On The Up: East Coast celebrates reopening of Te Puna Wai birthing unit
Ngāti Porou Oranga has proudly celebrated the reopening of its new birthing unit after the original was closed after Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023.
The original Te Puia Hospital maternity birthing unit is now known as Te Puna Wai - the Spring of
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RNZ News
6 days ago
- RNZ News
'Fairy dust' gets in the way, but does not stop chopper rescues
Photo: 123RF Life-saving helicopter flights are being increasingly used in disasters such as Cyclone Gabrielle, with Fire and Emergency's annual helicopter bill more than doubling to $7 million. But one of its top aviation roles - Air Division Commander (ADC) - was so vague it amounted to "fairy dust", said Fire and Emergency (FENZ) head of aviation Stephen Bishop in March this year. In emails released under the Official Information Act, Bishop said the ADC role had "no training pathways, qualifications, currency or competency assessment". "You magically achieve it by fairy dust! Yet the function of the role is 100% needed," said Bishop. Another of his memos, written last year, warned that a core gap was "no aviation common operating picture for national emergencies". The demands on aviation coordinators during Cyclone Gabrielle were unprecedented - the most ever seen outside of wartime. More than 3000 flights doing 6000 tasks took place in the hours and days after the storm hit in February 2023. It was highly successful, a top manager said. "Undoubtedly the actions taken by all involved at Bridge Pa [chopper-launching airfield] save many lifes, [sic] countless families and people were rescued from the water and rooftops within the first 24/48 hours," said a review initiated by Bishop in the weeks that followed. "I do remain extremely proud of the team." Pilots and air crew work for private, contracted chopper companies and are separate from FENZ and civil defence aviation personnel. But the stress of the task revealed gaps in the system. The flight coordination teams - drawn from fire, police, civil defence and ambulance - were not properly prepared and did not collaborate well enough. "Lots of intel flights flown, but no one on the ground to collate and feed back," said the review, adding that data overload was another problem. There were also psychological health and well-being issues that needed to be worked on. "This was a traumatic exposure event with mass casualties, and in the early stages preparing for significant numbers of fatalities, the team experienced having to make life/death decisions on who they rescued first." An email referring to a review by USAID of the help it gave New Zealand in the cyclone said an observation was "the coordination of heli bases [was] not done well". All this could be seen in emails and reports newly released under the OIA. FENZ blanked out some parts relating to what did not work well - while keeping in all that did work - and Bishop's "wish list". The agency is New Zealand's prime responder to storms, and told RNZ it had helped other agencies make improvements in the past 18 months, such as with air safety training and coordination. But it did not provide documentation to back that up. One problem with Cyclone Gabrielle was a concern that so many choppers going up and down might hit each other. The "biggest challenge was coordination and collaboration between multiple agencies and need to deconflict airspace", though there were no significant near-misses, the review said. The large number of flights landed FENZ with a $3.2m bill in 2022-23. A year later, the bill had risen to nearly $6m and is now more than $7m. Total annual hours of emergency chopper use have risen from 966 to 1920. But Bishop in mid-2024 warned that FENZ had known for a long time that aviation was a "high risk" for it. While a lot of that was dealt with after the Tasman fires in 2019, "until now we have not been able to look at the training we provide our people". They were not trained to know the risks they faced. This is similar to the warning FENZ got about lack of landslide training, after two volunteer fire-fighters died at Muriwai during the cyclone. "Wrong people been given the wrong level of training at the wrong point in their pathway," Bishop said. "Current training for basic aircraft safety awareness is inconsistent. No training provided for stations, brigades who regularly use aircraft for fire fighting, outer island response" and road crashes. Another report said FENZ and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) were "working hard, as resources allow, to champion and implement a more strategic and unified approach to aviation response across the country". Training, and contracts with private chopper companies were being improved. "It is not a quick fix and will take some time and as with all aspects require additional resources," a group manager wrote in January 2024. "We have some gaps around the country - Auckland, Northland, South Canterbury are my main areas of concern." The agency told RNZ its aviation specialists showed "bravery and dedication" in Gabrielle's extreme conditions. Its operational improvements since the start of last year included better safety awareness and training; more electronic datakeeping and invoicing; and a strengthened inter-agency CatPlan (Catastrophic Planning). "This has a focus on shared air operations planning and resource alignment across large-scale emergencies to support a more unified national response and clearer operational roles between agencies," it said in a statement this week. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
10-07-2025
- Scoop
Taskforce Kiwi Deploys To The Tasman Region To Provide Flood Relief
Press Release – Taskforce Kiwi A team of 17 skilled volunteers is currently based out of the Riwaka Rugby Club, and have already completed work on eight impacted properties in the Motueka Valley, with a focus on the area around Ngtmoti. Taskforce Kiwi has deployed a disaster relief team to the Tasman Region to provide direct assistance to those impacted by the severe weather experienced by the region on the 27th of June. Taskforce Kiwi deployed community engagement teams into the region last week, and over the weekend began moving people, vehicles and equipment from both the South and North Island into the region to launch relief operations. This activity has been enabled by support volunteers based around Aotearoa. A team of 17 skilled volunteers is currently based out of the Riwaka Rugby Club, and have already completed work on eight impacted properties in the Motueka Valley, with a focus on the area around Ngātīmoti. A steady stream of support requests continues to be received, indicating the need that remains in the region. Many of those tasks have been received via the Rural Support Trust, who are actively supporting those impacted in the area. Tasks have primarily involved debris clearance tasks, removing flood debris by hand, tools, or chainsaw. Many of these tasks have been in support of those who do not have the ability to undertake those tasks themselves, due to the scale of the damage. About Taskforce Kiwi Taskforce Kiwi is an entirely voluntary charity organisation that exists to bridge the gap in disaster relief, providing skilled, organised volunteers to provide direct support to impacted communities before, during and after disasters. Founded in July 2022, Taskforce Kiwi has since recruited 720 volunteers nationwide, the majority of who have already serve their country and communities in the defence force or one of the emergency services, and as a result have the ideal skill and experience required for disaster relief work. Over the past three years volunteers have contributed over 14,000 hours of skilled work in the field, carrying out 19 operations. The majority of our work has been at home, including in response to the Auckland Anniversary flood, Cyclone Gabrielle, the 2024 Wairoa flood, bushfires and floods in Canterbury, and the Mangawhai tornado. Taskforce Kiwi volunteers have also deployed internationally, providing support to impacted communities in Australia, the US, Canada, Morocco, Vanuatu, PNG and Thailand. Taskforce Kiwi relies on the support of businesses, trusts and individuals to operate. For example, Mitsubishi Motors NZ and TR Group provide vehicles, Mitre10 supplies equipment, and the Rata Foundation provided the funding to get initial boots on the ground in Tasman.
