Taranaki Daily News

Bondi Sands Coconut Beach SPF 50+ Scented Sunscreen Lotion 400ml

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Making Taranaki stronger

Volunteering New Plymouth has the privilege of recognising remarkable people whose generosity, commitment and community spirit make Taranaki a better place to live. These remarkable people have received “Volunteer of the Month” Appreciation Awards in...

Long path to rural economic resilience

Nationally known as a dairy powerhouse, Taranaki’s agricultural renown could soon extend to gin botanicals, medicinal plants and hemp fibre. Six years after the region’s economic development agency Te Puna Umanga Venture Taranaki launched an ambitious...

Campaign coming to close

In an election campaign dominated by daily polls and predictions of a tight race, one number has been the focus above all others for New Plymouth’s Opportunity Party candidate Sarah Lucas. That number is 5.8%, the party vote threshold Opportunity...

Ambitious plans for Witt

The new chief executive of the Western Institute of Technology wants to turn the organisation into a nationally recognised leader in vocational education as it prepares to regain its independence. Former New Plymouth Boys’ High School headmaster Paul...

Debt to fund $4.3m writeoff

New Plymouth ratepayers will have to fund $4.3 million of debt from capital projects that have been written off by council. The $4.3m, which was written off from the last financial year, will be separately identified as internal debt and repaid...

New ED still overwhelmed

Despite a $462 million development at Taranaki Base Hospital, its new larger Emergency Department was still overwhelmed in its first few weeks of operating. When the new East Wing opened in late June, the new ED had 32 treatment spaces compared with...

COUNCIL

After years of resistance, New Plymouth’s antiquated dog bylaw banning pooches from the city’s main business district has been dropped. The New Plymouth District Council unanimously voted on Thursday to let dogs be walked through its city centre,...

NPDC rejects free parking in the CBD

The New Plymouth District Council has scrapped an option to offer shoppers in the city’s central business district free parking. Instead, the council recommended the contentious $3 hourly charge be reduced to $2 an hour. However, a final decision...

Counting cost of free parking

New Plymouth ratepayers face the prospect of significant rate rises if parking in the city’s central business district is made free. The New Plymouth District Council has a number of scenarios in front of them if elected members want to push on and...

EVENT

Veteran Taranaki garden festival fan Yvonne Geeraedts has some sound advice for anyone considering visiting the region’s gardens over the next 10 days – plan ahead. “I’ve been viewing gardens for 30 to 35 years, every year I go out with a friend,” she...

One man’s flower obsession

Once upon a time a man who loved rhododendrons went looking for a good place to grow them. Seventy-five years later, Pukeiti is a garden of national significance, containing more than 1200 different types of rhododendron and home to the second largest...

Night sky image goes viral

A Taranaki photographer’s image of satellites criss-crossing the night sky sent his social media following into orbit, attracting millions of views. Brendan Larsen spent 45 hours editing 578 photographs recently taken near Norfolk, north of Midhirst,...

NP’S most efficient shopper

Graeme Gower knows his local Woolworths like the back of his hand, and it’s not just because he pops in to stock up four times a week. The New Plymouth man spent his entire 58-year working career at Woolworths, making him one of the longest-serving...

Family escape the Taliban A long road to safety

Dr Maqsood Rezayee begins by apologising for the way he sounds. He has a cold, he explains over the telephone, and worries that, combined with his thick accent and “not so good English”, it might make him difficult to understand. But I tell him that...

LONG TIME LOCAL

Sixteen years after adding them to their menu the pies at Oscars Kiwi Kafe have well and truly put the Inglewood eatery on the international map. “We’ve had people come in from America and tell us they were told to come and try our pies,” said Tess...

Growth ranking lowest in NZ

Taranaki’s economy has recorded the slowest growth in the country, with declining oil and gas activity continuing to weigh down the region despite signs of recovery. However, business leaders at Te Puna Umanga Venture Taranaki’s economic update at The...

Fire destroys family home

A New Plymouth father managed to hold it together when he saw his house burnt down, but the generosity of neighbours and strangers brought him to tears. Cameron Hooper was working a night shift at Kapuni on Saturday when his wife Journee phoned just...

Suspicious fires raise alarm

Fears of a firebug operating in Bell Block have grown after police confirmed three vegetation fires along the coastal strip were being treated as suspicious. The blazes sparked concerns about the safety of nearby homes, particularly with the potential...

