Auckland gets full fleet of parking enforcement vehicles
Auckland motorists who park without paying may want to think twice about chancing their arm now the city has full fleet of parking enforcement vehicles that can catch you out in a split second. The cars, which have advanced plate recognition cameras, digitally "chalk" the wheels of vehicles and assess whether they're parked illegally or not. Reporter Finn Blackwell went for a ride with an enforcement officer as they digitally marked cars on the most ticketed street in town.
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Otago Daily Times
30 minutes ago
- Otago Daily Times
New home captures forerunner's ‘lovely feel'
A Wānaka house honours the past while ensuring a comfortable future for its occupants. Kim Dungey reports. The owners of this award-winning property in Wānaka faced a difficult decision — whether to renovate the 1970s house on the site or build a new one in its place. While there were many things about the house they liked, it also had some shortcomings, one of the owners says, adding they wanted to have a warm house and would have struggled to bring it up to the Building Code. Ultimately, they decided to demolish the home, which had been built as a retirement property for her husband's late parents. But after holidaying in it for a decade and living in it fulltime for three years, they wanted to replicate the best aspects in the new build. "There were quite a lot of issues with [the old house] but there was a lovely feel about it, which amazingly has sort of been transferred to this [new] one," she says. "The old house had courtyards and garden areas that [wrapped around it] and we have that here." "Big book shelves, sunny window seats and things like that have been repeated as well." When it came to engaging an architect, the former Wellington couple opted for Auckland-based RTA Studio. Longtime admirers of the firm's work, they particularly liked the "pared-back simplicity" of the holiday home founder Richard Naish and his wife, Andrea Hotere, built in the Cardrona Valley. The architects say while there was strong emotional attachment to the original house, the building was no longer fit for purpose. "It was modest in scale, poorly insulated and lacked the thermal performance required for year-round comfort in Wānaka's climate. Renovating would have required significant structural and thermal upgrades, and ultimately wouldn't have achieved the long-term vision the clients had for a warm, efficient home that could welcome extended family." Surrounded by mature oak trees, the four-bedroom house is composed of two main pavilions arranged in a split-level plan to respond to the site's contours. These two pavilions — one containing living areas; the other, bedrooms — are linked by a glazed connection that acts as a threshold between public and private spaces. The bedroom wing is set slightly lower, creating a subtle separation in scale and experience while maintaining a cohesive whole. Sustainability was key, with passive design principles ensuring energy efficiency. A high-performance thermal envelope, heat recovery ventilation and photovoltaics reduce the home's environmental impact. The exterior cladding is Abodo heat-treated pine. Although they encountered asbestos when they pulled the old house down and Covid lockdowns later, the process was stress-free, the owner says. "It was excellent working with the architects and we were also very lucky with the building company [Breen Construction]." While the house has several hard surfaces, including concrete floors and a board-formed concrete wall, a timber-lined acoustic ceiling works well to soften reverberation, she adds. Another feature they like is the slatted wooden screens on the outside of the windows, which can be moved to block out the sun in summer or stacked to the sides in winter. They were also pleased to find their initial concerns that the new house could stand out too much were unfounded. Enveloped by garden, it is similar to the original in that it's "tucked in" and unobtrusive. That aspect was also praised by the judges when the project received an award in the 2025 Southern Architecture Awards. "The relationship with the former dwelling on the site ... is evident in the new forms, which appear deceivingly modest from the street but expand inwards to hug a central terrace," they said. "In a location often bound by attempts to capture expansive mountain views, the house provides a refreshing contrast by nestling itself into the established landscape."
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Bay of Plenty's Napoleon Eketone sentenced for indecently assaulting teen exchange student
By Hannah Bartlett, Open Justice Reporter of Napoleon Eketone had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault and was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court on Thursday. (File photo) Photo: SunLive Warning: This story deals with details of sexual assault and may be distressing. When a teen overseas exchange student came to New Zealand, she was "full of hope and fun-filled excitement". But while staying with a host family in the Bay of Plenty, the man who should have been offering her safety and hospitality in a foreign country, betrayed her trust, and that of her parents, by indecently assaulting her. Napoleon Eketone had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault and, today, was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court. According to the police summary of facts, Eketone and the teen had been at the family home, along with Eketone's children. The pair were in the kitchen, where the teen was washing dishes, and Eketone was drying them. Eketone moved closer and placed his hand on her waist, and then on her bottom over her clothes. He then left the kitchen to check on his children, before returning. Eketone asked the teen if she needed help, again placing his hand on her waist and bottom. After they finished the dishes, he asked her if she "liked massages and would like one later". He then asked for a hug, placing his arms around her, before moving his hands up the front of her body and touching her breasts over her clothing. The summary of facts said the girl felt uncomfortable and left the kitchen, later struggling to fall asleep for fear he would come into her room. At 4am, that fear was realised when Eketone opened her door, went in, and locked the door behind him. He led the teen out an exterior sliding door, taking her into the garage where he had already laid out a blanket on the floor. The teen used the light on her phone to see in the dark garage, and spied the blanket. Eketone asked her if "she'd like a massage", and she replied, "No, I want to leave". Eketone opened the door and let her out, and she went back to her room, where she immediately rang her mother. The mother's victim impact statement, provided to the court, said the call caused her to have a panic attack. She had been "hyperventilating" as she heard her daughter in distress, crying and clearly frightened. The woman got on a flight to New Zealand "as soon as possible", while her husband was back home and struggling to work as he was worried about what was happening. "This incident made our life upside down," the mother wrote. "It made us all exhausted physically and mentally. I was not able to sleep for a while. Even if I did, I woke up suddenly, and my heart started racing." She questioned why the incident had happened, and said she still felt angry. Her daughter had come to New Zealand "full of hope and fun-filled excitement". Judge Paul Geoghegan said the teen's experience should have been a "great adventure for a young person". Her family had relied on a host family to provide her with security, protection, care, and hospitality. Eketone had failed to do that, the judge said. In sentencing him, he said it had been a "gross breach of trust", and the victim had been "highly vulnerable" given her age, the fact she was from a different culture and a long way from home. Eketone, at 34 years old, had no previous convictions and was generally "well regarded". The judge said it was "most unfortunate" that Eketone had ended up before the court, having offended in this way. However, he wasn't given any discounts for personal factors but did get a 25 percent discount for his early guilty plea. The judge adopted a starting point of 16 months' imprisonment and, after applying the discount, arrived at an end sentence of 12 months' imprisonment. The judge commuted it to one of six months' home detention, with six months post-detention conditions. Lawyer Michael Douglas had sought a lesser sentence of community detention, arguing that Eketone's employer might be more inclined to keep him on if that were the outcome. The judge agreed it was desirable for Eketone to keep his job, particularly because of the impact on his family, and his ability to pay reparation. The judge said he "hoped [Eketone's] employers take that into account", but said he could not impose a sentence of community detention. It would not "accurately reflect the gravity" of the offending, and there must be some deterrence, particularly to anyone hosting a young person from overseas. An order was made for $4877 reparation to be paid to the parents of the victim, to cover the last-minute travel costs incurred. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Person in critical condition after Hamilton assault
Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver A person is in a critical condition after an assault in Hamilton. Police say the person arrived at Waikato Hospital with what is thought to be a stab wound about 6.10pm. Police are at a property on Slim Street and are investigating the incident.