1News
03-07-2025
- 1News
Flood-hit school furious with 'crazy' timing of ERO evaluation
A primary school in Wairoa that was ruined in Cyclone Gabrielle and has been operating out of a temporary site is furious and frustrated with the Education Review Office over the timing of its evaluation. Nuhaka School has flooded twice since February 2023, and while it waits for the entire school to be rebuilt, the more than 100 students have been taking their lessons at a nearby Mormon Church. Last week, as the school was packing up to move back to its new buildings, ERO conducted a review. The Education Review Office (ERO) has admitted to RNZ that it got it wrong, and apologised to Nuhaka School about the timing of its review. A school in flux ADVERTISEMENT From the outside, it looks like a regular church, but step through the doors and every room is crammed with school tables and chairs, whiteboards and stationery supplies. The floor is covered in colourful blue mats and among the boxes of sporting trophies and rows of school bags hanging on the wall, framed paintings of Jesus peer out. The Mormon church where children have been going to school. (Source: As children help carry boxes out to the moving truck, Principal Raelene McFarlane tells RNZ how hard the past couple of years have been, and the struggle to get more resources. "This has just been a fight. It didn't need to be this hard. I didn't need to lose staff through burnout," she said. For most of the past 2.5 years, the students have been learning in makeshift classrooms - using the hall stage, offices, and meeting rooms to try and regain some sense of normalcy for the kids. "The crowding is huge. It got quite heartbreaking at times when we had kids who had to crawl under tables to get out to the loo and you know, and if they didn't make it that was really upsetting for them, it was upsetting for staff and whanau. "Without space you can't teach a quiet group, because the noise is just really compacted," said McFarlane. ADVERTISEMENT Nuhaka School principal Raelene McFarlane. (Source: She said they were just weeks away from moving back into their newly rebuilt school site, when the Education Review Office, known as ERO, decided it was time to conduct a review. McFarlane begged them to delay it by 10 weeks, so they would be settled back in their school buildings, but told RNZ that ERO would only shift the review by three weeks, to the last few days of term when they were still in the church. "When I contacted them and said 'we are literally going to have boxes walking out the door, we can't even do a lesson for you, that's crazy'. We were just told that they'll be sensitive and that it was going ahead," she said. Wairoa mayor Craig Little. (Source: The local iwi and mayor also tried to get the ERO review moved, but mayor Craig Little said he was astonished when ERO went ahead with its inspection. "These kids have absolutely gone through hell and back. And so now they're moving finally, thank God for the Mormon church. They've been in there and they're moving back to their school. But it's really hard and would you believe let's chuck an ERO report the same time they're moving. ADVERTISEMENT "It's just crazy. I've been on school boards and the ERO report is the biggest thing that can disrupt your school ever. And you get one shot at it and everybody is under stress. ERO should be saying, 'hey, let's just sort of forget about that at the moment'," said Craig. Instead, ERO visited the school last week while it was still operating out of the church buildings. "At least come and see us in the right place — do the right compliance checks on the right buildings — that would make more sense to me. "We don't understand, we feel pretty much... we don't know if it's targeted," said McFarlane. 'We got this one wrong' — ERO apologises ERO declined RNZ's request for an interview, but spokesperson Shelley Booysen told RNZ that where possible, it did its best to be flexible to meet the needs of schools. "In this case, the School Review team made the decision to go ahead with the review following a number of rescheduled dates. ADVERTISEMENT "In hindsight, the school's request for an extension during their move and until they are more settled into their new building was not unreasonable. We should have delayed the review. We got this one wrong and we sincerely apologise to the school and the community," she said. ERO said it wished Nuhaka School 'all the best' in their new school building. But Little worried the damage was already done. "Why would you do that to people? I'm getting calls from the parents, not only the school teachers, just saying 'hey, we're really worried about what's happening here'. "These teachers have been enough stress. Let's not put them under anymore," he said. Nuhaka School will reopen on July 14 for the first day of the new term. Nuhaka School students. (Source: ADVERTISEMENT
