New Zealand is ripe with beautiful towns and landscapes and the Keep New Zealand Beautiful awards showcase some of the best spots in the country. In the running this year are two Waikato towns; Hamilton and Cambridge. Hamilton is a finalist alongside Whanganui for the Most Beautiful City while Cambridge is up against Hastings for […]

The community of Tokoroa have rallied behind the two people who tested positive with Covid-19 last week. On Sunday, there were no new confirmed cases in Tokoroa, though new information revealed that one of the positive cases had visited the Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology in the town on August 10 and 11. Those who […]

The Waikato Coastcare planting season is now six weeks behind due to Covid-19 delays. Nearly 70,000 plants need to get into dunes before Labour Weekend, a job that usually takes volunteers up to 1,500 hours to complete. The Coastcare programme is in partnership with the local community, iwi, district councils, the Department of Conservation and […]

Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has announced that Auckland will remain in Alert Level 3 while the rest of New Zealand will remain in Alert Level 2 until 11:59 on 26th August. Ardern said this is part of the government’s Covid-19 resurgence plan and asks Auckland to “band together” to stamp out this second wave of […]

Plans for a Hamilton – Auckland commuter train are well underway with testing of tracks beginning in August. Once the trials are complete, 150 passengers will be able between Hamilton, Huntly and Auckland with the first departure scheduled on November 2. Waikato Regional Councillor and Chair of the Rail Governance Committee Hugh Vercoe, said the […]

Tokoroa’s unused airfield has quickly become one of the most popular model aircraft flying locations. Situated off Moffat Road, the airfield features a 120m by 60m grass runway and a 850m by 18m sealed landing strip. While aircraft up to 5700kgs are permitted to use the runway, model flyers are increasingly gathering at the airfield […]

Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, held a press conference at 9:20 pm on August 11 with Director General of Health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield. Ardern revealed New Zealand had four new confirmed cases of Covid-19 from an unknown origin. The new cases of community transmission come from the same family in South Auckland with no links to […]

The government has announced a $2 million injection into redeveloping the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House as part of its Covid-19 response and recovery fund. A welcome surprise to locals, the funding will allow Kiwi House to build a large visitor and conservation centre and a large nocturnal house experience. Kiwi House manager, Jo Russell, said the […]

As the Government’s Covid-19 wage subsidy comes to an end this month, regional New Zealand is looking to combat a spike in youth unemployment. The Government is investing $11.5 million into rural New Zealand with the aim to to connect young people with jobs. The Mayoral Taskforce for Jobs and the Ministry of Social Development […]

OceanaGold is proposing a mine expansion in small mining town, Waihi. However, not all Waihi residents are in favour of the expansion. Local, Reg Turner, is against the proposal for a number of reasons. “I know underneath the pit is real hard rock, so there’s going to be heavy ground shaking going on,” he says. […]