Emergency Response Underway as Cyclone Vaianu Impacts North Island
While Cyclone Vaianu remains off the East Coast of New Zealand, the Waikato Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Group says impacts have been felt overnight.
OPINION: This old mutt has been around for a few years now and it seems these ‘once in 100-year’ weather events are occurring nearly every year.
That doesn’t deter the old “I’ve seen worse, back in my day” comments, but tell that to the poor buggers that have to clean up the mess, year after year.
And that’s the only real silver lining here – seeing how Kiwi communities, particularly in remote rural areas like the recently-hammered Far North, pull together, look after each other and get on with what needs to be done to protect lives, then restore farms and properties when the sun finally reappears.
The Northland Civil Defence chairman rightly praised local coastal communities, saying they were well prepared, worked in with Civil Defence and helped each other out.
The Kiwi Way is alive and well in the provinces!
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
For Canterbury dairy farmers Sian Meijer and Rick Wobben, wearable technology has become one of their most valuable on-farm tools - helping manage 1850 cows across an expansive, high-performing dairy operation while improving efficiency, mating outcomes and day-to-day decision making.
Fonterra has unveiled its annual results for the 2026 financial year, posting $27 billion in revenue and close to $20 billion returned to New Zealand farmer owners and unit holders.
The first major update to the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare in more than a decade has been released, marking what DairyNZ describes as an important step in ensuring animal welfare standards continue to evolve alongside scientific evidence and on-farm realities.

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