NZ at Noon: Suppressed For Stress, Explosive Diarrhoea, Quake Trauma

If you are planning on pigging out on Whitebait this season, check where it comes from or you could be in for a nasty surprise. Photo / Stephen Moore

Stories making headlines across New Zealand at noon include a recidivist drink driving businessman given name suppression because he is stressed out, quake trauma is emerging as an issue in Christchurch schools and it is probably wise to check where whitebait comes from before you eat it this season.

A 39-year-old company director from Masterton with "at least" two previous convictions for drink-driving who was caught three times over the legal limit has had his named suppressed because publishing it might stress him out.

Eating whitebait from some rivers in Christchurch will apparently cause "months of explosive diarrhoea''.

Meanwhile increased behaviour problems being shown by five-year-olds in the Garden City when they start school is being attributed to earthquake trauma.

Cave of Costumes owner Sue Cooper was busy working upstairs at her costume hire business when two kids wandered in downstairs and set fire to a mannequin.

Concerned by the number of hawks getting "ploughed down" by motorists while grazing on roadkill, Mamaku residents have decided to take action.

Apparently drilling rigs have sneaked into the gold-rich Puhipuhi area under cover of night and secret mining exploration has been carried out under a licence that does not expire until 2014.

Police visiting an address to look for a man allegedly involved in a domestic dispute noticed the smell of cannabis wafting from the house.

Ukuleles will be twanging on the streets of Rotorua in November.

A Taupo woman has been "squashed" by a fuel tanker this morning.

Faced with a freezing night in the bush with no-one knowing where he was, a Rotorua man suddenly came across a hot pool.

Hawke's Bay smells a bit like Rotorua these days but there's reportedly no cause for concern. Meanwhile a 55-metre acid tower erected at the Ravensdown Fertiliser plant south of Napier is apparently not faulty.

Hastings teenager Chinayd O'Sullivan is New Zealand's latest world record holder. Meanwhile eight-year-old Henry Booker has climbed his way to second place at the National Rock Climbing Championships.

An Independent trustee will determine whether former Act MP and convicted fraudster Donna Awatere-Huata can continue her latest job.

Hamilton police are seeking assistance to solve a cold case.

High levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning have been confirmed along the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty coastline.

New entrants at Nawton Primary School will receive free stationery packs thanks to some community-minded high school students.

The National-led government has just tossed aside a petition calling for some provincial railway line to be saved.

Record entries have been submitted to the 2012 Gisborne-East Coast Regional Science and Technology Fair.

A 73-year-old paedophile set up a fake Facebook profile under the online persona of a teenage girl and after adding young girls as friends, started manipulating them.

What age is old enough for a cellphone?

One minute toddler Eva was fast asleep, the next she had woken up with a worryingly high temperature and was visibly unsettled. Within hours, her parent's worst fears had become reality.

It was foggy at Dunedin Airport this morning. Meanwhile its foaming at the mouth, dude.

Access to a "hidden world", not visible with the naked eye and inaccessible in many other locations, will be opened next week in Queenstown.

A middle-aged Gore man who was confined to a wheelchair has died after his oxygen gas bottle exploded when he lit a cigarette.

And Shades of Americana will roll into Oamaru this afternoon.

Top trending topic on Twitter in NZ at Noon included: #ARISEconf, #TGIF, #nowplaying, Wellington, Auckland, New Zealand, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.