Northland news in brief: Duke of Marlborough owners celebrate, driver appears in court and boatie saved

Duke of Marlborough owners Anton and Bridget Haagh, Jayne Shirley and Riki Kinnaird. Photo / Jess Burges

The owners of Russell's Duke of Marlborough — Riki Kinnaird, Jayne Shirley, Bridget and Anton Haagh — celebrated 10 years at the helm of the iconic hotel on Sunday.

The couples had just started planning a huge party to celebrate the milestone when the Covid-19 pandemic hit so they had to mark the anniversary within their bubbles instead.

''Celebrating in our bubble was not one of our top 10 ideas, and neither was having the same turnover in year 10 that we did on day one,'' Shirley said.

''But whatever the circumstances, we would have celebrated and reflected on this journey and all the amazing people that have been part of it from beginning to now.

As Anton once quoted to us in his attempt to convince us all to go with this crazy idea, 'Build it and they will come'. Well we built it, and you came and for that we will be forever grateful,'' he said.

They hope to re-open the restaurant with social distancing at level 2, and accommodation between level 1 and 2.

During the lockdown they had been working on new food products, including home deliveries and possibly setting up their own butchery, and a home cleaning service to be launched later this year.

Court via video
A 43-year-old Northland man faced new charges when he appeared by video link in Whangārei District Court in relation to a crash that killed an 18-year-old woman.

Nga Roimata Beattie-Rihari died when the parked car she was sitting in was hit by a vehicle driving on the wrong side of Mason Ave in Moerewa on April 19.

Her family has since revealed she was six months pregnant.

The driver, Ioakimi Sale, of Moerewa, was initially charged with driving with excess breath alcohol for a third or subsequent time.

Yesterday new charges were laid of driving with excess breath alcohol causing death, failing to stop at the scene of an accident, and obstructing a medical officer.

Sale was remanded in custody until May 18.

Beattie-Rihari and her unborn daughter, Pryncess Diana, were farewelled last week.

Because level 3 rules limit funerals to 10 people the service was livestreamed to friends and whānau.

Truck rolled
A truck delivering a load of gravel went off the road and rolled leading to the driver being flown to hospital by the Northland Rescue Helicopter.

The incident happened about 12.30pm yesterday on Whananaki South Rd. Police are investigating the cause of the crash which may have been due to a medical incident.

The truck was left on the side of the road and will be removed by the owner.

Boatie saved
Sunday's storm capped a busy weekend for the Mangonui Fire Brigade with the volunteers called out to shift a branch off State Highway 10 at Lake Ohia at 3am on Monday and to help a boatie in distress at Mill Bay on Sunday afternoon.

Fire chief Antony Pedersen said the boat had dragged its anchor and become grounded when the sailor called for assistance.

Firefighters managed to get on board and manoeuvre the vessel to safety. The boat did not appear to be badly damaged.

''He was very lucky,'' Pedersen said.

Earlier, about 12.40pm on Sunday, the brigade responded to a single-vehicle crash at Lake Ohia in which the car had hit a bank and spun out.

The driver had left when emergency services arrived. On Friday afternoon the volunteers were called to a scrub fire on Parapara-Toatoa Rd which, due to the inaccessible terrain, was eventually put out by a helicopter using a monsoon bucket.