Boss blasts import decision

A Bell Block aluminium manufacturer has accused the Government of throwing a strategic industry “under the bus” after rejecting safeguards against cheap overseas imports. Mckechnie Aluminium managing director Dave Slomp described his reaction to the...

The battle for New Plymouth’s CBD

It was beautiful spring day in the centre of New Plymouth. The sun was shining, there was very little wind. And there had been three arrests before 9am. Welcome to Lower Brougham St. With the well-placed planting, a lush expanse of lawn, ample seating...

Contenders meet converted

Candidates have so far been largely “preaching to the converted” at meetings organised for Taranaki farmers this week. Only a handful of farmers were among the 25-or-so audience at Ōpunake’s Sinclair Electrical and Events Centre when Taranaki...

Tensions stirred at debate

What began as a largely low-key election debate for the Taranaki King Country candidates at Urenui took a sharper turn when questions from the audience turned to capital gains tax and immigration. About 50 people attended the Federated Farmers...

Demand up, charity bigger

A growing demand from pensioners wanting food and support has forced one of Taranaki’s fastest-growing charities to expand its operation. Plans to move On The House’s fortnightly Over 65s Free Store to a bigger venue were revealed by founder Terry...

Surf Life Saving Sport SPF 50+ Sunscreen

Surf Life Saving Sport Sunscreen is the water- and sweat-resistant companion you need for an active lifestyle. It’s perfect for swimming, surfing, running or playing sports like cricket and golf. The non-greasy lotion absorbs quickly so there’s no...

Parihaka could go global

Possible recognition of Parihaka as a world heritage site is being seen as an opportunity to share the papakāinga’s history and message with the world. The coastal Taranaki settlement is one of nine of New Zealand’s most internationally significant...

Preserving the past in a digital age

Hold a 130-year-old glass plate negative up to the light, and you are holding a physical fragment of human memory. The 10,000 glass negatives of the Feaver Collection held at Puke Ariki Museum capture rural Ōpunake life from the 1890s to the 1940s – a...

Hoarding vandals run rampant

Wannabe artists armed with permanent markers and spray-paint are on the loose across Taranaki defacing and damaging political hoardings in the lead-up to the November election. National Party signs appeared to have borne the brunt of the vandalism,...

Demand up, donations down

Supporting those struggling in the Waitara community with hundreds of kai parcels a month is putting intense pressure on the town’s food bank, at a time when public donations have dropped off dramatically. In September alone, the Waitara Foodbank gave...

Who lowered the bollard?

A lengthy investigation has failed to find who was responsible for lowering a bollard that contributed to the death of an elderly woman who drowned in the Waitara River more than four years ago. A Coroners Court Recommendations Recap was released on...

Town defends festive title

With around 82 sleeps still to go until Santa’s big night, Christmas preparations are well under way in Stratford. Four Stratford women determined to keep their self-styled crown as the most Christmassy town in New Zealand had already made and...

Gorge not on transport plan

No long-term replacement for State Highway 3 through the vulnerable Awakino Gorge has been identified in a national 10-year transport investment plan. Instead, the country’s roading agency is proposing further resilience work instead. The NZ...

The knock that never comes

In 2026 you can have almost anything delivered to your doorstep – a hot meal, a weeks’ worth of groceries, new shoes. Yet for thousands of New Zealanders, the one thing that never arrives is a knock on the door. For most of us loneliness is an...

Major milestone reached

Jared Proffit once looked at the names of Taranaki’s centurions on the gym wall and thought joining them was impossible. Come Sunday, Proffit will become the 33rd player in Taranaki Rugby history to reach 100 matches when he starts at loosehead prop...

POLITICS

Labour leader Chris Hipkins cut a relaxed figure as he spent the afternoon in New Plymouth yesterday, outpouring confidence his party’s candidate could swing the electorate seat back to the left. After a couple of days of being grilled about...

‘It’s great’ – ‘it’s frustrating’

New Plymouth’s mayor has welcomed the Government’s pause on local government reform while his fellow Taranaki mayors are less enamoured. Max Brough said he was not surprised when Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform Minister Chris...

Jones speech ‘vile rhetoric’

First-term district councillor EJ Barrett has taken exception to comments made by Shane Jones during an NZ First meeting in New Plymouth on Friday. Jones, the deputy leader of NZ First, addressed more than 200 people at The Devon Hotel, where energy,...

