Morning Report for Thursday 7 October 2021

8:56 AM.An update on a story we ran last week about 12 brown bears in Alaska who were in the running to win The "Fat Bear Week" tournament .

It's held every year as the bears stock up for hibernation, with… Read more Audio

8:44 AM.A life member of the Mongrel Mob who travelled into Auckland during lockdown says he worked to get people tested and vaccinated. 

Harry Tam says he was given a travel exemption after being asked to… Read more Audio

8:27 AM.GPs up and down the country have been left frustrated by the amount of vaccine misinformation spread by individuals and groups - often online. 

What about when doctors are the ones spreading false… Read more Audio

8:23 AM.Crucial upgrade or expensive lemon? That's the debate over a shiny new road upgrade now under way for central Tauranga.

Cameron Road will add space for buses and bikes but won't reduce the number of… Read more Audio

8:20 AM.Mercury Energy is investigating the cause of a fire at one of its wind turbines on the Tararua Range near Palmerston North.

The fire, which set plumes of smoke into the sky near Aokautere, was left… Read more Audio

8:16 AM.The chief property economist at CoreLogic believes a rise to the official cash rate will lead to a cooling of the housing market.

Many retail banks lifted their floating mortgage rates after the… Read more Audio

8:09 AM.The head of the Te Whānau O Waipareira in West Auckland says the just-announced Super Saturday event is likely to fail to mop up stragglers on the vaccination front.

The Government yesterday… Read more Audio

7:54 AM.Auckland's winding road to an eventual relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, and a reopening, is worrying some parents.

Schools are tentatively able to open their doors on 18 October, but that comes… Read more Audio

7:51 AM.The country's latest victim of Covid-19 was a father to seven children.

The 50 year-old man died in Middlemore Hospital yesterday, after 40 days in intensive care.

He was a deacon at the Assemblies… Read more Audio

7:40 AM.A spokesperson for the Waikato Mongrel Mob isn’t happy with the way gangs are being portrayed as Covid-19 spreads through the community.

Yesterday, the Covid-19 Response Minister, Chris Hipkins, said… Read more Audio

7:35 AM.A Dilworth old boy says financial compensation can only mark the start of efforts to address 50 years of abuse at the school.

A former chaplain and teacher, Ross Browne, has pleaded guilty to 15… Read more Audio

7:25 AM.A leading epidemiologist says everyone in New Zealand should plan to encounter Covid-19 before Christmas, and they'd better be prepared.

The recommended gap between Pfizer jabs has been cut in half… Read more Audio

7:22 AM.A teacher backlash is building over government plans to reopen Auckland's classrooms after the school holidays.

Union leaders have told RNZ their Auckland members are astonished they could be back in… Read more Audio

7:17 AM.Anti-vax GPs are hindering the pandemic response in one of the least Covid-19-vaccinated regions - Northland.

Just sixty-seven per cent of people in Te Tai Tokerau have had one Pfizer dose and only… Read more Audio

7:13 AM.A Covid-19 modeller says it looks as though Delta is here to stay, but New Zealand shouldn't let it spread too far.

The virus is continuing to spread in the community, and two people have now died in… Read more Audio

7:09 AM.Calls New Zealanders to get vaccinated are becoming more urgent by the day as Covid-19 embeds itself in the community.

Two people have now died in the latest outbreak, the number of daily cases… Read more Audio

6:50 AM.Two sailors who went missing in Kiribati waters have been found alive by crew on board a Royal New Zealand Airforce Orion following a two-day search of a vast area of ocean.

The two had been reported… Read more Audio

6:47 AM.An Auckland vaccination centre will "pull an all-nighter" on Friday, in a bid to reach night-shift workers.

The Tamaki Vaccination Centre in Morrin Rd, St Johns, led by Ngati Whatua Orakei, will open… Read more Audio

6:40 AM.The government has been engaging with gang leadership to promote Covid-19 vaccines and testing.

The Covid-19 Response Minister said yesterday that the fact a large number of gang members have been… Read more Audio

6:20 AM.A teacher backlash is building over government plans to reopen Auckland's classrooms after the school holidays.

Union leaders have told RNZ their Auckland members are astonished they could be back in… Read more Audio

6:10 AM.National is accusing the Government of being "negligent" about the vaccine rollout after ignoring a Pfizer offer for weeks.

Pfizer offered to supply millions of doses by Christmas 2020, but officials… Read more Audio

6:07 AM.Locals in the King Country coastal town of Kāwhia are on edge after a case of Covid-19 was confirmed there on Wednesday.

The town - south of Raglan on the North Island's West Coast - is outside the… Read more Audio