetamine again. "He reverted to old ways," in Robertson's words. Forde was possibly paranoid because of his drug use, Robertson said. He bought firearms to protect himself. He started selling methamphetamine again to pay for the guns. "It was all a very murky world that you were living in, that's for sure," Judge Bridget Mackintosh told Forde at the sentencing hearing. But the main threat to Forde wasn't coming from the criminal fraternity. It was from the police. In October 2024 they began Operation Burr, an investigation into the sale and supply of methamphetamine within Hawke's Bay, and Forde was the "primary target", according to court documents. Just before midday on January 29, 2025, they came to his property in Takapau with a search warrant for his house and Volkswagen Golf car. Detaining Forde, they asked him if there was any "safety risk" to their officers as they began to search. Forde told them no, but immediately confessed that there was an ounce of methamphetamine and a Beretta pistol in a backpack under his bed. Police looked and found the pistol, with six rounds of .308 ammunition in the magazine, and 27 grams of crystal meth in a ziplock bag. In the garage, they found a Uberti .22 revolver firearm in a desk, along with a round of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition. The shell went with the Kushnapup military-style shotgun they found in a cardboard box. Elsewhere on the property, police found scales for weighing drugs, empty plastic "point bags" and $1000 cash. In the pocket of a jersey found in the Volkswagen was one live round of .22 ammunition. Inside Forde's wallet was a bag containing 0.25g of meth. After the search, Forde's parole was revoked and he was recalled to prison to continue serving his earlier sentence. Forde later pleaded guilty to possessing methamphetamine for supply and six charges of unlawfully possessing firearms or ammunition. Judge Mackintosh sentenced him to two years and four months in prison, to be served after his current sentence, which has a statutory release date of May 12, 2027. "You've got a bad history of offending and a number of [those offences] relate to drugs and violence. It makes sad reading, really," she said. She also noted Forde's "difficult background". As a child, he had been in and out of foster care and "badly treated by people who should have known better". A past brain injury also made it more difficult for him to function. The sentence Forde was recalled to continue serving related to offending in the months up until May 2021. The charges then were similar to his latest - possessing meth for supply and unlawfully possessing firearms and ammunition. He claimed the firearms then were for his protection after the March 2021 murder of Peter Lui by two Mongrel Mob members who chased Lui's motorcycle. He was stabbed to death on a Napier street, for his Outlaws patch. Hemi Rapata Meihana Cahill and Belmont Sonny Freedom Eruiti Te Aonui-Tawhai are currently serving life prison sentences for Peter Lui's murder. In February, Forde told the Parole Board that he now felt the need to move away from Hawke's Bay and "make a fresh start in a different area" when he is eventually released. This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Public have their say on controversial Hawke's Bay dam
Local resident Ngavii Pekapo speaks at the first public meeting to discuss the controversial Ruataniwha Dam. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook Leaders of the controversial Ruataniwha Dam faced tough questions from fired up locals at their first public meeting about the project in Waipawa on Tuesday night. Dozens of people filled the Waipawa Town Hall for the first public meeting held by the Tukituki Water Security Project team. Irrigation NZ's Stephen McNally spelled out how dire the water security situation is in Hawke's Bay, and was followed by project chair Mike Petersen who urged the crowd not to confuse this dam with its controversial predecessor. "We're here to focus on the issues tonight and not the personalities. We want to look forward rather than revisit history and go back over old ground. "There was a lot of angst over the old Ruataniwha project and frankly I don't think it does the region any benefit at all if we keep revisiting history," he said. But when the floor opened for questions, angst was what he got. Local resident Ngavii Pekapo told him in no uncertain terms that their lack of tikanga and mana whenua involvement was disrespectful. "We do become offended when a meeting like this hasn't been addressed with a prayer - if it had been addressed with a prayer maybe we wouldn't have had this argument. "When you have a hui to do with this, to do with our people, to do with their lands - this is when you bring them in. When you stand up there and speak to Māori people you must address the whakapapa," he said. Another person agreed, questioning the organisers over their misjudgement. "Where's the karakia, where's the whakapapa, where's the kaupapa", they said. Johnny Nepe Apatu from Ngāti Marau felt the project leaders had failed to respect Māori, and could have made an effort with their pronunciation. "I'm a bit agitated that I kept hearing the name of the river being mentioned wrong.. and the other rivers have been bastardised as well. "And the little lies were happening, saying they'd been talking to mana whenua - well I've been on this kaupapa all my life," he said. Nepe Apatu feared the dam favoured money and the economy over its peoples' health. "We are the kaitiaki of this environment and we want to make sure our mokopuna and their mokopuna, and their mokopuna, get to have water to drink safely," he said. Other concerns were raised at the meeting too, such as the cultural significance of the dam site. Ngavii Pekepo, who has lived in Waipawa for 72 years, said a large maori community once lived on the Makaroro River and a dam should not be built at that location. "It won't happen, but good luck to you," he told the project leaders. Tukituki Water Security project chair Mike Peterson told RNZ he has consulted with mana whenua throughout the process. "We have been discussing all the issues raised tonight with mana whenua leadership - and look, we know that there are people within mana whenua who disagree with this project. And we understand we have to work our way through that. "It's not something that happens quickly, but we'll continue those discussions," he said. Project chair Mike Petersen speaks about the plan for the Ruataniwha Dam project. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook Petersen said a key difference between the Ruataniwha Dam and the Tukituki Water Security Project is the hierarchy of water use downstream. The priority is to support minimum flows near Havelock North, use water to remediate local lakes, supply water to townships and enable higher value food production and processing. During question time, Petersen told the crowd he was sick of the misinformation being spread about the project. "It's actually bloody frustrating. We're genuinely trying to put one peg in the ground every day to try and understand if this is a viable project or not. "Why don't you give us the room to do that? We will do the work we need to do and then we'll come back and talk to you about whether it's viable or not," he said. The next step for fast track project is a feasibility study, which the government has funded to the tune of three million dollars. The Tukituki Water Security Project is gathering another three million from individuals and businesses. The study will take about 18 months and determine if the dam is a goer. "If it's not feasible we will not go ahead with this project - it's a go or no-go decision. "So would I walk away if enough people came up to me in this room and said 'Mike Peterson you're an asshole'? No of course I won't," said Petersen. Those in the meeting also worried about gravel build up in the Makaroro and the proximity of a large faultline, questioning the project leaders about where the data was showing these issues from the original dam plan had been overcome. But Petersen said that detail will be revealed during the feasibility study. Gren Christie from the dam protest group Wise Water Use wants the dam halted, and for them to first take a closer look at how water resources are allocated in Hawke's Bay, for example to the dairy industry. "We should look exactly at what we are doing with out water now and address that issue before we start taking on massive mega dams. "There are a lot of problems with those dams environmentally and the footprint it's going to take," he said. Throughout the hour of questions from the public, there were voices for and against the dam. Those in support of the project were hopeful for the economic growth it will bring in jobs and opportunities. One man took up the mic to tell the audience he was not impressed with his fellow residents who were fighting against the dam. "There are comments made here tonight which sicken me, because they are losing sight of the fact of what this thing will do for us. "It's going to cost a lot of money, it's going to cost a lot of hard work and it's going to cost a lot of effort. I congratulate you Mike for standing up here against all these people who are so bloody negative," he said. While another local urged people to imagine what the dam would look like once completed. "This could be the most stunning recreational area you can imagine, this could be the Lake Como of the Southern Hemisphere... it could be amazing," she said. The Tukituki Water Security Project said it continues to engage with central government about future funding past the feasibility phase, and it has fully planned and costed the Fast Track and DOC land exchange process. 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