Undercut and under pressure

Cheap aluminium imports from China are threatening the viability of a long-standing New Plymouth business which employs hundreds of people, its managing director says. Mckechnie Aluminium has operated for 75 years manufacturing and exporting hundreds...

Ailing or failing? Long wait for answers

Ayoung girl’s life ends against the backdrop of a childhood disrupted by abuse – treatment many wouldn’t dish out to a dog. From the age of six, she was kicked, punched, told she was ugly and called terrible names. She often went without food, clean...

LNG project delay welcomed

Opponents of a proposed LNG import terminal at Port Taranaki are celebrating what they are calling “the beginning of the end” of the project. Coalition partners NZ First and ACT have both expressed caution about making any decision about the project...

Agencies ‘failed’ whānau

A young whānau member of a girl who died by suspected suicide has given a “powerful” statement that moved a coroner to tears, about how she felt the family had been let down by agencies which were meant to help. The address was given on day three of...

Trapped, terrified by attack

After being chased and having his bike busted by a group of teenagers, Deontae Gooch no longer feels safe riding across town to visit his grandparents. The 23-year-old Stratford man, who lives with Asperger’s and an intellectual disability, was left...

‘Daughter’s life had value’

The father of a girl who died of a suspected suicide says he “owed it” to his daughter to find out why it happened. The man’s address was delivered yesterday, as the coronial inquest into the 12-year-old girl’s June 27, 2017, death got under way in...

Gardeners prepare for El Niño

Veteran gardeners in Taranaki are gearing up for a dry and windy summer as a recordstrength El Niño weather pattern takes hold. El Niño brings stronger and more frequent westerly winds over New Zealand, drier conditions to the upper North Island and...

Taranaki’s street food evolution

It started a year ago with a folding table, a chilly bin and a “baby” smoker outside a little coffee shop in Waitara. A year later, The Flying Pig Barbecue made 120 smash burgers at the pop-up food festival in New Plymouth’s CBD, and sold out an hour...

Contractors told to fix ramp

Contractors will be sent back to fix a $1.4 million beach access ramp after its workmanship failed to meet the expectations of the New Plymouth District Council. The council confirmed yesterday that work on fixing “defects” of the recently completed...

Fear, finances shape mood

The looming closure of Methanex, rising costs and pressure on healthcare were fuelling anxiety in Waitara, with one business worker saying residents were worried about what was to come. Lisa Mcholm, of Waitara Post and Lotto, said conversations with...

New Plymouth mood muted

Ashortage of jobs, tighter spending and uncertainty over whether things would get any easier were the issues a New Plymouth business owner was hearing from customers in the months leading up to the election. “Just the spending and the jobs, I think,...

Driving Stratford’s voters

Pensioner and business owner Arnold Cox has seen plenty of governments come and go, but his concerns ahead of this year’s election are firmly focused on the pressures facing businesses and retirees. Cox’s Stratford Knit and Sew business on Broadway...

What shapes Hāwera’s vote

Small-business owner John Fullerton has been in business only a matter of weeks, but has already found out how difficult it is to get started. From accessing start-up funding to dealing with banks, the Help Me IT owner said the process had been...

Don’t let AI ruin your dream garden

In six weeks the Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival opens, and thousands of visitors and locals alike will happily spend hours wandering through pristine, living works of art, convincing themselves that with enough enthusiasm, their own gardens could...

Climate debate draws crowds

Any thoughts the general election might fail to ignite interest in the New Plymouth electorate were dispelled on the night of the first meaningful debate on Wednesday. Voters arrived at the former Tasman Bowling Club well before the start time, with...

Students crack pest puzzle

Monitoring tunnels set in a New Plymouth reserve to count rats and weasels shocked a group of conservation students, who found them full of inky cat footprints. The students from the level 4 New Zealand Certificate in Conservation (Operations)...

El Niño has farmers wary

While winter-weary people throughout Taranaki look forward to spring sunshine, farmers wary of the developing El Niño weather pattern are hoping for lots of rain. Among them is South Taranaki mayor and dairy farmer Phil Nixon, who is concerned with...

Family seek killing review

The family of Kaoss Price is seeking a judicial review of the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s (IPCA) investigation into his fatal shooting in April 2022. The unarmed 22-year-old died on State Highway 3, between New Plymouth and Waitara, after...

