Christchurch teen is a Crossfit powerhouse
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
38 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Spate of abandoned boats sinking prompts warning in Bay of Plenty
An abandoned boat in the Waitematā harbour in Auckland. Photo: Katie Scotcher / RNZ "Once it has sunk, it can get very expensive very quickly." That's the observation of the Tauranga deputy harbourmaster Dan Rapson, urging boat owners to stay on top of maintenance while boats are floating as more and more derelict and abandoned boats are being found in the Bay of Plenty. "It's much cheaper to get on top of it while it's floating." In just the last two months the harbourmaster's team has had to recover three sunken boats. with another recovery still underway. There was often trouble tracking down owners, and it meant recovery costs might be passed on to ratepayers. Rapson told Morning Report the issue was not isolated to the region and was a problem local councils and governments around the world were dealing with. "It's a worldwide issue with boats from the '70s and '80s getting up to 40-plus years old. They're just coming to the end of their life. "Owners aren't keeping up with the maintenance and it just becomes too much for them sometimes." While the cost to recover the boats varied, Rapson said it was important to remove them as they could be a hazard to other shipping and the environment. "Really it depends on a whole lot of factors; the size of the boat and what the boat is made of, whether it's fibreglass, wood, steel. Potentially, where it's sunk, how deep it is, and if commercial divers need to be used. "It's quite a hard one to put a figure on because it's just varies so much on the different boats. But it is costing the council a fair sum of money." But it was not just age causing boats to sink, with extreme weather also playing a part. "One of these boats that sunk recently was directly related to the heavy rain and the rainfall causing it to sink." As there was no boat registration system in New Zealand, tracking down the owners could sometimes be difficult, and if the owner could not be found, the cost would fall back on the local council, he said.
RNZ News
38 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Term two school attendance reaches three-year high
Photo: 123RF Regular school attendance has continued to improve in term two this year. Just over 58 percent of students attended more than 90 percent of their classes. The figure was the highest term two result since attendance reached an all-time low of 40 percent in term two, 2022. Though it was an improvement on those last three years and five percentage points higher than the 2024 result, it was still lower than term two in every other year on record apart from 2019, when regular attendance was 57 percent. Associate Education Minister David Seymour said every region recorded an increase in attendance. Attendance rates in term two compared across 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Photo: Education Counts "Taranaki, Whanganui, and Manawatū in the central North Island recorded the biggest improvement, of 7.2 percentage points over the same term last year," he said. "There is also improvement at the other end of the scale. Chronic absence has declined from 9.6 percent last year and 12.5 percent in the same term in 2023 to 9.3 percent this year. Often children with complex needs are chronically absent, and it's great to see these figures continue to improve." The second term tended to have the lowest regular attendance rates of the four school terms, and illness continued to be the main reason for student absence. The government wanted 80 percent of children attending regularly by 2030. In schools facing the most socio-economic barriers, regular attendance averaged 39 percent in term two compared with 70 percent in schools facing the fewest barriers. In Tai Tokerau, 48 percent of school children were regular attenders while in central and east Auckland the figure was 65 percent. Among Māori and Pacific children, regular attendance in term two was 44 percent, compared with 70 percent for Asian children and 60 percent for Pākehā/European. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Football: Phoenix sign Canadian defender Manjrekar James for next A-League season
Atalanta's Ivorian forward Amad Diallo (L) shoots on goal while challenged by Midtjylland's Canadian defender Manjrekar James. Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP The Wellington Phoenix have signed Canadian defender Manjrekar James for the upcoming A-League season. The centre back is the team's fifth and final visa player for the upcoming season. James, who stands 1.93m tall, has been a professional for 13 years in Europe, North America and Central America and has won titles in Denmark, Canada and Costa Rica, most recently with LD Alajuelense. The 32-year-old has also played 17 times for Canada at senior level since making his full international debut as a 21-year-old in 2015. Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano said James was a physically dominant centre back. "Manjrekar fits the profile of the defender that I've been wanting to recruit," Italiano said. "He's aggressive, he's strong, he's very good with the ball, he has good experience across a number of leagues around the world and he's an international. "Manjrekar's got all the attributes I want from a centre back. He's very good man-to-man, very mobile, quick and makes very good decisions in very hard situations. "He's also very good in the air and always on the front foot so I think stylistically and in terms of aggression he'll give us an edge. James, who will join the squad once he obtains his New Zealand work visa, can't wait to play for the Phoenix. "One of my old teammates at Midtjylland, Bozhidar Kraev, used to play for Wellington so I've heard a lot of good things about the Phoenix and the A-League." James was born on the small Caribbean island of Dominica in a cricket-mad family and was named after former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar. His family moved to Canada when he was eight and he started playing football in North York, Ontario a year later. He will wear the No 4 shirt for the Wellington Phoenix with the club now having 22 men's players contracted for the 2025-26 A-League season. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
