Photo: RNZ
A Hong Kong taxi for Auckland, a makeover for a 170-year-old woolshed and AUT's first marine biologist are among the latest feel-good stories from RNZ.
Hundreds work to restore Kaipara Harbour
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Kaipara Harbour Remediation is a project of dizzying numbers - a total budget of around $200 million, of which $100m is from government coffers; 1,880,000 trees planted as of the end of June; 800km of waterways fenced off; and more than 700 private landowners involved so far with another 300 keen to get on board... It's goal? To clean up New Zealand's biggest harbour and restore the mauri, or life force, of the harbour. The number of trees planted is expected to reach 2,000,000 this month.
Hong Kong-style 'taxi' in the middle of Auckland
Hong Kong taxi. Peter Saengdee Photo: RNZ / Blessen Tom
Feeling homesick after relocating to New Zealand, three former Hong Kong residents converted an old Toyota Crown Comfort into a lookalike taxi that can be found on almost any postcard from the Asian metropolis. The result is astonishing, if the reaction from locals is anything to go by. "We're trying to bring a smile to people when they see the taxi here in New Zealand because it's supposed to be in Hong Kong," creator Peter Saengdee says.
Eight million trees planted to protect Taranaki waterways
TRC Riparian Team Leader Holly Laundon, left, with son Charlie, 4, and mum Vicki Jagersma at the Stratford A&P Showgrounds, one of the council's plant depots. Vicki is secretary for the A&P Association which runs the depot when plants are dispatched to landowners and farmers by a team of volunteers. Photo: Supplied / Taranaki Regional Council
The country's largest re-vegetation programme on private land has just planted its eight millionth tree. The Taranaki Regional Council launched its award-winning Riparian Management Programme with a single tree in 1996. Some 28 years later, 5385 kilometres of planting has taken place alongside hundreds of rivers and streams across the Taranaki plain in one of New Zealand's most successful collaborations between farmers, the community and a local authority to improve the quality of freshwater and ecosystems.
Anti-racism protesters take to the streets in UK
A protester defending the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool holds a placard holds a placard reading "Nans against Nazis" on 2 August, against the 'Enough is Enough' demonstration. Photo: AFP/ Ian Cooper
Thousands of anti-racism protesters have rallied in cities and towns across England after a week of anti-immigrant rioting and disorder. Rioting was sparked by misinformation online that the suspect in the fatal stabbing of three little girls in Southport on 29 July was a Muslim asylum seeker. In response, counter-protests have been largely peaceful with people chanting "refugees are welcome here." In Brighton, eight protesters gathered by an office they believed was of a lawyer specialising in refugee law but they were surrounded by 2000 counter-protesters.
Waimate Station woolshed gets some much-needed attention
Michael Simpson at Te Waimate Station Photo: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
The South Island's oldest working woolshed is getting some much needed repairs after nearly 170 years in operation.
The woolshed on Te Waimate Station in Waimate was built in 1855 by the Studholme Brothers with 100,000 sheep being shorn annually in the 22 shearing stands. Remarkably it's still in use today, however it has started to show its age. In 2022 the back side of the woolshed began to sink, the piles were rotting in the damp ground, beneath a build-up of sheep debris. A Heritage NZ grant will help get the shed back in shape.
AUT's first Pacific marine biologist
Antony Vavia (left) is the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in marine biology from Auckland University of Technology. Photo: Supplied
The first Pacific Islander to graduate with a doctoral degree in marine biology from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) says he wants to take everything he has learnt back to his "happy place…surrounded by water" and share with his people in Cook Islands. Antony Vavia's research focuses on subsistence fisheries in the Pacific with a case study of his island home of Mitiaro. He said the Cook Islands is surrounded by the ocean and it was "only natural for us to want to take care of that resource".