Melbourne's cultural cool Museums, art, markets, nightlife and so much more

More than gumboots and rugby

After a lifetime embedded in the local art scene, Wayne Morris is convinced the region punches above its weight when it comes to creativity. And the New Plymouth man would know. His first exhibition was in 1981, he was a founding member of the...

Photos from space help cows

Satellite images beamed down from space are helping a Taranaki farmer keep his cows well fed. When Logan Haynes wants to see where his herd of 355 will be going next he opens his laptop and a colourful patchwork map. Blue squares are paddocks ready...

Methanex closure to hit hard

Methanex’s decision to indefinitely close its Taranaki plant is expected to have a wide ripple effect across businesses and households throughout the region. About 150 people work at the plant, which is expected to close by the end of March next...

Cleanup cost now over $12m

More spent Highway than cleaning 3 through $12 million up Awakino and has repairing already Gorge State been after heavy rain caused extensive damage in April. New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi asset and operations group general manager Andrew...

Better brushing

Who doesn’t love the mischievous Stitch from Disney’s cheeky alien will inspire children aged 6 and up to get brushing with the cool blue Oral-b io Kids electric toothbrush. It’s designed with dentists to be gentle on kids’ teeth and gums, and to...

Way to beat cancer, at home

If Hilary Harrison hadn’t kept her dark sense of humour front and centre, she would have spent the last year curled in the foetal position under her kitchen table. So, as she told her story to a group of people the room was filled with laughter, not...

Time bomb faced in race to cap rates

Two Taranaki mayors have warned the Government’s much-vaunted council rates cap is a ticking time bomb that could see vital infrastructure neglected and treasured community services lost. South Taranaki mayor Phil Nixon and Stratford mayor Neil Volzke...

Toi to go ahead with TSB sale

The trustees of the Toi Foundation have voted to move ahead with its proposed $620 million sale of TSB to Heartland Bank. The decision was released yesterday and came after the High Court overwhelmingly rejected an application by the Taranaki...

High Court rejects TSB ruling

The High Court has wholly rejected an application by a concerned Taranaki community group for an injunction to stop the proposed $620 million sale of TSB to Heartland Bank. The Taranaki Community Accountability Society had sought the injunction on the...

Case sent to Appeal Court

A 14-year-old girl who bludgeoned a Taranaki grandfather to death with a hammer has had her case sent back to the Court of Appeal to be reconsidered. On Friday, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates potential wrongful convictions,...

Loss inspires a pet project

When grieving pet owners call Steph Korff they are usually in tears. But for the founder of Sweet Farewell, providing a gentle goodbye for beloved dogs, cats, and birds was a deeply personal mission, one that was already resonating across the region...

Fire and ice

When I first heard about Elemental – Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa’s new adults-only wellness experience featuring New Zealand’s first snow room – I was not sold on the idea. It didn’t sound relaxing. Stepping into falling snow in the name of...

Envisaging a geothermal future

Taranaki geologist Evelien Wallace remembers her surprise the first time she was on a drilling rig and saw the heat in slurry from deep underground pouring from a mud pump. “The mud and water went over the shakers to remove the shards of rock, before...

Calls for alternative route

A national transport advocacy group argues major Taranaki developments are strengthening the case for an alternative northern outlet. The call came as the National Road Carriers Association launched its election manifesto, which included establishing...

Butcher hangs up his apron

After nearly three years behind the counter in Ōakura, butcher Vaughan Coveny is hanging up his meat cleaver and apron as he calls time on his first business venture. Coveny and his wife Stacey announced on social media that Ōakura Meat Co and Fine...

Lower Len Lye cost wanted

New Plymouth mayor Max Brough is actively seeking ratepayers’ help to slash the operating expenditure of the city’s renowned Len Lye Centre. Describing it as the “eternal gift that keeps on giving”, Brough used his regular online question-and-answer...

Hunters helping families

A weekend in South Taranaki back country turned into hundreds of meals for Taranaki families struggling to put meat on the table. A group of hunters from the North Taranaki branch of the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association took 20 deer from Rimunui...

Neighbours at odds over fumes

A Hāwera woman with chronic illness is terrified fumes from her neighbour’s business could trigger an extreme allergic reaction. Maree Mulholland fears she could have an anaphylactic reaction to a burning rubber smell coming from neighbouring business...

Candidates on cost-of-living crisis

It should not come as a surprise to anyone the most significant issue on voters’ minds heading into the election is the cost of living. It’s the issue voters are reminded of daily, each time a power or rates bill arrives, a petrol bowser is slotted...